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Lord Of The Flies Good And Evil Analysis

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The good the evil and the balance in between
Good and evil can be found within everyone, most people have an equal balance while others tend to lean more to one side or the other. The novel Lord of the Flies is a novel written by author William Golding. Golding portrays the themes of good, evil and a balance between both. He does so by using three specific boys in the group, Jack, Ralph, and Simon to embody these themes. Each boy represents one of the following symbols: savagery, civilization or purity, these symbols represent the three themes. Jack serves as a model for savagery which is a symbol of evil. Ralph represents civilization which is a representation of a balance between the contradicting themes of good and evil. Simon represents …show more content…

‘Through the forest by himself? Now?’ ‘We can 't spare more than one.’ Simon pushed his way to Ralph 's elbow. ‘I 'll go if you like. I don 't mind, honestly." (Golding ?) Simon volunteers to go to Piggy because he is the only one that is not afraid of travelling in the forest by himself. He is not afraid because he is one with nature. As another argument, unlike Ralph, Simon is capable of seeing the evil in that lurks within the boys. An example of how is this proven is because he regularly has fainting spells. Before one of these episodes he hallucinates the Lord of the Flies, a pig head suspended on a spear poking out of the ground placed by Jack, speaking to him. The pig head tells Simon about the evil that is inside the boys, and that they are capable of evil things. “Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!’ said the head. For a moment or two the forest and all the other dimly appreciated places echoed with the parody of laughter. ‘You knew, didn 't you? I 'm part of you? Close, close, close! I 'm the reason why it 's no go? Why things are what they are?” (Goldi) This hallucination is actually his subconscious warning him about the evil taking over in the other boys. With this information Simon tries to make the other boys see the evil in themselves. He does so by bringing the parachute to the boys to explain that the best is not real and that they are simply making it up. With this information. In other words, Simons purity and goodness leads him to see what the other boys

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The description of Simon’s eyes alone give insight as to how enigmatic his personality is. Simon is a crucial character, and this shown through his kind actions towards the littluns and Piggy, and holds an abundant amount of

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This behavior and the pig’s head, or Lord of the Flies, represents a spreading evil and darkness on the island between the boys. With Simon often described as light, the Lord of the Flies is directly contrasting him when Simon saw him as “a blackness that spread” (133). When Ralph was anxious about not being able to make it off the island, Simon reassured him that everything was going to be alright and that “[He’ll] get back to where [he came] from” (103). Simon knew Ralph had the best intentions for the island and the boys, so he supported him to make him feel better. Although this was a comforting thing for Simon to say to Ralph, by only saying “you” will be rescued instead of “we” suggests that Simon would not make it off of the island alive.

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While Simon saw the Lord of the Flies he heard a message that tortures him that “Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill”(143). This demonstrates Simon’s breakthrough that the beast is not real, it cannot be hunted or killed. This further expresses Golding’s belief that the evil or the beast is not a figure which could not be destroyed. While Simon stared at the sow’s head, he heard “You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you”(143).

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This encounter with the “beast” was not a fight against a physical being, it was a manifestation of the boys’ savagery. As time passes and tension amongst the boys rises, the inner evil and savagery becomes more evident through the murders of Simon and Piggy. The true “beast”

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Simon becomes aware of his internal cruelty when it manifests itself in hallucinatory forms as “The Lord of the Flies”. Simon at first lacks the understanding and cannot comprehend what is happening until the hallucination says “‘Fancy thinking the beast was something you could hunt and kill!’ said the head. For a moment or two the forest and other dimly appreciated places echoed with the parody of laughter. ‘You knew didn’t you?

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In the chapter titled “Gift for the Darkness” Simon hears the sound of the flies buzzing around the Lord of the Flies. The buzzing sound is what causes Simon to have hallucinations. These hallucinations leads to Simon hearing the Lord of the Flies talking to him. The Lord of the Flies tells Simon that evil is within all the boys.

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This is indicating that Simon is weak from the very beginning and is a sign that he will be one of the first to fall, which he is with his death in chapter 9. Also, in chapter 3, Ralph, Simon, and Jack are talking about the condition of the island. Simon recommends making shelters to calm the little ones at night. Ralph and Piggy have a conversation, and when they return Simon is gone, even though in the past he had always been around. Simon was the voice of reason on the island, and this foreshadows his death because one minute he is there, and then he is absent, along with his logic and helpfulness, just like in his death; he is alive and well, and then he has a seizure and is killed, and all of the reason he possesses is

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William Golding, the author of Lord of the Flies, states, “We refuse to see the true nature of evil and we underrate its strength. We appease the power of evil and allow it to develop unchecked when we should stamp out its manifestation.” Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel about a group of British boys who are stuck on an uninhabited island and struggle between civilization and savagery. When Golding said this quote, he meant that mankind does not take the roots of evil seriously and it develops more and more into a feeling that will be hard to control later on. Golding believes society should try to eliminate the beginning of evil before it grows into something more that would be harder to destroy.

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Although Ralph may be a good leader and Piggy may be smart, they both have evil inside of them and want to be a part of Simon’s murder. Ralph and Piggy are nowhere near being savages at this point, but their love of death still shows, even if they regret it later. Their savagery is just the result of the evil human nature inside of them that is left unchecked by civil society. On the island, the boys do not have the benefit of civilization, so they revert to human nature and instinct for survival.

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Ralph and he built the shelters for the boys. Simon voluntarily offers to go across the island to tell Piggy about the journey with Ralph and Jack. (117). He is sacrificing himself to help out the other boys, which shows courage and that Simon believes and supports Ralph. When Ralph has lost his hope of being rescued, Simon says, “You'll get back to where you came from.

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A theme that arises around Piggy is the realists in the world are unheard when other people are overwhelmed by an inner evil. In the beginning, Piggy tries to make his name known but Ralph does not care and he calls him the one name he does not want to be called, which is Piggy. Piggy is seen as weak by the other boys because he is fat and has asthma. An example of Piggy being an unheard realist is when he is trying to get the attention of the boys and it is very hard when he finally gets their attention he tells them they need to build shelters and get rescued and points out that no one paid any attention to the ‘littluns’. Throughout the book, Piggy is a reminder of being rescued.

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According to the University of Minnesota, his brain must have perceived all of the fear in the group of boys as negative and remembered it when he was tired, causing him to imagine the Lord of the Flies character. This quote is an example of Simon’s brain reacting to the signals from the amygdala, instead of rational processing. “They became motionless, gripped in each other’s arms, four unwinking eyes aimed and two mouths open” (Golding 98). Their unwavering fear of the beast magnified their experience from merely seeing the movement of the dead paratrooper to seeing a threat and consequently caused them to experience the sight before them more terrifying. Moreover, their fear has caused them to become incapacitated, according to the University of Minnesota, as they did not run away immediately after seeing the paratrooper that they perceived as the beast.

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He uses Ralph and Piggy to describe the well-educated that attempt to grasp civilisation, but ultimately fail to deliver. His symbol of Roger as an ordinary person that breaks loose of the chains of society once disconnected from it. Finally, the nature of Jack is a depiction of the power hungry that will do anything to lead. Firstly, Golding uses Ralph and Piggy to portray that human nature is hidden by society to continue civilisation.

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1127 Words | 5 Pages

“They hate you, Ralph. They’re going to do you. They’re going to hunt you tomorrow.” (Golding, 170). After all the chaos from previous chapters of the novel, Ralph realizes that he’s completely isolated and lonely.

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Man is Inherently Evil In Lord of the Flies, a novel by William Golding, there are several themes expressed through the boys from the beginning to the end. The main theme conveys that man is inherently evil. This can be understood from most aspects of the book. Golding conveys that man is inherently evil through the boys need to undermine each other and the loss of morality in their decent to chaos.

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