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Perception Of Human Nature In Lord Of The Flies

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Paige Gowan Mr. van Tright ENG1D 21 December, 2022 The Authors Perception of Human Nature and How Its Shown in This Novel In the book Lord of the Flies the author is trying to tell us how humans naturally have savagery, and in certain circumstance even when we try and fight it, savagery will triumph. In this book there is a capacity for humanity and civilization, and many of the boys stick to this civilization for a long time. The boys began to make impulsive decisions, they don’t act on reason, and we begin to see savagery. As the boys spend more time on the island their impulsive decisions cause them to go savage and all hope of civilization is lost. Therefore, I think the author is trying to show …show more content…

All boys agree and feel the need for rules on the island, Jack strongly believes in these rules “We’ll have rules! He cried excitedly. Lots of rules!” (33) They used the conch to call meetings, and they attempted to keep a sense of their previous life, throughout the book we notice the three symbols of humanity in the conch, piggy, and Simon. The conch is a representation of civilization and its journey on the island, they use the conch as a talking stick reminding them how they acted in school. Piggy and his specs represent intelligence, and we see how all the boys turn away from this, they mock him for his appearance and the ideas he envisions, lastly Simon represents the good on the island, he is deeply connected with nature and contrasts to Jacks evil. Lastly the boys come up with appreciable ideas to remain civil and get recued, Ralph wants to get rescued and pushes this idea upon the boys, he suggests building …show more content…

They impulsively surround him and continue their chant, overcome with savagery the boys began to violently bash at Simon. This leads to his death. Piggy is killed when he is vulnerable, without his glasses. Him and Ralph travel to castle rock in order to get Piggy’s specs back, Roger free from his civilized barrier knocked a boulder which fell on Piggy, Piggy was knocked off the cliff and fell to his death. The conch, which Piggy held was crushed as the large boulder fell, the boys no longer tried to justify this like they previously had with Simon’s death. They knew it was murder, but instead of feeling a loss Jack laughed and screamed saying, “See? See? That’s what you’ll get! I meant that! There isn’t a tribe for you anymore! The conch is gone-” (200) I think this truly shows how we can be so heartless, when the situation benefits us. The boy’s human nature has taken over, they are no longer innocent civilized boy. They are

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Running in the midst of the chaos and the savages all this scene can be seen as is plain destruction and a ruin of civilization. It can be clearly seen that the breaking of the conch turned out to be a symbol of

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The conch was the only object that could bring the boys together and was the boy’s one rule they had to follow. As the rivalry between Ralph and Jack became greater the conch and the idea of civilization became so insignificant that they vanish. This is the point in the book where the conch shatters and piggy dies. As a character Piggy represents the real world. He understands how things work and is always questioning the way things happen.

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“The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist.” (Golding, 181). Jack was the first boy to challenge the power of the conch when he talked out of turn and Ralph scolded him for doing so. Roger pushed a huge rock from the top of Castle Rock onto Piggy and killed him along with the conch he was holding. Golding described the death of the conch as if it was never there to begin with to show that the conch was gone forever and there was nothing the boys could do about it.

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Most of them turned to this savage figure by having this idea of a beast put into their minds. They aren’t sure what could be lurking in the terrain of the island. The boys want to be able to protect themselves and most of them transform into savages. With this fear in them they did indescribable actions. They killed an innocent boy because they were afraid of something that might not even be real.

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The use of the conch as a means to show who is speaking and for everyone else to be silent there placed at least one rule to follow and place restrictions on everyone, but it wasn't enough. Here on the island no one had to listen to rules, and Jack realizes first. He doesn't agree with Ralph's position as leader so he leaves eventually offering fun, food, and protection, the basic wants and needs to survive, all they need to live on the island. Here is where the line is split, Ralph and Piggy know the needs of food but also the needs of shelter and rescue over fun and protection from a hypothetical beast Jack later offers in return for joking his separate

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At the beginning of the novel, the conch held a substantial amount of power and portrayed their ambition for a democracy. At one point, Piggy tries to get the rest of the boy’s attention by saying,“The conch. I got a right to speak” (p.45). Seen in this quote, the conch symbolizes the impulse for equality of listening to each other while giving each other peace while their voices are heard. Throughout the novel the conch loses the intent of order comparatively of the boys losing a sense of civilization.

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Jack states, “See? See? That’s what you’ll get! I meant that! There isn’t a tribe for you anymore!

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William Golding’s fictional, British novel, Lord of the Flies, presents a character that serves a two-part function as a “scapegoat” and a certain commentary on life. During WWII, a group of British boys are being evacuated via plane when they crash and are stranded on an island without adults. As time progresses, the innate evilness of human nature begins to overcome the savage society of young boys while Piggy, an individual representation of brains without brawn, becomes an outlier as he tries to resist this gradual descent of civilness and ends up shouldering the blame for the wrongdoings of the savage tribe. Up until his untimely death, Piggy is portrayed as the most intellectual and most civil character in the group of stranded boys. Right from the beginning, Piggy realized that “[they] got to do something,” (8) and he recognized the shell Ralph had picked up as a conch.

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Most of the boys; who seem unbothered by the death of their peers; continue to live on the island as they did before, without having any funeral or ceremony, becoming more and more savage by the day. The brutal murder of two of their friends becomes indifferent to them. Consequently resulting in the loss of

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He goes to share his hunting story to Ralph and a boy named Piggy. On page 69, the narrator shares, “I cut the pig’s throat,’ said Jack, proudly, and yet twitched as he said it.” This quotation shows us that civilization is lost when the urge to kill takes over because it shows the stage where Jack is proudly killing animals, but still feeling a little bit uncomfortable with it. In this example, Jack proudly shares that he has killed, but still twitches after saying he did. Jack is still hanging onto the little bit of civilization that is left on their island.

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The conch has more than one symbolic meaning to it which helps the reader to better understand the theme of power, civilization, and rules. In the story the author uses the conch as a symbol

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