ipl-logo

Technology In Lord Of The Flies

1090 Words5 Pages

With technology our civilizations have made major achievements in science and discovered new ideas, new medicines, and new ways to make life easier, but how positive is the actual outcome? We have created deadly weapons, bombs, and destructive ways to destroy each other, is technology fueling humanity 's desire to inflict pain and hurt others. In the novel Lord Of The Flies by William Golding, a group of boys get in a plane crash which leaves them cast off on a deserted island with no adults. The boys need to learn to survive on their own on their island, in order to do that they use a very basic form of technology. They learn to make fire using Piggy’s glasses, they hunt with spears, and the find a way to have order and communication using …show more content…

The boys start out by using the fire as a sign for rescue, but the fire ends up burning down the jungle. “A tree exploded in the fire like a bomb. Tall swathes of creepers rose for a moment into view, agonized, and went down again”(46). When lighting the fire the boys can’t control it and ends up setting part of the jungle on fire. Because of this, they not only set their mountain on fire, one of the boys gets burned in the flames and dies. Jack and his tribe attack Piggy, Samneric, and Ralph in order to get fire. “... and he made stabbing motions with his spear. From his left hand dangled Piggy’s broken glasses”(168). For the need of fire, the boys would go to war with each other. Even though the fire is a useful tool, it leads to a war between the two groups that ends with Piggy’s death and almost Ralph’s. To get access to this technology they are willing to resort to full savagery and kill each other. Jack lights the brush on fire to smoke Ralph out so he can kill him and put his head on a stick. “All at once the lights flickering ahead of him merged together , the roar of the forest rose to thunder and tall bush directly in his path burst into great fan-shaped flame… the ululation rose behind him and spread along, a series of short sharp cries, the sighting call…”(199). The fire was originally the symbol of hope and rescue, Jack uses it to completely burn down the island in order to kill his former friend. The fire represents how with new technology, we have more temptations and more access to destruction. Without fire Jack wouldn’t of been able to destroy the

Show More
Related
894 Words | 4 Pages

As a result from this, the signal fire assumes the role of a barometer of the boys’ connection to civilization. In the beginning of the story, the fact that the boys maintain the fire is a sign that they want to be saved and go back into society. When the fire burns low or goes out, it’s noticeable that the boys have lost their hopes to be rescued and have accepted their wild lives on the island. The signal fire functions as a measurement of the strength of the civilized instinct remaining on the island. At the end of the novel, ironically, a fire finally brings a ship to the island, but not the signal fire.

Read More
1769 Words | 8 Pages

This only further proves my point that jack represents savagery in this novel. Due to Jacks overwhelming desire to hunt a pig he along with a small group of boys go into the jungle to try their luck. Because of Jacks carelessness, though the fire is extinguished and they lost a chance of being rescued. We also learn in this chapter that the fire symbolizes the hope they share a group, when the fire went out so did their hope, but when they relight it they regain some of their hope. Piggy being the “fat nerd” of the group his thoughts and beliefs are immediately shot down, its only when Ralph tells them to do the suggested task do they listen.

Read More
504 Words | 3 Pages

Jack wants to hunt down pigs and get meat to eat while Ralph wants to focus on building the shelters and keeping the fire lit. On page 42 Ralph says “We've got to have special people for looking after the fire. Anyday there could be a ship out there” This quote shows how the fire is the key to them getting rescued from the island and surprisingly, jack initially agrees to it and assigns his hunters the job of watching the fire. Unfortunately when the time comes Jack had taken all of his hunters on a hunt with him leaving the fire unattended to burn out and die. Showing Jack's true

Read More
698 Words | 3 Pages

Because Jack is able to control Ralph’s community’s fire he is able to determine if they get rescued. Jack was so excited that he finally got the fire from Piggy that as he walked away from the shelters he triumphantly stabbed the air with his spear. With Jack controlling the fire, Piggy is becoming concerned that Jack’s savages are not putting off enough smoke to create a

Read More
921 Words | 4 Pages

They figure out how to use these glasses to make a fire which is then used to cook and make the signal which stood for civilization on the island. The one thing Ralph reiterates is the importance of the signal fire; however, Jack makes hunting as his only priority and this leads to tension among the two. During one particular scene, Ralph and Piggy chastise Jack for leaving the fire when a ship passed and there was no signal which could had led to their rescue and with that news Jack “smacked piggy’s head. Piggy’s glasses flew off and tinkled on the rocks” (70), He takes the opportunity to not only be the first person to physically hurt another boy, but he ruins one of the only source of technology the boys had available to them. Inevitably, when Jack makes his own tribe he needs everyone on the island to know he’s in charge and does the one thing

Read More
989 Words | 4 Pages

So when Golding tells us that in Jack’s “left hand dangled Piggy’s broken glasses.” (191), it demonstrates that Jack’s savage boys now have the power to make fire. The fire symbolizes hope when on the civilized side but its inner demon is of destruction and evil. Predictably this demon does in fact come out when in the end Jack and his boys “had smoked him (Ralph) out and set the island on fire” (Golding 224), in order to kill Ralph. Ironically, the fire instead fulfills its civilized purpose, of a signal instead of killing Ralph. The purpose and the extreme strength of the fire here shows us that the boys had become brutal savages, literally killing civilization out of the their systems.

Read More
406 Words | 2 Pages

Realizing Ralph's reliance on the fire and in otherways Piggy, Piggy begins to trust Ralph to protect him from Jack. His insecurities cause him to obsess over the idea of the fire to show that he does have some importance, while the savages are focused on power and hunting. Golding uses the struggle of power to demonstrate how destructive it can be. The desire for power causes the boys' civilization the crumble, discord and rivalries, and ends up destroying their island.

Read More
476 Words | 2 Pages

In the novel Ralph had noticed a ship off the horizon; however, the ship was going the opposite direction and Ralph had no idea why. Jack had let the fire die down because he thought him and his boys hunting was more important. Jack replies to Ralph, “’ The fire’s only been out an hour or two. We can light up again-‘” (70). What Jack doesn’t know though is with him only caring what he wants to do it cost everyone else from being

Read More
904 Words | 4 Pages

At first the fire was used as a signal in order to try and save the boys, making it a tool for success to return them to the normal world. Ralph proclaims “We can help them to find us. If a ship comes near the island they may not notice us.” (Golding). Furthermore, in the novel, the fire becomes a source of comfort for the boys, providing them with warmth and usefulness as a source of light and method to cook food.

Read More
688 Words | 3 Pages

The fire, which exemplified hope, is the only way a ship can recognize their existence on the island and save them. The night after Jack decided to break off into his own group, Ralph and his followers were in despair. Yet, they were restimulated with the idea of building a new fire away from the mountain. The fire gave them a goal and, “now that there was something to be done they worked with passion”(129). While stranded on the island, one of the first decisions the boys made was to build a signal fire.

Read More
1077 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout the beginning of the novel, Ralph is the leader of the fight to keep and maintain the fire, but he is starting to give up hope and lets the fire die. Lastly, fire symbolizes hope during the end of the novel. Jack and most of the other boys have turned on Ralph and want to “hunt” him. They decided that the best way to get Ralph to come to them on the beach was to light the whole forest on fire so Ralph would be forced out to the beach. Ralph was trying to run out of the forest as “the roar of the forest rose to thunder and a tall bush directly in his path burst into a great fan-shaped fan.

Read More
1057 Words | 5 Pages

Ralph says, “The fire is the most important thing on the island. How can we ever be rescued except by luck, if we don’t keep a fire going? Is a fire too much for us to make” (80). As an effort to show the boys their dire circumstances, he tries to convict them, including himself, of their ignorance. On the contrary, Jack Merridew counters Ralph’s authority with the proposition of thrill and amusement.

Read More
835 Words | 4 Pages

The fire was also a symbol of civilization, that the boys would survive and get rescued. Fire is quite profound in what it reveals about humans. The fire was the object that the hunters didn’t have, it was desirable because it was limited. The fire brought out the innate greed that humans possess. The hunters weren’t content with asking for fire from Ralph, they were too prideful and savage to be civil in any manner, so they stole it.

Read More
746 Words | 3 Pages

One of the times Jack lets the fire go out a ship comes by. Ralph is enraged that Jack didn’t keep the fire going. Piggy is enraged as well. Piggy yells “You and your blood, Jack Merridew! You and your hunting!

Read More

More about Technology In Lord Of The Flies

Related Topics

Open Document