Technology In Lord Of The Flies

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

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