The novel Lord of the Flies by Robert Golding is a story about a group of boys stuck on a tropical island. In chapters seven and eight, the power struggle between Jack and Ralph is becoming more prominent, eventually causing Jack to go off and form his own group. As the plot develops, the boys are becoming more and more savage. One example of this is when the boys have a mock hunt, using Robert as the pig. On page 114, Golding writes, “Kill the pig!
Second Jack and his group also kill the sow brutally. After the kill, “Jack held up the head and jammed the soft throat down on the pointed stick” (Golding 138). Jack and his group had again no reason to perform this action other than blood lust. This brutality again shows how all morals have gone out the window. Finally a sow is a mother pig.
Jack is getting pleasure from killing the sow. He laughs at the blood and even plays with it by putting it on Maurice’s face. He no longer feels compassion for killing animals and gets a laugh from doing so. Jack is acting more like a savage and will soon become
They were in desperate need of meat and the sow was their source of precious protein. When they seized her, Jack "was on top of the sow, stabbing downward with his knife. Then (he) found the throat and the hot blood spouted over his hands." He even took it further, as the author wrote, "He giggled and flicked them while the boys laughed at his reeking palms" (Golding 135). This is definitely not something a sane human would act in a situation when they are covered in another once breathing animal's blood.
In the Lord of the Flies, there was a continuous and taunting chant the boys on the island would say “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” (Golding 154). This chant has been a prime example of how the boys society had a downfall when they arrived on the island.
The boys were running as fast as they could to keep up with the pig they hit with the spear. They all haven’t had meat in days and they were craving it, they were losing their innocence and becoming savages. This is one thing in the book, Lord of the Flies, that shows a loss of innocence. This is a common theme throughout this book, a loss of innocence. Some examples of this are the killing of Piggy, the hunts, the actions of the tribe, and just Jack in general.
In the closing chapters of the novel Lord of the Flies, the character of Jack Merridew becomes the chief of the majority of the boys on the island. During this time, there are multiple ways in which he maintains his power and authority, the first of which is the promise of succulent, delicious meat. Jack is a hunter. He prefers hunting above all else, even being rescued. He uses his hunting skills to catch pigs and acquire precious meat, a rare commodity on the island, which he can use as an incentive to join his tribe or not to leave it.
Golding compares the Lord of the Flies to a toy, flashing back to Simon’s hallucinations, using the element of imaginary. The death of Piggy and the shattering of the conch prove that corruption takes over when democracy is lost. With the island only being inhabited by corrupt savages, Ralph gives in and fights like a barbaric animal in an attempt to restore order. The irony is, in his attempts to restore democracy on the island, he is acting as if he were one of Jack’s savages; using the spear from the boar head to fight like a mad man. Democracy is taken over by selfishness, savage-like behavior, which causes corruption to take
The author’s main purpose in writing Lord of the Flies is to provide an allegorical account of human nature. The two main characters, Ralph and Jack, symbolize the civil and savage instincts that exist within us all. Ralph constantly tries to establish order on the island, while Jack uses the fear of the beast to manipulate the other boys and try to remove Ralph from being leader. After the violent death of the good-natured Simon, Jack effectively gains control over most of the other boys, which leads them to become savage and cruel. This represents the fundamental nature of savagery within humans and suggests that humans will become savage and cruel when left on their own.
Lord of the Flies Body Paragraph One way a loss of innocence is demonstrated is through the savagery of Jack. His selfishness and hunger for power drives a few of the boys to follow him. All these boys want is meat, and they hate the thought of work. “‘I gave you food,” said Jack, “And my hunters will protect you from the beast.”’ (Golding 177).
The conch and the sow’s head both wield a specific type of power over the juvenile boys in Lord of the Flies. The conch, used to call assemblies, represents progress and civilization while the sow’s head represents terror, barbarity, and malevolence and is partly to blame for Simon’s demise. Lord of the Flies is a novel about power because throughout the book Jack and Ralph quarrel over who should be the chieftain of the children and the novel uses the conch and the sow’s head to represent divergent forms of power and authority. Also, the book shows the reader the power of symbols such as the conch and the pig’s head and even the island that the children remain inevitably imprisoned on until their liberation at the conclusion of the novel. Just about everything within this novel is a representation of something that is considerably greater.
With time, even a great redwood tree will wither and fall. Death can hold great ceremony and symbolism, but it doesn’t always. Such is the case with the beloved character, Piggy, of William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies. For many, this character evoked feelings of sympathy and empathy. He was seen as underappreciated and vulnerable.
Following the desperate chase after the sow, “Jack was on top of the sow, stabbing downward with his knife. Roger found a lodgment for his point and began to push...the spear moved forward inch by inch and the terrified squealing became a high-pitched scream. Then Jack found the throat and the hot blood spouted over his hands” (Golding 135). Unlike before, this scene conveys that Jack and the boys in his tribe are capable of killing and committing brutal acts. While Jack hesitates to kill a pig at the beginning of the book because of his fears of blood and death, he eventually becomes obsessed with hunting and violence, killing a sow by vigorously “stabbing downward with his knife” and slitting the sow’s throat.
Lord of the Flies is a passage into the very existence of humanity. The very last part of the book is full of rage and violence. The violence could be blamed on the lack of vital nutrients the boys where facing but more likely the motives of Jack and his party is related to the emotional impact of their stay on the island. The impact of the island and lack of adults lent to the overall outcome of their stay. Starting out the group of boys were scattered around the island and in tiny huddles of boys.
In the book “The Power of Myth” by Joseph Campbell, there is much discussion on new mythology and a “demythologized” world. The idea that our culture needs a “new mythology” because we live in a “demythologized” world is inaccurate regarding our modern culture. We still have myths and rituals that we follow in our daily lives. There are many people that still respect the Earth the way the indigenous people did in the past, which shows there is a mythology that we follow today. We also still have rituals such as marriage, giving gifts to people that are experiencing a significant life event, standing for a judge, etc.
