Totalitarianism In Lord Of The Flies Essay

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In William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies he uses how humans act to portray the main themes of the text. The boys progress from well mannered young boys to complete savage during the duration of the text to portray how men can go from being civilized to animals. Golding also uses the characters to show how inside some people have the ability to inflict pain and suffering upon others. The boys also portray the battle between democracy and totalitarianism/dictatorship and the positives and negatives of each. In Golding’s view when men are left to their own devices will turn evil. The boys crash land on an island in the middle of the pacific. The only people on the island are the boys ranging from six to twelve. Without adult supervision …show more content…

Jack is the polar opposite of how Ralph lead. Jack is a tyrannical dictator who assumes control not by vote but by taking control. Jack gives them a taste of what it is like to cats aside your humanity and to become a savage. He is what lies beneath civility and the supposed goodness in people. Jack can take control because every boy on the island including Ralph and Piggy have evil inside themselves. This is seen when they take part in the brutal murder of their friend Simon. Jack controls the boys by fear mongering. Jack had the ability to turn off morality and turn into a killer. When Ralph and Piggy are saying there is no monster Jack is yelling at the same time there is a beast and he will provide protection from it. For young boys whom some are no older than six protection from the big scary beast is very appealing. Even the boys who leave Ralph for Jack still feel guilty because they choose to not elect Jack they keep Ralph but then they slowly leave when Ralph doesn’t know. They know Jack is bad yet they still make the conscious decision to abandon Ralph’s leadership. This is point at which they go from boys to savages. Golding stops calling them by their names or the boys and instead calls them savages. Golding did this on purpose to show the boys had made the choice of their own