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Power and Moral consequences in Lord of the flies term paper
Power and Moral consequences in Lord of the flies term paper
Lord of the flies as an examination of power
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Savagery, uncivilized, and hypocritical children have clouded their judgment when trying to figure out if there is a real beastie. A monstrous figure frightens the juvenile boys that landed on this forsaken island. In the Lord of the Flies, these English boys are all alone to defend for themselves, thats when it all unravels. This mythical monster sooner called the “beast” is symbolized a fear of a mistaken beast, as the darkness of war, and the evilness of humanity waiting to be unleashed.
Golding's use of symbolism in Lord of the Flies conveys many different meanings to ordinary objects. For example a conch shell represents power and the beast represents the devil. William Golding's Lord of the Flies is about a group of boys that are stranded on an island. The book shows the boy’s changes morally and physically. During the book most of the boys change to savages to gain power.
The “beast” cannot be confined in any one symbol alone, as it could represent a plethora of ideas. In Lord of the Flies, the “beast” first manifests itself through fear, when the marooned children “externalize these fears into the image of a ‘beast,’” (Doc. A). It then represents war, as when the children refer to the dead parachutist, a direct result of war, as the “beast”. Finally, it symbolizes the savagery of human nature, when the children “screamed, struck, bit, tore” (Doc. F) Simon to pieces.
In an atmosphere where the beast is real, policies and human morals lose their values and become utterly useless. The democracy that Ralph initiated disappears and yields to a chaotic dictatorship, with Jack at the head, which represents evil and the beast viewed as both a dread and a symbol of worship and reverence. The boys’ increasing allegiance to the existence of the monster is demonstrated in their impalement of the sow’s head on the stake given as an offering to the beast. Thus, Jack slowly gains power and authority by feeding on the islanders’ consternation.
In the novel Lord of the Flies, the beast is the most feared symbol. It is used to build up the theme of fear throughout the novel. Now, the lord of the flies is the most complicated symbol in the whole novel. It is used to build up the themes of fear and evil.
Everyone will face evil at some point in their lives, but the way the evil is embraced or deflected will differ among every man. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, symbolism is used to communicate the theme of Understanding the Inhumanity/Inherent Evil of Man as represented through the double ended spear, the fire, and the Lord of the Flies. The spear represents the evil inside of humankind and the perception that killing and hurting each other out of anger is acceptable. Fire symbolizes the evil act of stealing to achieve a human wants. Lastly, the Lord of the Flies symbolizes the Inherent Evil of Man through demonstrating that a boy understood that the evil is within them instead of around them, and is not something that could be killed
Lord of the Flies is a classic novel by William Golding that explores the darkness of human nature and the consequences of societal breakdown. The novel is an allegory in which characters and objects symbolize essential themes, and Golding uses these symbols to illustrate his message. One such example of symbolism in the novel that relates to the text's themes is the face paint the boys began to wear as the story develops. The face paint and its use in pig hunts help develop the themes of dehumanization and loss of identity. One of the most potent symbols in William Golding's Lord of the Flies is the face paint worn by the boys.
Since the island is full of children, their minds begin to play games on them. They make the dead paratrooper into a mythical being that is set on killing them. However, the beast is actually just inside of each of them. The fear that manifests in each of the children causes the craziness that ensues, and it is in many ways, the beast. This is a major symbol as over and over the children say how the beast is a threat to them that they need to kill.
William Golding 's allegorical novel, Lord of the Flies, investigates two important themes; the importance of civilization and the dangers of the evil that lurks inside all of us. In the beginning of the novel, the boys were stranded on the island with no parental guardians, and the exploration begins with how they will survive. Ralph believed that if they kept a fire going, they could have a chance of being rescued. Insecurities lead to the boys believing that there was a beast. The beast symbolizes the instinct of being savage, which Simon later stated that “Maybe there is a beast… maybe it’s only in us.”
In Chapter 9 the beast is three different things, the lord of the flies, the parachute and man, and Simon. The beast is the Lord of the Flies as it says “There isn't anyone to help you. Only me. And I'm the Beast.” (Golding 143) and it also says that after Simon wakes up “The Lord of the Flies hung on his stick like a black ball.”
In Lord of the Flies, the creation of the beast became one of the contributing factors that lead to the downfall of civilization on the island. One consequence of not immediately dispelling rumors of the beast could be that it allowed Jack to use the group’s fear of it as a tool to control them and antagonize against Ralph. Upon hearing about the beast, Jack does not completely debunk the rumor, instead, he says, “There isn’t a snake-thing. But if there was a snake we’d hunt it and kill it.” Jack uses the rumor of the beast to fuel the boys’ fear and allow him to manipulate them easier.
Literary Analyses of the Lord of the Flies The Lord of the Flies demonstrates a wide variety of symbolism; from Christ to Satan the children are portrayed in an abstract manner to represent these religious beings, as well as a symbol of great strife for power. Two of the main symbolic devices are used in the form of a mystical Conch and a cumbersome Sow’s head perched atop a stake; however these symbols represent very different ideas. Next the Lord of the Flies demonstrates the burden and struggle of power in multiple ways. William Golding included within this novel the power of symbolism, using inanimate objects, characters, or even landmasses to represent ideals derived from basic human morals and Christian religion that has a major influence
What is the beast? Arden The “beast” is an important concept of the Lord of Flies. It symbolizes the dark side in kids’ pure deep hearts.
Another question is, how did the beast get inside their head, or how did they become the beast. What did the beast become after this whole time? How did the kids become the beast themselves, why or when did they become the beast? When the whole beast thing was never serious at first, they all thought of it as a joke, it was never important in the beginning it was important at all until they began to slowly turn into the beast that they thought were fake, and slightly feared “Don’t you understand Piggy? The things we did- “pg.157 Ralph slowly seemed to be the first one to really realize what they were doing to each other, that what they had done was not alright at all or at any point that it was not safe for any of them.
(Golding, 77). Although the boys laugh at Simon’s idea, his belief conforms Golding’s idea that inner evil exists. The boys develop into the beast when they kill Simon. Simon was desperate to explain the unidentified creature on the mountain but the boys weren’t in the mood for listening to him. With his brutal murder by the other boys, chaos takes over civilized order on the island.
