Ashton Bendavid Mrs. Wachell English 9 13 February 2023 LOTF Symbolism Since its independence from France in 1960, the Central African Republic has been known as a “failed state” as a consequence of its high poverty rates, rebellions/civil wars, and the underlying fact that they are unable to create a stable and effective government. This has led to the rapid spread of violence and crime, further weakening the state and proving how in the absence of authority rationality is lost and evil thrives. This is analogous to the events portrayed in William Golding’s classic allegorical novel, Lord of the Flies. The protagonist of the story, Ralph, is a twelve-year-old British boy who is stranded on an island with numerous other young boys during the
Lord of The Flies is a novel written by William Goulding that could be about many topics such as the inner darkness in everyone, power struggles, roots of wars, and spiritual references. The characters represented different theories and real-life events, and they embodied them. Jack Merridew happened to represent evil inside of humans and the power struggles between governments. Jack demonstrated how people willingly give into evil and leave humanity behind. He wasn't the good little boy but a savage who killed and hunted.
Many symbols were distributed throughout Lord of the Flies, but Jack is one of the most significant people relating to the boys on the island. William Golding writes, “His sandy hair, considerably longer than it had been before they dropped in,” (48). This quote is significant to the novel because another symbolic trait was long hair and for the quote saying that Jack’s hair got longer is showing that he was an average, normal kid and that he will be a devil later on. Also, this quote takes place when they go into the water undressed. If someone is undressed they they are not civilized and this is another way to show that Jack is symbolic because at the beginning he was a normal kid and this shows that later he will be unsophisticated.
James Marcinowski Ms. Hedges Freshman English Thursday 14, 2022 Hair Motif Lord of the Flies Essay The novel, Lord of the Flies, is about a group of boys who become stranded on an island and have to create a society to survive. As time passes not only does their physical appearance change but the island brings out a more primal version of themselves which inevitably climaxes into the murder of two boys. The author, William Golding, creates a motif about hair and how the hair symbolizes how the characters change throughout the story.
How does Golding powerfully present Jack as a character in Lord of the Flies? The novel "Lord of the Flies", written by William Golding is set in the 1950s, where a group of young boys are stranded on a deserted island with no adults. They initially develop their own system of law and order but as the novel progresses their nature descends into their innate human character of savagery and violence without the need for civility. Golding presents the exploration of human nature through a power struggle between two opposing characters; Jack as the antagonistic, alpha male who believes in totalitarianism and Ralph, who believes in democracy and civilisation.
"(Lord of the Flies 230) Jack had inherited all the wretchedness of the adult world and he displayed them freely. When he found that he could act at will, without being challenged nor cautioned by a grown-up hand he unashamedly turned himself and his choir boys into savages and openly indulged in hunting and murdering, not only animals, but even fellow human beings. He thirsted for blood and lusted all the while for power and position.
In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, the author uses Jack and his self-proclaimed authority to establish a concept of power that is derived from and maintained by fear. The concept of separable power leads to inevitable war. A struggle for leadership reveals how far Jack is willing to go to prove he is of the best intellectual abilities to carry out the role of Chief. Jack’s narcissistic mindset is adequately demonstrated to further establish how his authority derives from his own selfish desires. Jack symbolizes evil and a loss of innocence on the island.
Jack has changed greatly, over the course of William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies. Crashing onto an island without adults and having to survive put a strain on all of the boys, but Jack’s personality altered the most due to this experience. He went from living as an ambitious choir boy, to being a vicious, brutal, beast. Many things changed Jack on the island, but most of all, he created the monster he became.
The Mask In lord of the flies by William Golding, each of the main characters resemble some type of symbol. Jack is the leader of the choir and then becomes the leader of the hunters. He is gutless and wants power from everyone and everything. As he searches for his power from the boys on the island, he starts losing his humanity along with the others. He turns into a savage when hunting for pigs and eventually wears a Mask that the boys wear too.
Shakespeare and Golding present Jack and Macbeth as very complex characters, both presented as ‘eccentric’ and ‘heroic’ personalities. In both texts the characters are introduced in contrast to their surroundings. In Lord of the flies, the character Jack is first introduced to the reader in complete contrast to the setting. The setting is presented as ‘beautiful’ and ‘flawless’ whilst on the other hand Jack is presented as “something dark fumbling along”. This implies that Jack, and the children on the island, are the beasts, creatures, referred to in the title ‘Lord of the Flies’.
My Mask: Confusion and its Attributes The Lord of the Flies mask topic I chose was “confusion.” I modeled my mask after what I thought would accurately represent this subject. This theme stood out to me because as soon as I read the word, an image of a mask I could make for it popped into my head. I also immediately made a personal connection with the word because the image I thought of reflected what goes on inside my head when I am confused!
The boys have numerously attempted to capture the pig but to no avail. Because the desire to kill one pig has consumed Jack’s every thought, he came to the conclusion that pigs don’t smell him but instead, see him, which caused him to smear charcoal and clay on his face to create a mask. Golding uses Jack’s mask to represent his attempt to achieve leadership, although doing so makes him animalistic and violent. Jack creates a mask to help enhance his hunting ability because with the help of the mask, he can camouflage into his surroundings. Jack begins to show leadership when he sees himself wearing his final mask for the very first time and his savagery gradually increases as he keeps his mask on.
Authors use symbols as a way to connect with their readers. Quite often these symbols relate to integral meanings throughout the novel and develop themes. One way authors use symbols comes in the form of colors. Different colors connotate different meanings. For example, pink is a great way to demonstrate innocence and purity.
Liam Hodges Mrs. Long DC Intro to Literature 12 May 2023 Psychological Analysis of Jack In William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies, the character Jack shows many signs of displacement. Jack begins the story as a confident and natural leader who wants to use his past leadership experiences to bring the boys together and survive the trials of the island. But as time passes on the island, Jack descends into a violent and barbaric state, displacing his emotions onto other boys in the group as well as the animals on the island. These displaced emotions fall onto others and begin a chain reaction, and the boys terrorize the pigs native to the island, all because of Jack’s unconscious defense mechanisms.
Lord of the Rings contains a diverse number of adversaries. Tolkien ranges from the ugly, warmongering Orcs to the malevolent Sauron, who is in leadership of the demonic Nazgûls. However, the enemy with the strongest and most skin crawling characterization is the two-faced member of the River Folk that joins Frodo and Samwise in The Two Towers. Gollum, or once known as Sméagol, is the grotesque creation of greed. Tolkien describes Gollum a number of times as looking like something of insect kind (598).
