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What Is The Common Theme Of Greed In Lord Of The Flies

992 Words4 Pages

Carter Voelkel
Mrs.Varpness
English 12
3 May 2023

The Common Thread of Greed
The Pope and Hitler have at least one thing in common, both of their actions are guided by greed. Greed is one of the seven sins found in The Bible. It is a key element found in all types of literature from The Bible, to our favorite stories, to the artwork of famous painters and underground artists. Annette Hassel is one of those underground artists who created a piece called Greed which is from her Seven Deadly Sins Series of artwork. The art depicts a monkey with a sword protecting a massive pile of bananas that the monkey does not eat while another monkey only has one banana and is scarfing it down as if he has never eaten before. The monkey with the sword has …show more content…

The story’s greed is expressed through Jack, a young boy who desires to be the chief of the island. This desire results in the deaths of others including a boy nicknamed Piggy who was pushed off a cliff by a boulder. After Piggy dies and the conch is destroyed Jack announces ecstatically, “The conch is gone—” He ran forward, stooping. “I’m chief!”(261 Golding). These actions of Jack express his greed for power and the unimaginable way he would kill another human being. Jack's rampage continues as he seeks to be the chief of the other boys. In his onslaught of greed, he starts to burn down the fire in pursuit of his last rival, Ralph. In doing this everything on the island is burned from their only food sources to their only shelter and fire sources to stay warm. This final act of savagery by Jack ultimately shows how far his greed for power takes him on his path to becoming chief of the island …show more content…

The US government required most Osage Native Americans to have “guardians” who would help them with their finances but some would take advantage of this. The book talked about how some guardians did so such as “One guardian bought a car for $250 and resold it to his ward for $1,250”(84 Grann). This action of the guardian perfectly depicts the theme of greed. As the Guardian wanted the money of the rich Osage person even though it was their responsibility to help their finances they took advantage of it. Every religious text ever written states that stealing is immoral and that is exactly what this white guardian was doing to his Osage tribe member who they were supposed to help make proper financial decisions. Similar actions which portrayed unprecedented greed were done by a man named William Hale. What’s most shocking about this fulfillment of his greed is it is all real. Back in the early twentieth century when Osage Indians were becoming unfathomably wealthy because of oil some of these Indians began to be murdered. It was only after the creation of the FBI did they discover that twenty-six people were killed or commanded to be killed by William Hale. These unfathomably horrendous actions were empowered by his greed to gain the Osage member's money. He was trying to funnel all of the money into his

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