william goulding - lord of the flies Essay

Submitted By kyliewinterling
Words: 549
Pages: 3
Open Document
William Golding’s 1954 novel, The ‘Lord of the Flies’ is an allegorical novel with a fairly obvious set of symbols to decode. A group of very ordinary, well-mannered young boys maroon on a coral island after their plane has crashed. The boys, deducted of adults vote for chief and learn to survive. The protagonist Ralph, is chief. He realizes quickly that human nature is irrelevantly violent, the boys in whom he trusted loss their innocence for power. But though Ralph is nimble he never grasps the connotation of ‘the beast’.

“Maybe there is a beast… maybe it's only us.” Golding tries to portray the image that within each of us there is an evil. The imaginary beast that frightens all the boys stands for the primal instinct of savagery that exists within all human beings. The boys are afraid of the beast, but only Simon reaches the realization that they fear the beast because it exists within each of them. As the boys grow more savage, their belief in the beast grows stronger. By the end of the novel, the boys are leaving it sacrifices and treating it as a totemic god. The boys’ behavior is what brings the beast into existence, so the more savagely the boys act, the more real the beast seems to become. “Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill! You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are what they are?” Looking at the novel in the context of biblical parallels, the Lord of the Flies recalls the devil, just as Simon recalls Jesus. The name “Lord of the Flies” is a literal translation of the name of the biblical name Beelzebub, a powerful demon in hell sometimes thought to be the devil himself. The devil is known to show no mercy. The boys on the island develop into something similar.

They progress from well-behaved, orderly children longing for rescue to cruel, bloodthirsty hunters who have no desire to return to civilization, they naturally lose the sense of innocence that they possessed at the beginning of the novel. “Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of
Show More

Related Documents: william goulding - lord of the flies Essay

What Does The Jack Symbolize In Lord Of The Flies

Stephen King.Therefore, Symbolism is anything that stands for something else other than literal meaning. Symbolism is used In the novel, The Lord of the Flies as PIggy,Ralph, and Jack play a key role in the novel. Also Piggy,Ralph,and Jack are symbolized in the novel in many ways these are a few examples. In the novel, The Lord of the Flies,written by William Golding. Piggy represents intelligence, Ralph is an example of leadership, and Jack symbolizes chaos and destruction.Piggy plays a key factor…

Words 639 - Pages 3

The Maze Runner Literary Analysis

decisions. Culture, particularly literature, is heavily affected by outside circumstances. The world surrounding the author commands dystopian literature. The setting of The Maze Runner by James Dashner establishes roots in allusions to Lord of the Flies by William Golding and other real-world events. Dashner was influenced by Goulding’s novel…

Words 602 - Pages 3

Essay on Flaws of the Movie of Lord of the Flies

Flaws of the Dramatization of Lord of the Flies Almost every successful book has a movie to follow. This is because producers can’t wait to adapt the book into a motion picture. They see the vision that the author was trying to portray and use the novel for the big screen. However, many movies based off of books aren't as strong as the novel. This is because the original message and character traits that the author developed can be blurred due to the glamorization of Hollywood films. The restriction…

Words 715 - Pages 3

Innocence In Lord Of The Flies

knowing what you’ve have learned, this is demonstrated in the novel, Lord of the Flies. As the boys on the island progress from well-behaved, orderly children longing for rescue to bloodthirsty hunters who have no desire to go back to civilization, they naturally will lose the sense of innocence they once had. Lord of the Flies is a novel by William Golding in which a set of British schoolboys are stranded on an island. In Lord of the Flies, loss of innocence, is portrayed powerfully by various life altering…

Words 781 - Pages 4

Comparing Power In Macbeth And Lord Of The Flies

Presentation of Power in Lord of the Flies and Macbeth There are always people who, in a group, come out with better qualities to be a leader then others. The strongest people however, become the greater influences which the others decide to follow. However, sometimes the strongest person is not the best choice. Authors often show how humans select this stronger person to give an understanding of the different powers that people can possess over others. In “Macbeth” and Lord of the Flies, the authors reveal…

Words 957 - Pages 4

Lord Of The Flies Literary Analysis Essay

Lord of the Flies Literary Analysis Essay The novel, Lord of the Flies by William Golding crashes a group of boys, trying to flee from a war on an uninhabited island without any adults. This emphasizes the purpose of the novel, which is to expose the human condition, and a major principle in Goulding’s belief of the human condition that beasts “[are] only [humans]”(Goulding 89). The author goes about this exposure with many examples of symbolism and allusions to religion. The arguably most prominent…

Words 1159 - Pages 5

Lord Of The Flies By William Golding

Author Role William Golding died at the age of 82. Two of the main characters in his book died at the age (or around) 12. I believe that Golding wrote this book in order to show the world what would happen would we be forced onto an island to live by ourselves, and the eventual atrocities that would become of us if mutinies were to be enforced. This could also represent the downfall of society and the effect that it would have on even the youngest of our children. Though the book could be looked at from many different perspectives…

Words 575 - Pages 3

Lord Of The Flies Rhetorical Analysis

In the novel, Lord of the Flies written by William Golding, a group of British boys are deserted on an island during World War II. Golding, in his background, served in the Royal Navy during World War II and through his service, he was able to see the injustices of mankind. Golding incorporates the injustices of humanity throughout the novel through the usage of Aristotle’s rhetorical triangle. Aristotle’s rhetorical triangle is a formation of ethos, pathos, and logos: credibility, emotions, and…

Words 973 - Pages 4

Leadership In Lord Of The Flies Essay

“Where there is no vision, people perish.” (Proverbs 29:18) Like this proverb the boys on the island start to perish when the leaders and their plans start to deteriorate. Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding, presents two contrasting leadership styles, democracy and a dictatorship. The basic traits of a good leader are a good communicator, a fair and just judge and someone who can provide for their people. Both boys contribute greatly towards the island and both are strong leaders, but…

Words 1158 - Pages 5

LOTF Gender Essay

Bell 1 Caity Bell Mrs. Beckjord English 12 Honors March 10, 2015 A Harmful Dichotomy: The Negative Ways Society’s Traditional Male Gender Roles Come to Light Contrasted with Lord of the Flies Since the beginning of time humans have been beings favoring civilization. Rules. Order. Restrictions on innate human tendencies keep people in order, which is considerably more manageable than seven billion anthropomorphized Ids1 running amok across the planet. But when do our society’s restraints harm it’s members…

Words 1371 - Pages 6