Preview

Big Questions For Lord Of The Flies Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
860 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Big Questions For Lord Of The Flies Essay
Lord of the Flies
Identify an important theme/idea within your text and discuss how it is shown.

One of the big questions raised by Lord of the Flies is whether the boys in their primitive actions are reverting to a inferior state of life, or whether they are driven to their natural and rightful states. If well-brought up British boys become violent savages when left without supervision, maybe people really are just violent savages, covered up in clothes and caps. But big questions aside, primitively in Lord of the Flies means hunting, the desire for food, the desire for power, bloodlust, violence, sadism, and a general inability to distinguish between man and beast.
The loss of innocence is a major theme in Lord of the Flies. The boys stranded on the island at just the age (between six and twelve, roughly) to leave the idealism of youth and face the actuality of the real world. And what better place to do so than an uninhabited island free of rules, restrictions, and adults? Because of their circumstance, the boys leave behind not only youth, but civilization, and the reality they face is not one of adults, but one of untamed human nature. The novel ends with its main character, Ralph, weeping for “the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart.”
…show more content…
Golding seems to be saying that yes, this is the case. The ethical nature of any society depends ultimately on the morality of its individual members, and in Lord of the Flies, humans are basically corrupt and inherently evil. It seems that rules and order are the only boundaries keeping people from their true, violent natures. As soon as you take those people and put them outside of a system with punishments and consequences, they will revert to primitive attitudes and actions, and destroy themselves in the process. Man needs the structure provided by

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Lord of the Flies Q/a

    • 2253 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Q6: What assignment does Ralph give Piggy instead of allowing him to join the exploration expedition?…

    • 2253 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Civilization still has a little bit of control over Roger's mind and sanity. He seems to feel as if he is still surrounded by rules, laws, consequences and adults. Adults are the ones that make the rules and ensure they are enforced. In chapter four "Roger grabbed a handful of stones and began to throw them. Yet there was a space around Henry, perhaps six yards in diameter, into which he dare not throw. Here, invisible yet strong, was the taboo of the old life. Round the squatting child was the protection of parents and school and policemen and the law. Roger's arm was conditioned by a civilization that knew nothing of him and was in ruins." This symbolizes civilization…

    • 2112 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The first chapter of the lord of the flies introduces its themes of primitivity, loss o innocence, and dissolution of order (savagery) in a way that allows readers to easily make comparisons between the book's characters and setting before and after they develop.…

    • 247 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “The chief was sitting there, naked to the waist, his face blocked out in white and red. The tribe lay in a semicircle before him. The newly beaten and untied Wilfred was sniffing noisily in the background” (189). This savagery is a perfect example of the savagery experienced throughout the book. In the novel, Lord of the Flies, a private school of young boys are sent by plane to a safe spot to get away from war. On the way to their destination, the plane crashes and all of the adults are killed. The boys’ situation will change from being normal, to being alone with no adults. In the novel, Lord of the Flies, William Golding shows the loss of identity in the boys when they descend into savages because of their need for social structure.…

    • 675 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In every child’s life, there is a certain time in their life when they lose their innocence. Young or old, it is inevitable when it will happen. In William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies”, he conveys the idea of how the group of boys slowly begins to lose their innocence and resort to savage, inhuman living conditions. Ralph fights for a community, a way that they can all live in harmony yet have a civilized structure in their society. On the contrary, Jack leads the group of hunters. He begins to manipulate them into thinking that killing and hunting is all that is necessary. Over the duration of the novel the boys slowly transform from fun loving children into menacing killers.…

    • 447 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The central theme of the Lord of the Flies is the influence of others. Each boy had to pick between a set of rules and morals to live by, dividing them into two groups. The conflict consisted of Civilization versus savagery. In one group the influence of Ralph was a sense of order and everyone lived by rules. The influence of good beliefs and values generated these boys from committing sinful crimes. In Jacks group, the boys were influenced by evil. The killing of animals empowered them to become sinful people. Jack would measure value in the group by ones immediate desire to kill coldblooded. To obtain authority you needed to act violently. These acts shaped how the boy’s mental state developed. Damaging the human they will grow up to be.…

    • 311 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    When the naval officer saw these young boys on their own on this humungous island he was amazed and he got very emotional. Loading these young kids onto the ship he had so many questions yet didn't know how to even put them into a proper question because he was so shocked to see these young kids survive on their own on this island.…

    • 593 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    lord of the flies

    • 544 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In William Golding’s novel The Lord of the Flies , he questions the nature of man and origins of evil within human beings. The plot involves a plane full of British boys, between the ages of six to twelve, crashing on an empty island. There, they are stranded without any adults and as time progresses, the upbringing of the boys regarding societal rules and morals are tested as they revert into a life of savagery. Golding proposes a shocking revelation that human nature is naturally evil. This is demonstrated through mob mentality as well as hidden symbols throughout the book.…

    • 544 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Since humans began to form societies, mankind has always chased authority and power. The same situation can be observed in William Golding's Lord of the Flies, a novel which shows its audience that under circumstances where no authority figure is present it is human nature to develop like forms of societies that exist in the 21st century. The situation and course of events directly relate to the time period in which Golding wrote his masterpiece. In his novel, William Golding portrays the story of a group of British boys governing themselves, filling the roles and forming a primitive and savage form of the society today’s individual knows. Throughout the book, one can come across the ideas of humans with uniforms and weapons falling into corruption,…

    • 561 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Every child will lose their innocence one day and it is something that is unavoidable. This happens when a child explores the real world and that they realize that it is nothing like a fairy tale. In the novel Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding, a group of English kids (five to twelve years old) are stranded on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. This was caused by a horrible plane crash. They are stuck there with no help or any adults. They eventually get rescued. Even if they know that they’re going back to civilization, they know that nothing will be the same as before they came to the island because they lost their innocence. In the novel Lord of the Flies, the boys’ loss their…

    • 948 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    William Golding’s Lord of the Flies begins in a place every child dreams of an island without parents or rules where they can finally be in charge of themselves. Given these circumstances, these British students ranging from ages six to twelve began their experience on the island with enjoyment and relaxation. However, these children soon discover the darker side of this tropical paradise when they argue over which tasks are more important. This leads into the discovery of whether they should keep their civility or become savage and escalates to their loss of innocence. In Lord of the Flies, Ralph, Roger, and Samneric face an early loss of innocence and the decision between civilization and savagery.…

    • 617 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lord of the Flies is a novel written by Nobel-Prize winning author William Golding. It discusses the struggle that men face in creating a culture of their own. We are shown this through a group of young school boys stuck on a deserted island who try to govern themselves with disastrous results. They become uncivilized, savage, and sooner than they know it, they are their own worst enemy. Primal instincts come out and they begin to control each boy in a different way. The desire to kill and hunt becomes overpowering and soon the boys find themselves out of control. The controversy of human nature versus common good reoccurs throughout this novel. However, the most evident theme throughout this book is the idea that there is darkness lurking in even the most innocent person.…

    • 534 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the text "Lord of the Flies"; written by William Golding, the presentation of the setting effectively developed the main themes of civilization and the loss of innocence. The physical location (the remote island) which this novel was set in helped serve the theme of constructing civilisation. However, as the stranded boys progressed on this island savagery overwhelmed their instincts and this helped develop the theme of loss of innocence.…

    • 837 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    1. Lord of the Flies is set in a kind of paradise on earth. Describe a location that would be paradise for you?…

    • 396 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding is about a group of boys who are stranded on an island. At first, the boys establish order, but as the novel progresses this order deteriorates and the boys become very uncivilized. Golding uses the development of characters to show that humans, when lacking a formal identity and accountability for their actions, will act in a manner of violence, and from this a dangerous environment can develop. Golding demonstrates…

    • 1202 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays