The Themes in Lord of the Flies

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• Lord of the Flies Theme Essay

  ...When a group of children become stranded on a deserted island, the rules of society no longer apply to them. Without the supervision of their parents or of the law, the primitive nature of the boys surfaces. Consequently, the boys live without luxury that could have been obtained had they maintained a society on the island. Instead, these young boys take advantage of their freedom, and life as they knew it deteriorates. Lord of the Flies is influenced by the author's life and experiences. Golding's outlook on life changes, due to his heavy involvement in W.W.II, to his current philosophy that "The shape of society must depend on the ethical nature of the individual, and not on any political system however apparently logical or respectable" (Baker, 1965). The major theme that Golding develops in Lord of the Flies is the deterioration of rules and order in a lawless environment. Deterioration is the reduction of value and quality that may result in chaos. In this novel, the rules that are made are quickly broken or forgotten. Through the course of the novel, this statement becomes evident with the neglecting of the shelters, when Jack allows the fire to burn out, and the change in character of Roger. Each of these examples show Golding's pessimistic attitude that all humans are potentially evil, and also his views on the future of mankind. An example of deterioration of rules occurs when...

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• Lord of the Flies Theme Analysis Research Paper

  ...Theme Analysis of Golding’s Lord of the Flies In his novel, Lord of the Flies, William Golding creates a society that is doomed to fail because it lacks the rules that are necessary for its survival. When left to their own devices, the boys prove that human nature must be bridled or it will turn catastrophic. William Golding believes that total and complete freedom presents a danger to any society. The use of foreshadowing in the exposition, Jack’s internal conflicts and Ralph’s realizations about humanity warn the reader that the people in a society cannot be completely free or the society will collapse. William Golding shows how unstable a society without rules is by foreshowing a disastrous end to the society in the exposition of the novel. In the first few pages of the novel when the boys are selecting a leader, they compare Jack and Ralph noting that “while the most obvious leader was Jack… there was a stillness about Ralph” (21) that causes them to pick him as their leader. By comparing the two boys, the author is foreshadowing a future conflict between them, and Jack’s eventual rise to power. The author also uses vivid imagery and personification to symbolize their inability to control certain aspects of their society. He personifies darkness, explaining how it “pour[s] out and submerge[s] between the trees”(31) making the forest as “strange as the bottom of the sea”(31). By comparing their...

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• Lord of the flies theme essay

  ... A highly effective community is made up of people serving in different roles as a cohesive unit. If everyone has the same role, the community would not be as effective and productive as it is suppose to be. No one is perfect, meaning that everyone has their own strengths and weakness. For example, I am stronger in math, my strength and at times struggle in writing, my weakness. I believe that if we each use our strengths to improve on our weaknesses then, we ultimately make a community stronger as a shole. In the novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses symbolism, conflict and evolution to portray Ralph as an immature young boy who develops into a civilized young man against all odds . According to Webster’s New World Dictionary, an adult is defined as grown up and mature. There are reasons young boys or girls can not run for president. They are immature and still discovering who they are as a person, nevermind leading others. Children explore different ideas and activities to figure out what they believe and help define who they are over years with adult guidance. In this novel, Ralph and a group of young boys are forced to live and cooperate together as a community. They base their views purely on observation and not experience. Almost immediately they elect a leader by raising hands. “Every hand out side the choir except Piggy’s was raised immediately. Then Piggy, too, raised his hand grudgingly into the air....

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• Lord of the Flies

  ...biggest thing holding the boys to civilisation was adult supervision. Without adults to tell them right from wrong, they reverted to a primitive nature which resulted in the death of two boys. Ralph and Piggy never fully lost touch of the adult world, because they wore some item of clothing until the end. Ralph even cared enough at one stage about his personal grooming. This idea developed my understanding of how dependent we are on the civilised world and that without it we lose a part of ourselves. The idea that without law and order developed my ideas on how humans will react when faced with a situation, in this case, being stranded on an island. It also challenged my ideas on civilisation and how it had started. Source:Lord of the Flies...

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• Themes of Lord of the Flies Essay

  ...Civilization vs Savagery The first theme of Lord of the Flies is Civilization vs Savagery, in the story, Ralph is a symbolism representing civilization, at the beginning of the story, Ralph used a conch shell to gather every children in the island, during the first assembly, he showed his leadership and he also lead the children well. Ralph expectation is everyone living in the island should live by rules, they should cooperate together, work peacefully. Jack’s expectations, are slightly different, at the beginning of the story, when Ralph was being elected to be the chief, Jack didn’t satisfy because he thought he should be the chief, and the reason is he can sing ‘ C sharp’. Moreover, when Jack soon formed the hunter team of his own, he started forcing other children from Ralph’s team to join them, using the twin to be an example, Jack used violence to harass them, forcing them to be one of Jack’s fellow From the beginning of the story, the author had already created foreshadowing, telling the readers that there will be a potential of conflicts between Jack and Ralph. However the author decided to let Jack have a greater power, mainly becuase he wanted to project the background of the story, which is during war, rules and humanity will never exist, the people who gain greatest power will be the boss. The collapse of humanity At the beginning of the story, a group of well behave school boys were taking planes to...

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• Themes from Lord of the Flies Essay

  ...The Lord of the Flies is a novel written by William Golding in the 1950's. This is a story about young European school boys trapped on a deserted island who must fend for themselves. Leaving all the rules of their old civilization behind, a deepening of irrational fear emerges, a collapse of goodness, self destruction of humanity, as well as emergence of the beast from within, occurs. These themes become predominant especially in chapters 11 and 12. Irrational fear begins early on in the novel, but continues until the very end. The boys fear the beast, even though the only beast on the island is the one that lies within themselves. The mystery of the island can overpower one's emotions, just like it did to the boys. The irrational fear of the beast keeps the boys on edge, especially when Ralph is left all alone. Ralph was alone in the woods and stumbled upon the beast. "A pig's skull that grinned at him from the top of a stick" , Ralph is afraid of the face to the point where he kicks it down. He also no longer wanted to sleep alone because he was terrified of what was in the dark, so he sleeps near Jack's tribe. "So that if the horrors of the night emerged one could at least mix with humans." The fear held by these boys is illogical because really the only thing they have to fear is one another. Beginning in chapter 11, when Jack’s tribe steals the fire from Ralph and the boys, one can really see the collapse of...

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• Essay about Themes in "Lord of the Flies"

  ...William Goldning's Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel where literary techniques are utilized to convey the main ideas and themes of the novel. Two important central themes of the novel includes loss of civilization and innocense which tie into the concept of innate human evil. Loss of civilization is simply the transition from civilization to savagery; order to chaos. The concept of loss of innocense is a key concept to innate human evil because childhood innocense is disrupted as the group hunted animals and even their own. Through the use of literary techniques these ideas are seen in the passage where Simon confronts the "Lord of the Flies." The central concern of Lord of the Flies deals with the fall of civilization to the awakening of savagery. The conflict seen in this theme is explored through the dissolution of the young boys' well mannered behavior as they accustomed themselves to a wild, barbaric life in the jungle. The concept of innate human evil takes an important role in this theme because as the boys grew more savage the beast that they feared grew within themselves. This innate human evil is the beast that destroys civilization as savagery claimed its position. In the passage the "Lord of the flies" indicates the presence of the beast within the boys. ‘Fancy thinking the Beast was...

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• how is violence presented in lord of the flies Essay

  ...How is violence presented in Lord of the Flies? Planning (remember to get quotes): Key ideas: Introduction Setting -> This island -> pathetic fallacy, descriptions Binary oppositions: Civilisation vs savagery (breakdowns). Zoomorphism Binary oppositions: Dictatorship vs democracy (juxtapositions) Deaths of Simon and Piggy – animalistic, savage chanting, violent behaviour when they let their temptations get the better of them. Simon and the beast? Conclusion – end of the novel William Golding explores the theme of violence throughout his novel ‘Lord of the Flies’. He believed that every individual has the potential to bring out their inner evil, and that every human being is flawed in their nature. Hence, he wrote a novel with an aim to employ characterisation of mankind’s essential sickness, after his time spent in war. He also aimed to challenge Ballantyne’s ‘Coral Island’. ‘Lord of the Flies’ presents the helpless and violent breakdown – along with devolution, of civilisation on the island by using authoritative symbolism, metaphorical imagery and biblical references to reinforce this loss of humanity in this corrupt regime. In the exposition of the novel, we are familiarised with the setting of the island – which begins as a utopia for the boys, with “the shimmering water”. This has paradisiacal connotations, showing the island to be an obvious place of...

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