Theme Of Heroes In Lord Of The Flies

Heroes are the stars in most novels right? They end up being heralded for triumphing over the evil villain. We love when heroes win and we devote most of our attention to them, but dare I say we should actually pay more attention to the villain. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding depicts for the reader the savagery that is concealed inside even the most civilized of all human beings, British schoolboys. The British schoolboys in the novel are stranded on a tropical island and they try to imitate the culture they left behind. So, they elect Ralph as leader, but Jack Merridew, one of the villains that I will be discussing, wants to be leader too. Jack lures the boys from civilized living and logic to the savage way of life of a primal hunter.
In the novel Jack Stapleton, the other villain that I will be discussing, is trying to kill off all other heirs to Baskerville family estate and money so that he becomes the sole heir. Sherlock Holmes is hired to try and solve the mystery behind the death of Sir Charles Baskerville whom Jack Stapleton killed. Jack Stapleton, even though as black-hearted and clever as he is, proves no match for the great Sherlock Holmes who cracks the case. While these two novels are both seemingly different, both have a villain who is all-consumed with greed. In both of the stories Jack Merridew and Jack Stapleton let greed control their actions, thoughts, and how they lived, which drove them to kill and manipulate others and we should all learn from their
They can teach us about one of the so called ¨Seven Deadly Sins,¨ Greed. Both Stapleton and Jack Merridew felt greeds all-consuming power and they both completely succumbed to it. Stapleton's greedy desire for money drove him to kill others, steal, and probably to commit several other crimes that are not mentioned in the novel. Jack Merridew's greed was directed toward becoming leader and having sovereignty over all the other boys on the island. We should take heed from the mistakes of Stapleton and Jack Merridew and not follow down the path of destruction and chaos they chose. It is hard to battle greedy desires because greed is unlike any other desire. We all recognize there is constituted order of life that limits growth and every created thing on the earth has respected ¨normal¨ size, give or take a slight amount. When the ¨normal¨ size is achieved growth usually halts. Greed is the opposite. It keeps getting larger and larger and larger and large. Greed does not cease to grow, which poses a serious amount of danger. Stapleton's greed for money grew and grew and grew until it drove him to commit murder and Jack Merridew's greed for dominance grew and grew and grew until it drove him to kill and manipulate others. We all at some point in our lives will have a greedy desire and we must learn from Stapleton and Jack Merridew by controlling our greed and not letting it have power over us. In conclusion,