Lord of the Flies - Psycological Analysis
Lord of the Flies Essay
Our class just recently read Lord of the Flies which is a book that looks at the thinking of mankind. It has an overall negative vibe and was published 1954, this wasn’t long after World War II ended so some of the themes that seem dark in this story are almost justified with all the previous occurrences before it was written. This book has many messages, not just one, but all of which concealed within the text and are usually unforeseen without closer investigation. Most of the messages in the book are concerning social contact and psychological matters, all main factors of human life. The book is set on a secluded island where a plane containing a number of young boys has crashed and left them stranded. One main character on this island, Ralph, is voted chief by his peers and leads very well in the beginning. This flow is interrupted by Jack, another older boy who is overcome by his primordial instincts and creates a friction between the boys. Nearing the end of the book the group splits into two groups representing the savages, on Jack’s side, and the last hope of civilization, Ralph and his close friends. The two topics I will investigate are to do with psychological issues of mankind.
Within the book it raises the fact that fear is a very powerful emotion and sometimes weapon. This is shown several times throughout this book and is a very valid point. Jack becomes a master of this weapon and feeds off this for his accomplishments. He manipulates the group of young boys with the concept of fear. Once there is any word of a beast he pounces on it and offers protection “If there is a beast, we’ll kill it”. This draws many boys to his tribe and initiates his rise to power within the group, the same group that voted against him to have Ralph chief have now joined him. There are cases of this in today’s world also. One example taken from the president of the US is the wars in the Middle East. These wars were televised and brought to
Our class just recently read Lord of the Flies which is a book that looks at the thinking of mankind. It has an overall negative vibe and was published 1954, this wasn’t long after World War II ended so some of the themes that seem dark in this story are almost justified with all the previous occurrences before it was written. This book has many messages, not just one, but all of which concealed within the text and are usually unforeseen without closer investigation. Most of the messages in the book are concerning social contact and psychological matters, all main factors of human life. The book is set on a secluded island where a plane containing a number of young boys has crashed and left them stranded. One main character on this island, Ralph, is voted chief by his peers and leads very well in the beginning. This flow is interrupted by Jack, another older boy who is overcome by his primordial instincts and creates a friction between the boys. Nearing the end of the book the group splits into two groups representing the savages, on Jack’s side, and the last hope of civilization, Ralph and his close friends. The two topics I will investigate are to do with psychological issues of mankind.
Within the book it raises the fact that fear is a very powerful emotion and sometimes weapon. This is shown several times throughout this book and is a very valid point. Jack becomes a master of this weapon and feeds off this for his accomplishments. He manipulates the group of young boys with the concept of fear. Once there is any word of a beast he pounces on it and offers protection “If there is a beast, we’ll kill it”. This draws many boys to his tribe and initiates his rise to power within the group, the same group that voted against him to have Ralph chief have now joined him. There are cases of this in today’s world also. One example taken from the president of the US is the wars in the Middle East. These wars were televised and brought to