Lord of the Flies Essay

Submitted By mhayes97
Words: 824
Pages: 4
Open Document
Due to human nature, and how the environment and situations in life impact how a person acts, the boys in William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies” drastically change and do things they would normally never think of doing. When the boys first arrive on the island they establish order and use a conch shell to represent power. They make plans to get off the island and gather necessities in order to survive. At this point everything seems good, the boys all have plans, morals and intentions. They all agree about many important things; that they all need to work together and stay civilized in order to survive. The boys elect Ralph as their leader and he tells them “We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages. We're English, and the English are best at everything” which shows that Ralph wants to stay civilized and come up with many great ideas that will help them survive and get off the island as soon as possible.
After the boys have been on the island for some time, many of them begin to change and forget all they have learned during their upbringing, and even start to forget the difference between right and wrong. They start to ignore all of their original plans. Instead of focusing on providing necessities for everyone, and on getting rescued, they begin to go wild and start doing things they would normally not think of doing. Jack is the first of all the boys to drastically

Hayes 2 change and this leads many of the others to do the same. Jack decides to from his own tribe that will go against Ralph and everything he has planned or believed in.

Jack forms his own tribe with a great number of the boys on the island that were originally with Ralph, and they would rather focus on killing and hunting and going against Ralph. Unlike Ralph and Piggy, who remain civilized and keep their intentions good, these boys go against everything they had originally planned. Instead of focusing on getting off the island and remaining civilized by maintaining food and shelter for everyone, they turn to complete savages. Jack says "The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering." Which shows how violent be has become. They even decide to make an attack on Ralph and his tribe to take Piggy’s glasses. They completely go against Ralph and anyone with him, and these boys will do whatever it takes to get what they want. All the boys apart of Jack’s tribe have forgotten everything that they have been taught, they forget to treat each other with respect, and forget how to help one another just as they were taught to do as kids. The boys on Jack’s side begin to kill more than just animals on the island; they even start killing other kids apart of Ralph’s tribe. Killing another person on the island would never cross Ralph’s mind as he would much rather focus on survival, and getting off the island

The main cause of all this chaos and killing on the island is human nature. This book tells us a lot about human nature and provides many
Show More

Related Documents: Lord of the Flies Essay

Lord Of The Flies

Lord of the Flies Major: Ralph- Ralph is the protagonist of the novel. He is the leader of the group. Responsible- Ralph is responsible for the failures of the group since he is chosen to be the leader. He tries his best on everything that could be done in order to get rescued from the island. Brave- Ralph is brave because he is willing to go on to the mountaintop even though he is scared. He also helps Piggy to get back his glasses and fight gainst the hunters by himself. Jack- Jack is Ralph's…

Words 2392 - Pages 10

Lord Of The Flies

A running theme in Lord of the Flies is that man is savage at heart, always ultimately reverting back to an evil and primitive nature. The cycle of man's rise to power, or righteousness, and his inevitable fall from grace is an important point that book proves again and again, often comparing man with characters from the Bible to give a more vivid picture of his descent. Lord Of The Flies symbolizes this fall in different manners, ranging from the illustration of the mentality of actual primitive…

Words 374 - Pages 2

Lord Of The Flies

Ruba Osman Mr. Jackson ENG3U November 6th 2014 Knowing one’s evil: William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies” Since human conscience began, civilization has been built on law and figures of power. Structured society relies on rules with humans naturally conditioned by their own restrictions, contrasting an unsuccessful barbaric, savage or primitive way of life. With the loss of restraint, there would be no stopping humans descent into madness—with a lack of punishment and order, there is a lack of justice…

Words 1399 - Pages 6

Lord Of The Flies

The boys from “Lord Of the Flies” were stuck on an island and had to help themselves and each other, as there was no adult with them to lay down rules. By being by themselves someone had to set rules but these rules helped at the start when they were co-operating as it progresses the boys become wild and do whatever they want. At the start Piggy found the conch and this helped them to keep their assembly’s, also whoever had hold of the conch had the power to talk. These boys had lots of discipline…

Words 788 - Pages 4

Lord Of The Flies

How does Golding portray his ideas in the Lord of the flies? Golding portrays the disagreement between the two boys from the start of the book, during the time when they dispute between who should become the leader, which creates a small anecdote of the smaller world that we have today in society. The beginning of chapter 3 starts with Golding hinting to us that the boys are starting to become less civilised, and becoming more savage, as for Jack, “eyes in this frustration seemed bolting and nearly…

Words 754 - Pages 4

Lord Of The Flies

Lord of the Flies: Setting: Lord of the Flies takes place on an uninhabited island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, the exact date and time is unknown the reader but it is in the near future, during an atomic war going on elsewhere in the world. The scenery of the island is only extended to the reader when the boy’s knowledge of the island increases. The characters have crashed landed into the jungle of the island. We start off only following Ralph, the protagonist of the story. Ralph finds a…

Words 2040 - Pages 9

Lord Of The Flies

Lord of the Flies In Lord of the Flies the boys are stripped of the boundaries that civilization and society bring and savagery takes over while the evil inside each boy is unleashed. Through the deaths of Piggy and Simon, it becomes obvious that there is no more intellect and morality on the island, and savagery has become more prominent and stronger than civilization. In Simon’s death we see that the boys were so focused on hunting, and killing is second nature to them as they murder Simon thinking…

Words 942 - Pages 4

Lord Of The Flies

In the novel The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the boys turn from well behaved British schoolboys into savages. There are many things that cause this, like the boy's fear, their young ages, and their hunger, but the biggest cause of the boys turning into savages is Jack Merridew. Jack doesn't care about other people, thinks that he is better than everyone else, and thinks that he is always right and loves violence and bloodshed. After Jack leaves and starts his own tribe, Ralph and Piggy…

Words 402 - Pages 2

Lord Of The Flies

There are those who believe that people are essentially evil. In William Golding's novel Lord Of The Flies, he explores the idea that, even if given a beautiful, untouched island paradise, a group of innocent children would destroy both themselves and their environment. By examining how a group of young, innocent boys are placed on an island paradise but are gradually reduced to savagery, the reader can witness Golding’s view of man. Golding’s novel teaches that, if given the opportunity , people…

Words 562 - Pages 3

Lord Of The Flies Themes

books need a theme to help build onto the plot of the book. William Golding’s Lord of the Flies has many themes that help grow the plot and make the book more interesting. From themes such as loss of innocence to civilization versus savagery, Lord of the Flies contains a numerous amounts of themes that are shown throughout the book by the various symbolic characters and objects. One of the major themes of Lord of the Flies is civilization versus savagery. Jack represents savagery while Ralph and Piggy…

Words 466 - Pages 2