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Is Lord Of The Flies A Utopia Or A Dystopia Essay

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Is Lord Of The Flies A Utopia Or A Dystopia Essay
Lord of the Flies Utopia or Dystopia
According to the Oxford American Dictionary, a utopia – n – is an imaginary place, society, or situation where everything is perfect, and vice versa, a dystopia – n – is a place, society, or situation in which everything is bad. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, a group of English boys become stranded on an uninhabited island during the midst of a World War. They attempt to form a society to keep the order and civility, but through the fear a creature called “The Beast,” and human nature finally getting to the majority of them, everything soon turns to chaos and savagery. Many pin the boy’s society to be either a utopia or a dystopia, although neither definition really suits it, and that is because the society that emerges in Golding’s Lord of the Flies is actually a combination of both a utopia and a dystopia.
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The fear of a beast stalking them, and a desire for power changing most of the boys to behave savage. Of course, their change also caused the society to change. The situation wasn’t perfect to begin with, but when Jack took over, and his behavior affected the group, suddenly this beast that struck fear, made the boys behave with brutality. They took it as far as not only to kill Simon, (Golding 141) but also literally hunt down Ralph and attempt to kill him as though he was one of the pigs. “ “Listen Ralph. Never mind what’s sense. That’s gone –“ “Never mind about the chief –“ “ – You got to go for your own good.” “The chief and Rodger –“ “ – yes Rodger.” “They hate you Ralph. They’re going to do you tomorrow.” “They’re going to hunt you tomorrow.” “ (Golding 174) Suddenly, everything is worse than it was before. You could still try and say it’s still a utopia, because as mentioned before, many of these kids may not want to leave, or didn’t really understand what

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