Lord of the flies
Lord of the Flies’ essay
In the novel lord of the flies, William Golding attempts to display the relationship between issues within society and issues within human nature. He attempts to achieve this by placing a group of English school boys on a ‘perfect’ island and allowing events to unravel without the barriers associated within society. As the story evolves Golding’s thesis becomes realised, this was that savagery can be found within everyone. Thus meaning the story has been shown as both a realistic story and an allegory in which the boys, the objects and the island all have a very significant symbolic meaning.
Golding thoroughly explores the human psyche throughout the novel and it is shown as he believes that the human nature is actually very weak. The weakness was shown through the theme of the fear of the unknown; this theme was displayed through the symbol of the beast. The beast was a symbol not of the evil in the novel but a symbol of the evil within themselves. All of the boys had this evil within them however Simon did not display signs of displaying this evil unlike the others. This was shown as he was the only boy who could see through the misconception and see the ‘beast’ for it what it truly was. An example of how Simon was able to understand this inner evil was when he hallucinated a conversation with the ‘lord of the flies’ “You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close. I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are the way they are?” When this scene took place it worked on both a realistic and symbolic level, as it showed the very Christ like character of Simon wrestling with the devil (Beelzebub) in the wilderness of the island. Despite this hallucination Simon is shown to still realise it is only a pigs head after all. This was shown as he attempted to warn the boys who were still prepared to be ruled by their own fears. The technique used to portray this weakness was symbolism in the form of the beast. This
In the novel lord of the flies, William Golding attempts to display the relationship between issues within society and issues within human nature. He attempts to achieve this by placing a group of English school boys on a ‘perfect’ island and allowing events to unravel without the barriers associated within society. As the story evolves Golding’s thesis becomes realised, this was that savagery can be found within everyone. Thus meaning the story has been shown as both a realistic story and an allegory in which the boys, the objects and the island all have a very significant symbolic meaning.
Golding thoroughly explores the human psyche throughout the novel and it is shown as he believes that the human nature is actually very weak. The weakness was shown through the theme of the fear of the unknown; this theme was displayed through the symbol of the beast. The beast was a symbol not of the evil in the novel but a symbol of the evil within themselves. All of the boys had this evil within them however Simon did not display signs of displaying this evil unlike the others. This was shown as he was the only boy who could see through the misconception and see the ‘beast’ for it what it truly was. An example of how Simon was able to understand this inner evil was when he hallucinated a conversation with the ‘lord of the flies’ “You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close. I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are the way they are?” When this scene took place it worked on both a realistic and symbolic level, as it showed the very Christ like character of Simon wrestling with the devil (Beelzebub) in the wilderness of the island. Despite this hallucination Simon is shown to still realise it is only a pigs head after all. This was shown as he attempted to warn the boys who were still prepared to be ruled by their own fears. The technique used to portray this weakness was symbolism in the form of the beast. This