Preview

Lord Of The Flies Critical Lens

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
706 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Lord Of The Flies Critical Lens
John Steinbeck once said "It is the responsibility of the writer to expose our many grievous faults and failures and to hold up to the light our dark and dangerous dreams for the purpose of improvement." This basically means it is important that the author does its job to show faults, failures, struggles, and hardships in a character's life in order to demonstrate how they became stronger and improved upon their failures. This quote is valid because one can normally not improve upon nothing. In order for a person to learn, they must try to succeed and even if they fail, they take that with them while they grow older and use it to reflect their new actions with. The novel Lord of the Flies written by William Golding demonstrates usages of …show more content…
Characterization is the combination of all the things and author does to create the personality of a character in a piece of literature. For example, throughout the story, the read learns a lot about the character of Jack. We learn that he is a very determined young boy. He does not like to give up when he fails; he likes to keep going until he is successful. In the beginning of the novel, Ralph, Jack, and Simon come across a pig and Jack wants to kill it for meat. Jack attempts to kill it and fails, but he becomes very determined to kill one before they left the island. During chapter three, entitled "Huts on the Beach," Jack is once again not successful in the killing of the pig and becomes sad all over again. He stabs the pig but is unable to kill it. Throughout chapter seven, the boys are still trying to hunt down the pig but he gets away, once again. Finally, during chapter eight, the pig is finally killed. Jack becomes determined and awfully savage, killing the pig with his boys after torturing him continuously. (page 138) This proves the quote is valid because it shows that Jack kept failing along with the other boys, and his characteristic of determination kept him going until he learned from it and …show more content…
Golding's theme of "Every man is born savage and learns to be civilized" is shown often through the entire novel of Lord of the Flies. Throughout the story, the boys become more and more savage. They realize its not going to be easy living on this island alone as young boys and they begin to become selfish and dangerous. The boys begin to torture and injury animals, pick on each other, ditch each other, outvote one another, and the worst, even kill one of them. They become so hypnotized and don't even realize what they did when they killed Simon. They were thinking of it as a game and got carried away and ended up killing him for their own selfish desire. Golding demonstrates how easy it is for people to revert back to savagery after becoming civilized. A reason Golding wrote this novel was to teach the readers how to prevent it from happening again. This example proves the quote by John Steinbeck to be valid because its showing that its easy to make mistakes and easy to fail, but one has to learn how to take those mistakes and learn from them in order to become new people and in this case become

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    "Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed."-Mahatma Gandhi. Everything man needs is right in front of them, but human nature drives them to be evil. Savagery and civilization is what the humans conscience battles. William Golding addresses this argument in the novel, Lord of the Flies, through an island of lost boys. They are strive to live civilized however, the evil inside begins to seep out, transforming them into savage hunters.…

    • 550 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Characterization is the process of an author developing a character's qualities or personality by describing him or her in a fictional story. In the short story “ The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, Sanger Rainsford, a hunter, is trying to keep himself alive on Ship Trap Island, where a nefarious man named General Zaroff is hunting him for sport. Rainsford and Zaroff the two men going toe-to-toe are shown through characterization that they contrast and compare from each other.…

    • 668 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a novel, where a group of young British boys are lost on an island after their plane crash lands. Throughout the novel William Golding utilization of literary devices are in place to reveal a theme of the novel, civilization and innocent are destroyed due to the savagery of the boys', desire for power, and fear of the unknown. William Golding utilizes three important literary devices throughout the novel, symbolism, of when the conch is destroyed civilization on the island is gone, foreshadowing the deaths of the boys on the island and irony as the civilize British boys turn savages.…

    • 1088 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The central theme of the Lord of the Flies is the influence of others. Each boy had to pick between a set of rules and morals to live by, dividing them into two groups. The conflict consisted of Civilization versus savagery. In one group the influence of Ralph was a sense of order and everyone lived by rules. The influence of good beliefs and values generated these boys from committing sinful crimes. In Jacks group, the boys were influenced by evil. The killing of animals empowered them to become sinful people. Jack would measure value in the group by ones immediate desire to kill coldblooded. To obtain authority you needed to act violently. These acts shaped how the boy’s mental state developed. Damaging the human they will grow up to be.…

    • 311 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Lord of the flies essay

    • 481 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Lords of the Flies is a book of surviving. It’s about a group of boys who were stranded on an island. That had to survive being on the island and also had to survive living with each other. The boys try and create a surrounding that feels more like it was when they were back at home. But as time passes they begin to split into two groups, a group of civilized people and a bunch of savages. This essay is describing slow shift from being a civilization to being complete savages in the book Lord of the Flies.…

    • 481 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Critical Lens Help

    • 531 Words
    • 3 Pages

    “It is the responsibility of the writer to expose our many grievous faults and failures and to hold up to the light our dark and dangerous dreams, for the purpose of improvement.” –John Steinbeck (adapted)…

    • 531 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lord of the Flies is based on human nature and how evil is upon every human. William Golding believed that no matter how good a person is, there’s always an evil side. In the Lord of the Flies, children are tested if they could keep their insanity or not.…

    • 465 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Allusions In Frankenstein

    • 658 Words
    • 3 Pages

    2. Characterization- The author's expression of a character's personality through the use of action, dialogue, thought, or commentary by the narrator or another character. (Ex: Mr. Lockwood in the first chapter-Wuthering Heights)…

    • 658 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Macbeth Critical Lens

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages

    "It is the responsibility of the writer to expose our many grievous faults and failures and to hold up to the light our dark and dangerous dreams, for the purpose of improvement." This quote suggests that writers must face their failures and confront their dangerous desires for purpose of learning from their own mistakes, people who don't learn from past mistakes are bound to repeat them. This quote holds true in a lot of literature, for example two examples are Macbeth by William Shakespeare and Lord of the Flies by William Golding.…

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lord of the Flies Essay

    • 781 Words
    • 4 Pages

    For an author to clasp on its reader, he or she must use figurative language to captivate…

    • 781 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lord of the Flies Essay

    • 1028 Words
    • 5 Pages

    What does it take for a group of civilized boys to be turned into inhumane, bloodthirsty savages? In William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies, Jack is able to exploit the innermost evil in others through the means of psychological manipulation. With these tactics, he gains the support of his newfound tribe, and chaos breaks out on the island as a result. Jack manipulates the boys and turns them into a supportive tribe of savages by defying the conch, giving them the thrill of hunting, and using their fear of the beast against them.…

    • 1028 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lord of the Flies Essay

    • 612 Words
    • 3 Pages

    There are many uses of symbolism and allegory in The Lord of the Flies by William Golding. Leadership roles, intelligence, and savagery are all remarkable examples of allegorical and symbolic patterns in this novel. This novel has many characters that represent these allegorical concepts throughout the book. Piggy and Jack are two examples of characters that represent these symbols. With this in mind, Piggy represents an intelligent, but weak leader, and Jack represents an evil and powerful leader; both characters need civilization to survive.…

    • 612 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lord of the Flies Essay

    • 603 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Lord of the flies has been called “a fable in which the characters are symbols for abstract ideas,” and there are many ways in which the characters can be viewed. One way, for instance, is comparing them to Sigmund Freud’s theory of id, ego, and superego: the boys being like a metaphorical person, where Jack is the id, Ralph the ego, and Piggy the superego. It is an appropriate allegation because of the fact that id, ego, and superego all have specific traits that match those of these three characters.…

    • 603 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lord of the Flies Essay

    • 1114 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Although many people are innocent and pure-hearted, there will always be a savage deep inside. When the savage inside exploits to a similar external environment, it can release the true darkness of man. In the novel Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, the savagery is exemplified on the pig’s head, which symbolizes the true beast inside everybody. The savagery inside the boys continues to grow, as the sow’s head starts to progress in the novel. The pig’s head is a classic symbol of all the boys’ loss of innocence and, like the savagery of the boys, continues to grow throughout the novel.…

    • 1114 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Lord of the Flies

    • 1264 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Arthur Golden wrote “Adversity is like a strong wind. It tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that we see ourselves as we really are.” Adversities are unavoidable, and when they arise; people may not know how to handle the difficulties they are faced with. While in the middle of misfortunate situations, certain individuals reveal their true character and qualities they have that would not be present in normal circumstances. In the novel “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding, Golding suggests that people’s true characteristics and qualities are revealed when faced with adversity.…

    • 1264 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays