Lord Of The Flies Theme Analysis
The same themes often come up in many works, not due to plagiarization, but because these themes are reflective of human nature. The novel, Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, depicts the regression of innocent, little boys into primitive savages when tossed onto an island with no sense of civilization. As each boy slowly transforms into a savage, civilization tears away its facade, revealing the evil that was always there. Eventually, after a couple of deaths, a ship of soldiers find the stranded children in the middle of their hysteria. Themes of the story involves fear, civilization, power, innocence, and more. Lord of the Flies shares many themes with Breaking Bad, The Revenant, and No Country for Old Men. Breaking Bad, a story of a
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high school teacher’s transcendence into a criminal, by Vincent Gilligan,has relevance with Lord of the Flies in terms of themes. Walter White, like the innocent school boys, was nowhere close to the uncivilized being he became. Jesse Pinkman, stunned by the turnaround, says, “Man, someone straight like you,.., all of a sudden at age, what 60, he’s just gonna break bad?”(Gilligan 2008). The primitive nature of the boys was always there; it just needed a push to send things into motion. For the boys, it was isolation, and for Walt, it was desperation. It would be strange if the fire was lit without the existence of fuel. Walter doesn’t become a savage in the same sense as the tribe, but he holds savage-like characteristics due to operating south of the law. A man can’t be truly civilized if he doesn’t abide by the law.Walter’s justifiable criminality separates Walter from the boys. The reward for unlawlessness equals money, money that his family needs to survive. The boys don’t have this excuse because there is no need to be a savage when they can just as easily survive by being civilized. The pleasure of violence fuels the boys’ feral behavior. Eventually, Walter loses his excuse for being a “good guy” when the need for criminal/meth money disappears, and his hedonistic nature gets unveiled. Walter finally abjures his excuse, “I did it for me. I liked it. I was good at it. And... I was really... I was alive” (Gilligan 2013). When earning money for his family’s welfare, Walter gained excitement, sensation, and a rush in being a criminal. The ability to take charge, and be a man, removes Walter’s former recessive self/ midlife crisis and Walter can’t let it go. That behavior was controlled by the ID. The hedonistic behavior also shows up in the boys’ separation from other authority figures, leaving themselves as the keeper of their own destinies, and the boys partake in pleasurable violence. This control, or power, gave all of the characters an insatiable appetite. Walter White becomes obsessed with wanting more power. Jack, the most greedy and feral kid, declare his hunger for power, “I ought to be chief” (Golding 22). Like a fire must consume, the greedy wants more. Walter White transforms from a weak teacher / part-time carwash-man into a drug kingpin. Like the boys hide in masks and are referred to as savages, Walter wears his hat and glasses and calls himself Heisenberg. Under a new identity, shame for power is disregarded as Walter becomes disillusioned in wanting to be a drug god; that need becomes his downfall. Breaking Bad shares many themes with Lord of the Flies. The Revenant, the story of Hugh Glass’s vengeance for the murder of his son, by Alejandro González Iñárritu, depicts the same themes as Golding’s novel. The background of the film depicts a subtle struggle between civilized and primitive life. The setting is the frontier during times of Native American and American conflict; Fur hunters are constantly attacked by tribal warriors, and vice-versa. One would assume that the fur hunters are moral centers that people can easily gravitate towards, but the two sides eventually become indistinguishable when both do equally savage actions. Just as civilization can be a facade for “mankind’s essential illness”, savage actions can hide true morals. A justification for killing would be to protect. In both Lord of the Flies and The Revenant, religion is created to suite the preacher (Not to say in reality this is the case). Fitzgerald remarks in the wilderness, “My pop, he weren't a religious man ... in the middle of nowhere ... found religion. At that moment he told me... he found God... He's a squirrel. And while sitting there and basking in the glory and sublimity of mercy... I shot and ate that son of a bitch.” In times of despair and solitary, some have to look for hope in religion. For Fitzgerald’s dad, a hunter, salvation meant survival. His savior was the food that gave its life. In Golding’s novel, the tribe’s religion immediately worships evil, the beast, because they need something to support their primitive lifestyle. The reader knows that the literal beast that the boys worship is a corpse, but Jack interprets it as a great entity. For many, religion gives hope, and in times of toughness people need hope. Fear has no room in a survivor’s heart and mind. Hugh Glass declares his determination for vengeance, “I’m not afraid to die … I’ve done it already”(Iñárritu 2015).
Glass may be dramatic, but he is removing a potentially fatal obstacle from his goal: Fear. Mentioning his “death” shows the impact of his past (his son was killed by John Fitzgerald), and he shows that he must go through with revenge.Similarly in Lord of the Flies, Piggy dismisses fear in the path of survival although it shows ignorance of any dangers to the path of survival itself. The Revenant shares many themes with Lord of the Flies. No Country for Old Men, a cat and mouse story of a hunter, a bounty hunter, and a sheriff recollected by the sheriff himself, by the Coen Brothers, has themes that also appear in Lord of the Flies.
The most prevalent similarity is the force of psychotic evil. While staring at a pig head, Simon hallucinates, “Fancy thinking the beast was something you could hunt or kill” (Golding 143). In Golding’s novel, evil is always just a impalpable, looming atmosphere that could seep into each boy’s actions, but in the Coen Brother’s movie, a bounty hunter, Anton Chigurh, embodies that evil. For some reason, that evil is always a step ahead of its enemies, and knowing that fact, Sheriff Bell quits hunting that evil to save his own life. At one point, the evil, Chigurh, is unexpectedly hit hard for once: by a car running a red light. An unstoppable force is finally shown a weakness that everything shares: a lack of knowledge of all things unpredictable; but of course, evil picks itself up, sets its broke arm, and gets in its way. Where there is evil, however, there is that who opposes it. Chigurh flips a coin to decide the fate of Carla Jean Moss, “Call it”, he says, but Carla cracks back, “No, … the coin don’t have no say, it’s just you” (Coen 2007). Like Simon, Carla is one of the purest people in the story, being the furthest from crime. Having Carla and Chigurh together in the same scene creates the greatest dichotomy: good vs bad. Also like Simon, Carla immediately knows the evil and doesn’t want to play his game. This gives Anton Chigurh the most surprised look of the whole film. Unfortunately, the evil defeats the innocent, but the final scene of the film leaves some bitter-sweet hope for humanity. Sheriff Ed Tom Bell confides in his wife, after quitting the chase of the psychotic murderer, Anton Chigurh,by telling his dreams, “Goin' through this pass in the mountains. It was cold and there was snow on the ground and he rode past me and kept on goin … when he rode past
I seen he was carryin' fire in a horn ... I could see the horn from the light inside of it...And in the dream … he was fixin' to make a fire somewhere out there in all that dark and all that cold, and I knew that whenever I got there he would be there” (Coen 2007). The dream means that people, even though they may be out matched, must protect the fire, a symbol of goodness, in a world surrounded by cold hostility. That is the code that pushes Sheriff Bell to do his work, but he quits the hunt for Chigurh because it endangers his life definitely; without his life or his law enforcement job, how could he support the fire? The dream states his self recognition that his job is done, and that other good souls are working on supporting the fire. He wants others to ride past him and knows that the fire will be waiting. It could also mean that Anton Chigurh will always be a step ahead of him, so Bell should just quit to save his own skin, however that’s a negative thought. No Country For Old Men has similar themes to Lord of the Flies. Similar themes turn up everywhere because human nature is a culmination of all of it. Lord of the Flies by William Golding depicts the degradation of civilization into savages. The thought is terrifying because of the possibility.
high school teacher’s transcendence into a criminal, by Vincent Gilligan,has relevance with Lord of the Flies in terms of themes. Walter White, like the innocent school boys, was nowhere close to the uncivilized being he became. Jesse Pinkman, stunned by the turnaround, says, “Man, someone straight like you,.., all of a sudden at age, what 60, he’s just gonna break bad?”(Gilligan 2008). The primitive nature of the boys was always there; it just needed a push to send things into motion. For the boys, it was isolation, and for Walt, it was desperation. It would be strange if the fire was lit without the existence of fuel. Walter doesn’t become a savage in the same sense as the tribe, but he holds savage-like characteristics due to operating south of the law. A man can’t be truly civilized if he doesn’t abide by the law.Walter’s justifiable criminality separates Walter from the boys. The reward for unlawlessness equals money, money that his family needs to survive. The boys don’t have this excuse because there is no need to be a savage when they can just as easily survive by being civilized. The pleasure of violence fuels the boys’ feral behavior. Eventually, Walter loses his excuse for being a “good guy” when the need for criminal/meth money disappears, and his hedonistic nature gets unveiled. Walter finally abjures his excuse, “I did it for me. I liked it. I was good at it. And... I was really... I was alive” (Gilligan 2013). When earning money for his family’s welfare, Walter gained excitement, sensation, and a rush in being a criminal. The ability to take charge, and be a man, removes Walter’s former recessive self/ midlife crisis and Walter can’t let it go. That behavior was controlled by the ID. The hedonistic behavior also shows up in the boys’ separation from other authority figures, leaving themselves as the keeper of their own destinies, and the boys partake in pleasurable violence. This control, or power, gave all of the characters an insatiable appetite. Walter White becomes obsessed with wanting more power. Jack, the most greedy and feral kid, declare his hunger for power, “I ought to be chief” (Golding 22). Like a fire must consume, the greedy wants more. Walter White transforms from a weak teacher / part-time carwash-man into a drug kingpin. Like the boys hide in masks and are referred to as savages, Walter wears his hat and glasses and calls himself Heisenberg. Under a new identity, shame for power is disregarded as Walter becomes disillusioned in wanting to be a drug god; that need becomes his downfall. Breaking Bad shares many themes with Lord of the Flies. The Revenant, the story of Hugh Glass’s vengeance for the murder of his son, by Alejandro González Iñárritu, depicts the same themes as Golding’s novel. The background of the film depicts a subtle struggle between civilized and primitive life. The setting is the frontier during times of Native American and American conflict; Fur hunters are constantly attacked by tribal warriors, and vice-versa. One would assume that the fur hunters are moral centers that people can easily gravitate towards, but the two sides eventually become indistinguishable when both do equally savage actions. Just as civilization can be a facade for “mankind’s essential illness”, savage actions can hide true morals. A justification for killing would be to protect. In both Lord of the Flies and The Revenant, religion is created to suite the preacher (Not to say in reality this is the case). Fitzgerald remarks in the wilderness, “My pop, he weren't a religious man ... in the middle of nowhere ... found religion. At that moment he told me... he found God... He's a squirrel. And while sitting there and basking in the glory and sublimity of mercy... I shot and ate that son of a bitch.” In times of despair and solitary, some have to look for hope in religion. For Fitzgerald’s dad, a hunter, salvation meant survival. His savior was the food that gave its life. In Golding’s novel, the tribe’s religion immediately worships evil, the beast, because they need something to support their primitive lifestyle. The reader knows that the literal beast that the boys worship is a corpse, but Jack interprets it as a great entity. For many, religion gives hope, and in times of toughness people need hope. Fear has no room in a survivor’s heart and mind. Hugh Glass declares his determination for vengeance, “I’m not afraid to die … I’ve done it already”(Iñárritu 2015).
Glass may be dramatic, but he is removing a potentially fatal obstacle from his goal: Fear. Mentioning his “death” shows the impact of his past (his son was killed by John Fitzgerald), and he shows that he must go through with revenge.Similarly in Lord of the Flies, Piggy dismisses fear in the path of survival although it shows ignorance of any dangers to the path of survival itself. The Revenant shares many themes with Lord of the Flies. No Country for Old Men, a cat and mouse story of a hunter, a bounty hunter, and a sheriff recollected by the sheriff himself, by the Coen Brothers, has themes that also appear in Lord of the Flies.
The most prevalent similarity is the force of psychotic evil. While staring at a pig head, Simon hallucinates, “Fancy thinking the beast was something you could hunt or kill” (Golding 143). In Golding’s novel, evil is always just a impalpable, looming atmosphere that could seep into each boy’s actions, but in the Coen Brother’s movie, a bounty hunter, Anton Chigurh, embodies that evil. For some reason, that evil is always a step ahead of its enemies, and knowing that fact, Sheriff Bell quits hunting that evil to save his own life. At one point, the evil, Chigurh, is unexpectedly hit hard for once: by a car running a red light. An unstoppable force is finally shown a weakness that everything shares: a lack of knowledge of all things unpredictable; but of course, evil picks itself up, sets its broke arm, and gets in its way. Where there is evil, however, there is that who opposes it. Chigurh flips a coin to decide the fate of Carla Jean Moss, “Call it”, he says, but Carla cracks back, “No, … the coin don’t have no say, it’s just you” (Coen 2007). Like Simon, Carla is one of the purest people in the story, being the furthest from crime. Having Carla and Chigurh together in the same scene creates the greatest dichotomy: good vs bad. Also like Simon, Carla immediately knows the evil and doesn’t want to play his game. This gives Anton Chigurh the most surprised look of the whole film. Unfortunately, the evil defeats the innocent, but the final scene of the film leaves some bitter-sweet hope for humanity. Sheriff Ed Tom Bell confides in his wife, after quitting the chase of the psychotic murderer, Anton Chigurh,by telling his dreams, “Goin' through this pass in the mountains. It was cold and there was snow on the ground and he rode past me and kept on goin … when he rode past
I seen he was carryin' fire in a horn ... I could see the horn from the light inside of it...And in the dream … he was fixin' to make a fire somewhere out there in all that dark and all that cold, and I knew that whenever I got there he would be there” (Coen 2007). The dream means that people, even though they may be out matched, must protect the fire, a symbol of goodness, in a world surrounded by cold hostility. That is the code that pushes Sheriff Bell to do his work, but he quits the hunt for Chigurh because it endangers his life definitely; without his life or his law enforcement job, how could he support the fire? The dream states his self recognition that his job is done, and that other good souls are working on supporting the fire. He wants others to ride past him and knows that the fire will be waiting. It could also mean that Anton Chigurh will always be a step ahead of him, so Bell should just quit to save his own skin, however that’s a negative thought. No Country For Old Men has similar themes to Lord of the Flies. Similar themes turn up everywhere because human nature is a culmination of all of it. Lord of the Flies by William Golding depicts the degradation of civilization into savages. The thought is terrifying because of the possibility.