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Characters In Lord Of The Flies Character Development Essay

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Characters In Lord Of The Flies Character Development Essay
Character development allows literature to have an impact on the reader. If stories contained nothing but unchanging characters, no message would be delivered. On the other hand, if the characters were all actively developing, the audience would not be able to identify the message since too much would be taking place. Because of this, William Golding utilizes both static and dynamic characters to convey messages and the overall theme in his book Lord of the Flies. Specifically, the main character, Ralph, develops dynamically and allows the reader to see how society creates an inclination towards good, while being ostracized from said community will cause one to be impulsively evil. When Ralph is first introduced, he is clearly a child mentally. …show more content…
These massacres represent the characters’, including Ralph, development as they becomes savages. Obviously, these acts that made them savages would be unacceptable in civilization. However, since the group was no longer controlled by society, they had no issue with committing these evil crimes. The savagery continues as Jack’s tribe attempts to murder Ralph also. The group has now been separated from the rest of humanity for so long that it has no respect for what society deems tolerable, and therefore they are trying to kill Ralph regardless of how society would feel about it. However, this quickly changes when society is suddenly reintroduced. When Ralph and the other boys discover that a ship has anchored on the island, “the ululation [of the boys hunting down Ralph] faltered and died away” (206). This shows how the boys stopped their savage-like acts, which would be frowned upon by society, because they have discovered an outlet to the outside world. In other words, they reaffirm the fact that society influences behaviors by changing their actions in the presence of others and reverting back to how they were before they developed into savages. Ralph’s development into a savage shows how society will influence man and make them act good, while a lack of society creates unacceptable behavior. This message also contributes to the main theme of Lord of the

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