The Lord Of The Flies By William Golding: Theme Analysis
“Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart…”(Golding 235). Lord of the Flies by William Golding stages a group of english school boys marooned on a tropical island. Through the course of their stay they find that the rules of civilization no longer apply to them and adults no longer have a dominating role in their lives. A few hold onto the ethics of humanity the others finding a love of bloodlust, killing pigs and slicing their throats the blood painted across their face. Soon the pigs are humans their dead bodies swept into the sea, savagery emerging from the dead rotting corpses. Through the story, there are several prominent themes that emerge. Themes that directly relate and affect the society that exists
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The perfect example of what good and right looks like. But the blemishes are there. For example when a person are talking to a person about something that they did wrong. What is humanities natural instinct? Is it to confess and agree that they made a mistake and should suffer the consequences. No, humans naturally want to lie about it, or say it was not their fault, or push the consequences to someone else. Humans see themselves as perfect and when people point out their mistakes they refuse to admit to them unless forced to. Golding does an excellent job emulating that with the beast. The kids are afraid of it beyond anything else, and for no reason. The have no proof that it exists, but rather it is an irrational fear. And with humans they fear something that either they don’t understand or that is inside of them and they don’t want to admit it. The kids can not imagine that the beast is in them or is them. In their minds it has to be this outside thing threatening their lives. They fear because they now in some way that the beast is really inside them. When Percival and Maurice are playing on the beach Maurice throws sand in Percival’s eyes, “In his other life Maurice had received chastisement for filling a younger eye with sand. Now, though there was no parent to let fall a heavy hand, Maurice still felt the unease of wrongdoing. At the back of his mind formed the uncertain outline of an excuse. He muttered something about a swim and broke into a trot” (65). Maurices first thought was an excuse because he did not want to get in trouble. He did not feel regret or have any desire to be honest. He would have just lied his way out of it. But he knew that he had the power. Because there were no rules he went to violence and had no second thoughts. The kids and humanity do not want to believe that the evil is them, but it is. Humanity wants to make ourselves out to be
The perfect example of what good and right looks like. But the blemishes are there. For example when a person are talking to a person about something that they did wrong. What is humanities natural instinct? Is it to confess and agree that they made a mistake and should suffer the consequences. No, humans naturally want to lie about it, or say it was not their fault, or push the consequences to someone else. Humans see themselves as perfect and when people point out their mistakes they refuse to admit to them unless forced to. Golding does an excellent job emulating that with the beast. The kids are afraid of it beyond anything else, and for no reason. The have no proof that it exists, but rather it is an irrational fear. And with humans they fear something that either they don’t understand or that is inside of them and they don’t want to admit it. The kids can not imagine that the beast is in them or is them. In their minds it has to be this outside thing threatening their lives. They fear because they now in some way that the beast is really inside them. When Percival and Maurice are playing on the beach Maurice throws sand in Percival’s eyes, “In his other life Maurice had received chastisement for filling a younger eye with sand. Now, though there was no parent to let fall a heavy hand, Maurice still felt the unease of wrongdoing. At the back of his mind formed the uncertain outline of an excuse. He muttered something about a swim and broke into a trot” (65). Maurices first thought was an excuse because he did not want to get in trouble. He did not feel regret or have any desire to be honest. He would have just lied his way out of it. But he knew that he had the power. Because there were no rules he went to violence and had no second thoughts. The kids and humanity do not want to believe that the evil is them, but it is. Humanity wants to make ourselves out to be