1984 And Lord Of The Flies Comparison Essay

While Golding presents his characters in desperation and degrading into savagery as a need to survive, Orwell creates a society which has deliberately advanced to its current state, due to those on top. However, both novels are similar in the way that power is a central theme and want of all characters, whether the power is over something physical (Jack’s power over the boys, O’Brien’s control over Winston) or over an abstract concept (Simon’s control of the beast, the Inner Party’s control of ‘free’ thought). Fear is used as a tool to keep this power in control in Nineteen-Eighty-Four, while in Lord of the Flies the boys are manipulated by their fear. Both Orwell and Golding show the ways in which fear and power corrupt the characters, and show the effects these have on themselves and …show more content…
(In Lord of the Flies the ‘leader’ is Jack, who however is controlled by the beast, the fear of the boys; while in Nineteen-Eighty-Four it is the government). O’Brien calls Winston ‘a stain that must be wiped out’ since his ideas do not correspond to those of the Party (the way in which the Party is always right even if it is not: ‘TWO AND TWO MAKE FIVE’), and the Lord of the Flies tells Simon: ‘I’m going to get waxy. D’you see? You’re not wanted… We are going to have fun on this island! So don’t try it on, my poor misguided boy, or else… we shall do you’. Both Big Brother and the Beast take on the image of someone stern but caring (‘The Lord of the Flies spoke in the voice of a school master’; ‘BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU’) although ironically both are referred to as something that they are not supposed to feel compassion to in their new society (family in Nineteen-Eighty-Four and adults in Lord of the