Internal Conflict In Lord Of The Flies

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In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, conflict - both internal and external - portrays a

major development in the theme and plot of the young boys in this novel. On an island

composed of only pre-adolescent boys, it is unquestionable that there would be conflict

amongst them. Golding blatantly shows the reader the external conflicts that occur

between one another, including both physical and verbal altercations. The author also

cryptically gives the reader a display of the conflict the boys struggle with within

themselves and their own thoughts. Despite the many instances of external conflict, the

subtle internal conflicts are much more critical to the plot and overall theme of Lord of

the Flies. The internal conflict produced
…show more content…
Jack internally chooses to become a hunter and a

killer throughout the course of the novel, but as the boys are being rescued, the reader is

left to wonder if Jack will choose maintain this murderous composure or choose to forget

all that happened and revert back to his civilized self. The internal conflict found buried

throughout Lord of the Flies allows the plot and theme to thrive and develop, giving the

reader a larger, broader view of the novel.

As well as the subtle undertones of internal conflict, William Golding provides

the reader with many physical and verbal fights between boys. Ralph and Jack are

primary examples of how personalities clashed on the island. They are two very

headstrong, opinionated boys with each their own individual style of leading the group,

so naturally, conflict would arise with one another. Ralph and Jack most frequently

disagreed on leadership styles and what the group should be doing on the island with

their time. Piggy is another character that also had a fair amount of conflict with the other

boys. Although this conflict was mostly one sided as Piggy thought too logically

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