Lord of the flies
Do you think you can survive on an island with no adults and 20 other boys? This is a question that Ralph, a character in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies asks himself as he struggles to survive on a deserted island with no adults, order or sanity. In this novel, a group of schoolboys are in a dangerous war zone so they evacuate onto a plane. However, the plane crashes onto an island with no adult survivors and the boys must survive by themselves in order to stay alive. There are many literary elements in the novel such as symbolism, conflict, allusions and irony which get the readers better understanding. Themes in this novel include savagery versus civilization, nature of evil and the weak and the strong. The signal fire and the conch are examples of symbolisms that occur many times in the novel. Symbolism allows the reader to have a better and clearer representation of an item. For example, the signal fire represents hope and rescue. At the beginning of the story, the boys use the signal fire so that someone will rescue them. The boys make sure the fire doesn’t go out, symbolizing their wish to be rescued. But, when the boys see a ship on the horizon, “the fire was out, …show more content…
Golding uses a juxtaposition between civilization and savagery as the theme of the novel. He associates characters to both sides and constantly compares them, which creates conflict and reinforces that theme. Civilization is mostly connected with good, while savagery is associated with the evil side. Throughout the book Jack, who represents evil and savagery, is in conflict with Ralph who represents civilization and good. At the beginning of crash they were civilized, but the longer they were away from civilization they became more savage, suggesting that evil is in everybody and more of an instinct than the instinct of morals and
Do you think you can survive on an island with no adults and 20 other boys? This is a question that Ralph, a character in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies asks himself as he struggles to survive on a deserted island with no adults, order or sanity. In this novel, a group of schoolboys are in a dangerous war zone so they evacuate onto a plane. However, the plane crashes onto an island with no adult survivors and the boys must survive by themselves in order to stay alive. There are many literary elements in the novel such as symbolism, conflict, allusions and irony which get the readers better understanding. Themes in this novel include savagery versus civilization, nature of evil and the weak and the strong. The signal fire and the conch are examples of symbolisms that occur many times in the novel. Symbolism allows the reader to have a better and clearer representation of an item. For example, the signal fire represents hope and rescue. At the beginning of the story, the boys use the signal fire so that someone will rescue them. The boys make sure the fire doesn’t go out, symbolizing their wish to be rescued. But, when the boys see a ship on the horizon, “the fire was out, …show more content…
Golding uses a juxtaposition between civilization and savagery as the theme of the novel. He associates characters to both sides and constantly compares them, which creates conflict and reinforces that theme. Civilization is mostly connected with good, while savagery is associated with the evil side. Throughout the book Jack, who represents evil and savagery, is in conflict with Ralph who represents civilization and good. At the beginning of crash they were civilized, but the longer they were away from civilization they became more savage, suggesting that evil is in everybody and more of an instinct than the instinct of morals and