Our Fragile Civilization
The society we live in today is precariously balanced on the head of a pin and only requires the smallest of nudges to fall into destruction and anarchy.William Golding’s novel Lord Of The Flies illustrates the fragile nature of our human tendencies toward compassion and kindness to our fellow-man.
In Lord of the Flies, a group of schoolchildren are being flown to a safe place during a war when their plane crashes on a deserted island and kills all the adults. After all adult supervision vanishes, the children start to descend into the depths of savagery, starting with some of the boys chasing after a pig, however; everything changes when they actually catch the pig and kill it, losing some of their innocence with …show more content…
The boys use The Beast as an excuse for the deaths that occur on the island, even the ones they cause. Jack is the one who claims to understand the beast the most, when in reality The Beast is inside every one of us and will destroy our way of life and force down into anarchy, chaos, murder, idolatry, and savagery. One theory by Sigmund Freud states that all humans have three parts to their consciousness , a primal desires center called the id, a center for solving problems known as the ego, and a center that has the conscience called the superego. Jack’s id is more prominent than the other boys and is able to show itself more prominently and strongly.Ralph is more able to express his ego and solve problems, and Piggy, an outcast, is more like the superego and worries only about how the other boys have wronged him emotionally. While on the island Ralph and piggy try to keep order and have the other boys help them find a way to be saved and taken home. When the boys first land on the island Ralph finds a conch shell and uses it to call the other boys to his place on the island, and after he does boys start filing out from the forest after a long night of fear and darkness. When most of the children are assembled Ralph uses the conch to decide who can speak and when, symbolizing order and law; But throughout the course of the novel the conch is ignored by the savage tribe
The society we live in today is precariously balanced on the head of a pin and only requires the smallest of nudges to fall into destruction and anarchy.William Golding’s novel Lord Of The Flies illustrates the fragile nature of our human tendencies toward compassion and kindness to our fellow-man.
In Lord of the Flies, a group of schoolchildren are being flown to a safe place during a war when their plane crashes on a deserted island and kills all the adults. After all adult supervision vanishes, the children start to descend into the depths of savagery, starting with some of the boys chasing after a pig, however; everything changes when they actually catch the pig and kill it, losing some of their innocence with …show more content…
The boys use The Beast as an excuse for the deaths that occur on the island, even the ones they cause. Jack is the one who claims to understand the beast the most, when in reality The Beast is inside every one of us and will destroy our way of life and force down into anarchy, chaos, murder, idolatry, and savagery. One theory by Sigmund Freud states that all humans have three parts to their consciousness , a primal desires center called the id, a center for solving problems known as the ego, and a center that has the conscience called the superego. Jack’s id is more prominent than the other boys and is able to show itself more prominently and strongly.Ralph is more able to express his ego and solve problems, and Piggy, an outcast, is more like the superego and worries only about how the other boys have wronged him emotionally. While on the island Ralph and piggy try to keep order and have the other boys help them find a way to be saved and taken home. When the boys first land on the island Ralph finds a conch shell and uses it to call the other boys to his place on the island, and after he does boys start filing out from the forest after a long night of fear and darkness. When most of the children are assembled Ralph uses the conch to decide who can speak and when, symbolizing order and law; But throughout the course of the novel the conch is ignored by the savage tribe