The Theme Of Mask In William Golding's 'Lord Of The Flies'

“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”
Oscar Wilde
When people put on masks they are putting on something that covers their real personality and their real self. They put on this mask though to make a new person so they aren’t who they actually are. If anyone else asks something about them, they might lie and make something up about the person they want to be. This is what Oscar Wilde is saying. When someone is there self, they might lie and tell something about the person they want to be. But when they have a mask on acting like that person they want to be, they are telling the truth of who they think they actually are. This fear that others won’t like them for who they really …show more content…
Even though this beast is fake the boys are blinded and think that they see it but it is really just a parachute man who has unfortunately died. Since the other boys have put this image in their heads, it completely covers reality so all they see is just that image in their head. At one point, Ralph, Roger, and Jack are all climbing up the mountain to really see what the beast is. They wanted to find it and kill it. While they were exploring they found something that “was a rock-like hump where no rock should be…[Ralph] bound himself together with his will, fused his fear and loathing into a hatred, and stood up. He took two leaden steps forward… Before them, something like a great ape was sitting asleep with its head between its knees...the creature lifted its head, holding toward them the ruin of a face” (Golding 123). Ralph, Roger, and Jack were blinded by this fear that they have over an image in their minds even though this thing that they see is harmless and is a man that has tragically died because of reality. We see this when Simon has finished talking to the Lord of the Flies. He discovers this thing which had drawn flies to it. He knew that “the beast was harmless and horrible; and the news must reach the others as soon as possible” (Golding 147). He saw how harmless this man was and that it was horrible how in reality this man died and the boys …show more content…
At the beginning before Prometheus gave the humans fire, they were all miserable and savages. Prometheus saw this and wanted to fix it.Since he cared about them living a good life, he decided to go to the sun and create fire. He brought it to his land and carried with him a spark to earth. When he got there he “called some of the shivering men from their caves and built a fire for them, and showed them how to warm themselves by it and how to build other fires from the coals… [they learned] to eat like men instead of like beasts. They began at once to leave off their wild and savage habits” (Baldwin 2). They at first were all like beasts and savages. Since they then got fire, they lived happy lives. This is the opposite of what happens in Lord of the Flies. As the book continues most of the boys behaviors turn into more savage like. When the hunters went out to hunt some pigs, the found a sow and her piglets. They at first threw spears and then followed her by her trail of blood. Eventually “the sow fell and the hunters hurled themselves at her… she squealed and bucked and the air was full of sweat and noise and blood and terror… Jack was on top of the sow, stabbing downward with his knife. Roger found a lodgement for his point and began to push till he was leaning with his whole weight… Then Jack found the throat