What Are The Similarities Between Lord Of The Flies And A Long Way Gone

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The protagonists in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies and Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone are forced to deal with the consequences of revenge. In Golding’s novel, young boys are left on an island during WWII with no adults. The leader, Ralph, a foresighted thinker, has a main goal of getting saved and tries to avoid tension at all times while his enemy, Jack, only cares about hunting and cannot stay away from evil. In Beah’s memoir, he describes how his life was roaming around the country of Sierra Leone during the harsh civil war. Beah is forced to travel by foot in the woods without his family for days before having to fight with the army. The close calls with death and Beah’s battles in the army take a toll on his emotions. Golding implies …show more content…
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Although Ishmael “joined the army to avenge the deaths of [his] family” he never really feels that he has gotten the revenge he wanted. Ishmael has become seen many gruesome deaths and takeovers that allows him to know that if he is “going to take revenge” he “will another person whose family will want revenge.” Ishmael learns that revenge is never ending and it is too powerful to live with. Ishmael believes that the only way to accept the losses that he and other people have stumbled upon is through forgiveness. While both Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone and William Golding’s Lord of the Flies reveals that revenge leads to consequence, the ways of dealing with revenge differ. Beah’s memoir implies that through rehabilitation revenge can lead to forgiveness, while Golding’s novel portrays the realization that human nature is more drawn toward evil. Beah’s speech from his heart helped show that “revenge will never come to an end,” implying that forgiveness is the answer. In Golding’s novel, Ralph’s attempts to not cause harm fails. The only way the need for revenge becomes fulfilled, the whole island ends up in flames. In both books, revenge does its toll on the societies, but Golding seems to believe that evil will outway good, while Beah thinks that forgiveness can reduce the need for revenge. Although we hope that Beah is right, Golding probably

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