Cruelty can often be described as savagery in that it causes mental or physical harm to a person or object. The novel written by William Golding, and published in 1954, the Lord of the Flies, reveals our human nature through a fictional society. With his writing crammed full of literary devices like symbolism and motifs, Golding uses cruelty to develop major themes and display motivation along with the transformation of characters within their adult-free society.
As witnessed in the novel, Jack is extremely cruel to Piggy. He can be described as the stereotypical high school bully in that he is intimidating and makes remarks just to lower someone’s confidence. In chapter two, Jack bluntly tells Piggy, “You're always scared. Yah---Fatty!” This
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The two most obvious characters that deal with cruelty are Jack and Piggy. Starting with Jack, we can see that many of his acts of cruelty revolve around hunting. It is observed that Jack becomes bloodlust throughout the book. He first starts hunting for a pig and then cutting one’s head off, and then to ordering a man hunt on Ralph. He progressively intensifies as a savage and continues to support the theme of internal darkness. On the other hand, Piggy is destroyed by cruelty. Throughout the book, Piggy cannot speak directly to a group of people, only Ralph. As the rules of the conch seem to disappear, Piggy loses all of his power. Then, he gets killed by a large boulder that not only destroys him, but the conch as well. The loss of Piggy and the conch represent the destruction of democracy, reason, and logic on the island. Throughout the novel, the Lord of the Flies, cruelty functions to help develop major themes that are not noticeable at first glance. At first, the book seems to be about just a group of boys stranded on an island. But with deeper examination, the novel shows the true darkness that exists in every human being. Golding tells a story that shows the fight between democracy and dictatorship, the struggle between bad and good, and how cruelty is destined to be the downfall of
Despite each person's different background, every individual contains the capacity of committing violence. Golding develops this theme thoroughly throughout his novel, the Lord of the Flies. We see this through many of the characters such as Piggy, Jack, Ralph, and Simon. The characters seem to come from all walks of life, but most of them show the same characteristics by the end of the book. Piggy’s personality and morals change drastically throughout the novel.
The Beast in Every Human Thesis Statement: The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding portrays the theme that regardless of each person’s different background and characteristics, every individual has the ability to commit brutal acts. While this book depicts Ralph and Piggy as the most civilized characters, and Jack and his hunters as young English choir boys, their actions reveal that they all have the capability to act violently. While Jack and his hunters started out as just choirboys, they become obsessed with violence and are driven to kill. At the beginning of the book, Jack hesitates and misses his chance to kill a trapped pig. Later on, as Jack and his newly formed tribe hunt in the forest, they discover a sow.
In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, young boys get stranded on an island with no adults in the midst of a war. The boys were orderly and civilized in the beginning but then as they began killing pigs they slowly became savages and lost their civilization. The boys began turning on each other and the evil within them became present. Golding uses a variety of literary devices including personification, symbols, metaphors, and irony, to project the theme that pure and realistic people in the world can be unheard and destroyed by evil.
In William Golding's The Lord of the Flies, boys trapped on an island turn into deranged savages and kill each other after they fail to follow the rules of their made-up tribe. Cruelty is used by Golding as a way to communicate his theme which could be that cruelty is in nearly everybody, but civilization’s laws and control prevent that trait from prevailing. The author leaves some evidence of him trying to convey this theme throughout the book. A part of the book that shows this theme being shown would be the demise of Piggy and civilization.
How Savagery Takes Over George R.R. Martin once said, “There is a savage beast in every man, and when you hand that man a sword or spear and send him forth to war, the beast stirs.” William Golding demonstrates that every person has savagery inside of him in his novel, Lord of the Flies. In this novel, Golding shows us that civilization is lost and savagery begins when the urge to kill takes hold of us. William Golding’s character development of Jack and motif of weapons help develop his point.
William Golding’s Use of Rhetorical Strategies to Illustrate Society in “Lord of the Flies” Written in the 1950’s by William Golding, Lord of the Flies is a novel that follows a group of young boys who are stranded on an island with no contact to an adult world. Throughout the novel Golding shows how savage humans can be when there is no authority controlling them, and Golding’s use of thematic vocabulary conveys how power and corruption can lead to a dismantling of order. This disruption in society in turn causes people to reveal their true savage human nature. In chapter 9 of Lord of the Flies, William Golding employs repetition, diction and symbolism to convey the theme that civilization has become a shield that conceals humanity 's natural wildness and savagery.
All throughout the book Piggy is faced with many challenges where most people would act in a bad manner, although Piggy is always responding very appropriately and does not act wrongly against the other. All these examples show how Piggy
Thesis Statement: In Lord of the Flies William Golding throughout the book is trying to show you that society should recognize man is evil. Introduction Paragraph: In the book Lord of the Flies the author William Golding shows a group of boys losing their innocence throughout their life stuck on this inhabited island in the pacific ocean. These boys go from being quiet and shy to violent and dangerous young little boys. Golding uses the pigs, hunting, and the boys face painting to show their lose of innocence throughout the story. There 's no rules of any sort on this island these boys landed on they are free to do whatever they want whenever they want.
In Lord of the Flies, Golding explores the idea that human nature, when left without the regulations of society, will become barbaric. As one of the prevailing themes in his work, the dark side of human nature is represented through the novel, not only in symbols and motifs, but in his characters as well. The dark side of human nature is an integral part of the novel 'Lord of the Flies.' William Golding, a British novelist employs symbols, motifs and characters to create the idea that human nature, without civilisation will become barbaric.
The hidden savagery of humans that is dormant because of civilization is presented in Lord of the Flies through its symbolism, repetition and diction. The struggle for power and control on the island led to the exposure of savage nature that is present in the boys who were forced into a lawless place. Throughout the novel reason and logic are abandoned, causing the boys to act on whims and be controlled by their instincts rather than control themselves. Civilization has dampened human’s savage ways, but believing that there are no consequences could lead to the downfall of humanity and the return of the primitive ways society believes it has abandoned. Golding wrote Lord of the Flies to expose the hidden savagery that humans possess and how if humans aren’t careful they will become the savages
Stephen King once said, “Every book you pick has its own lesson or lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones” (It is not about the good or bad of the quality of the book but the concepts and themes that it covers). As evil and pleasure are linked together, people learn about certain perceptions. William Golding's discussion about the human nature leaves the reader certain insights and lessons that people have witnessed during the past and further knowledge of how these can be used in the reality. The Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding leaves several insights including the potential or influence of power, mob mentality, and the excessive show of greed that can all bring disorder to a society.
Power and manipulation takes over people’s minds and turns us into egotistical people without even knowing and the sense of having control or authority can brainwash us into the people who we despise. William Golding fabricates his ideas around the time period 1933 after he received his English degree where he mostly wrote poems. Golding’s world consists of writing novels, pulling ideas from the real world into his own creative words on paper, this is where he developed his most famous book, Lord of the Flies, throughout 1954. The perspective of Lord of the Flies is through the eyes of the Second World War and since he was in this war, his point of view on violence changed and gave him a different outlook on society. In the Lord of the Flies
Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a novel that’s shaped by its representation of childhood and adolescence. Golding portrays childhood as a time marked by tribulation and terror. The young boys in the novel are at first unsure of how to behave with no adult present. As the novel progresses the boys struggle between acting civilized and acting barbaric. Some boys in the novel symbolize different aspects of civilization.
Throughout the novel of Lord of the Flies, William Golding provides a profound insight into human nature. Golding builds on a message that all human beings have natural evil inside them. To emphasize, the innate evil is revealed when there’s lack of civilization. The boys are constantly faced with numerous fears and eventually break up into two different groups. Although the boys believe the beast lives in the jungle, Golding makes it clear that it lurks in their hearts.
William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies does not simply describe the life of a group of children stranded on an island, but rather it is a representation of the qualities of human nature. As the novel progresses, the children grow deeper into savagery, performing actions that would be often criticised in society. The absence of law and order devolves even those that attempt to recreate it, like Ralph and Piggy. In this novel, Golding uses children to answer the question whether or not humans are born inanimately good or truly evil. Golding answers this question by symbolising the main characters and their descent into savagery.