Dictators and humans throughout history have sustained their reign of terror through fear and violence. These people are influenced by power, and this brings them to little to no regard for innocence. Their control has left many stories to tell throughout history and leads many authors and scholars to question and criticize human morals and their patterns. Throughout Lord of the Flies, Golding implies that human nature is easily swayed into evil by the temptations of power and conveys this through the imagery of savagery and violence, much like other events in history and literature. Golding presents human nature as easily swayed by outside influences and desires, such as power and violence. When the boys initially get stranded on the …show more content…
Orwell makes it a point throughout his novel to use allegories to prove that ‘absolute power corrupts absolutely. Napoleon’s rise to power led to the destruction of morals, previous rules originally set in place, and violence and terror. His motives are clouded by desire, and his character is formed by the human characteristics of selfish needs and yearning for power or a feeling of control. His change to the tyrannical ruling of Animal Farm, an allegory for the Soviet Union, is represented by the Commandments. These commandments are set in place by Old Major, who has these beliefs because of humans, which are are inherently evil and cruel. The irony in this is when Napoleon is tempted by power, he becomes just like the corrupted humans. By the end of the novel, only one commandment remains: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others” (Orwell 112). The original commandment, stating that all animals are equal, being changed to this goes back to a theme of personalized power, and the desire for control. Napoleon ends up intensifying the violence and cruelty, simply because he knows that he will get away with it. The animals are unable to fight back against the control and reign of their dictator, and he uses the power of fear, and the use of a scapegoat to ensure that his corrupt views are held in place. This is like Jack in Lord of the Flies, with his tactics of manipulation and fear to ensure the boys are on his side, turning them against Ralph, and the haunting reminders of the “beast.” Both leaders are corrupt and are unable to resist the temptation of power, and the violence that ensures their constant
Through use of motifs and symbols, as well as a few specific scenes, Golding shows how much fear can change a person. When the amount of fear inside of one single person or a group reaches a very high point, it can drive them to do anything, no matter what kind of person they are. The fear of the boys drives them to try to survive and cling to civilization as long as they can. Their fear helps keep the fire going to make smoke, their signal.
In the novel Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding a group of boys becomes stranded on an island after a plane crash. With no adults with them, they have to learn how to survive on the island through themselves. Things get out of hand however when there becomes a greater greed for power rather than civilization. Conflict results and power changes through the duration of them being on the island. Throughout the novel we can interpret that, Golding sees power gained, used, and justified when the mentality of the boys shift while the power from Ralph to Jack shifts as well.
Animal Farm: How Does Napoleon Stay in Charge? George Orwell’s Animal Farm, is an allegory to the Russian Revolution and Joseph Stalin. An allegory is a story, painting, or sculpture with a hidden meaning. (Animal Farm Background Essay)
The book Lord of The Flies by William Golding shows how people’s minds are changed by the ideas portrayed from their leaders. The book has two different kinds of leaders in the forms of Ralph and Jack. These two create a sort of social hierarchy between the group of boys with them being at the top and the littluns at the bottom with everyone else in between. The social hierarchy on the island in William Golding's Lord of The Flies displays the ways power and control can be manipulated when there is an absence of authority. Ralph uses his power and control in a good way to help himself survive and try to protect the group.
While there is a big struggle between civilization and savagery, the big question is: what dominates the human mind? Though people naturally think differently, the crowd tends to follow the more substantial group. Opposites create war mentally and physically, especially when it comes to disorder and order, and the sole fact that children are the ones choosing between sides. In the storyline, some see that there is hope for good in being saved, such as Piggy and Ralph. The contrasting opponent visualises creating his own world while manipulating the followers into believing there's good from his side, which is Jack, who follows his mission to be leader.
At first, Jack's desire for power was subtle, but as he became more consumed with the idea, his actions became more aggressive and violent. This caused a rift between him and Ralph, who was initially elected as the leader. The rest of the boys were caught in the middle of this struggle, and they had to choose which side to align themselves with. Jack's influence over some of the boys, combined with his aggressive tactics, led to the breakdown of the democratic system and the emergence of a brutal dictatorship. This resulted in chaos, fear, and violence among the boys, and it ultimately led to the loss of their innocence and their descent into savagery.
As the antagonist of the novel, he constantly manipulates others to become the leader of the group. He gains most of his power through the boys' fear, “’I've called an assembly,’ said Jack, ‘because of a lot of things. First, you know now, we've seen the beast.’” (Golding, 97). Jack continually reminds the group that a beast haunts the island - a form of manipulation that leaves many boys fearful and more willing to surrender control to him.
All individuals have a desire for power, although how it is utilized determines the future. There are multiple different forms of power and many different ways one can obtain it. In William Golding 's Lord of the Flies, a group of young boys are stranded on a deserted island after a plane crash. The boys are forced to fend for themselves as they soon learn there are no adults present. They quickly transform from being civilized human beings to savages.
At the start of the book, the boys are well-behaved and working together, but as the fear of the beast grows stronger, they become more violent and cruel. To illustrate this, we will use the example of the relationship between Jack and Ralph: The beast is what leads to a breakdown between Jack and Ralph, as the boys are terrified of it. Two groups are formed, one for Ralph, who will provide shelter and fire to get saved, and one for Jack, who will provide food and protection. At the start of the group, the two boys were friends and worked together to put everyone in order and assign roles to everyone, but as soon as Ralph became leader instead of Jack, he started feeling jealous, which led to tension between the two.
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 Animal Farm, George Orwell warns how power will often lead to corruption. Napoleon was placed in a position of power after Major died, and he slowly starts to lavish in his power and become addicted to the lush life of a dictator. When Napoleon first becomes a leader, he expresses how everyone will work equally, but as his reign goes on, he shortens the work hours. At the very end of the novel, the observing animals even start to see that pig and man had become the same. The irony present in the above example, illuminates how regardless of how much a ruler promises to maintain equality and fairness, the position of power that they hold, will corrupt them.
In Lord of the Flies, Jack, like Hitler, becomes a dictator and starts to take control over the boys” (Okuhata, 13). In conclusion, William Golding's estimate is quite accurate as it draws the connection between the power struggles among the leaders and the evil side of each. When Golding states that man's capacity for greed, cruelty, and selfishness is hidden behind a kind of political pants, he ensures that his readers understand that titles and authority are obtained through underhanded games that scare people (Golding, UCLA, 86-87). After all, a system that does not take into account the interest of the people will never work, because it merely exists to satisfy the leader or
Napoleon in the novel is not a wise character. However, he occupies the leader’s position since he is intimidating and authoritative. In contrast, Snowball who is portrayed as the intelligent character, somehow gets expelled from the farm, because he was not as manipulative as Napoleon. To begin with, Orwell uses propaganda as one way of illustrating the theme of power. Napoleon and Squealer both utilize propaganda to brainwash and motivate the animals into following their orders, such as when Snowball teaches the sheep into chanting the slogan, “Four legs good, two legs bad!”(Orwell, page 34).
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” (Lord Acton) This quote is telling us that when people get into roles of absolute power they tend to become corrupt, as a result of that power. This quote can be applied to Napoleon from the book Animal Farm by George Orwell, because at the beginning of the novel Old Major’s words inspired Napoleon. As a result, he believed that humans were evil for forcing animals to work for them and that animals should be able to live freely, not under anyone’s control; however, as the story progresses his belief changed and the animals did not get to live their utopian dream. At the start Napoleon and the other pigs strongly believed that all animals were equal and had the right to live in a place that took care of their well being.
This theme is demonstrated by the animals, they have different thoughts about Napoleon from when he was murdering the animals just for having different ideas about him and other things. The theme “Not everybody is equal; some people believe that they are more superior than others” is shown throughout the book, but in different ways. In the beginning of the book after the animals rebelled they created a version of the seven commandments to fit their needs. On page forty-three the seventh commandment states, “ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL” but by the end of the book on page one hundred thirty-three the seven commandments are now one commandment, “ALL