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Lord Of The Flies Allegory

Decent Essays

William Golding’s writing apex was his novel Lord Of The Flies, this novel delves into the darker sides of humanity. One significant allegory in the novel is the “beast.” The meaning of this parallel defines the meaning of the novel, so what does it mean? The beast is the manifestation of the children’s internal turmoils. It starts juvenile, initially representing their elemental fears, then evolves to the volatile acts of war, before finally maturing to an obtuse understanding of the chaotic world around them: the cynical, yet tested truth that man is inherently evil. Set during World War Two, a group of British school children are evacuated, but their plane is shot down. Following being marooned, the entirety of the boys grasp onto society, …show more content…

This is metaphorical and literal in the sense that their new “beast” is the corpse of a soldier, one, that when paired with the rapid decomposition and the covert night, becomes their new “beast.” Regarding the corpse, it stimulates dread, but a dread spawned from a war. Golding elaborates upon war by asking: “where did the Second World War come from?” Consequently, this is followed with the ominous question; what is the root of all evil: Man or beast? (Document …show more content…

Peace is not a viable organism in the vile and violent world we reside in. Although a cynical outlook, humans crowd to commence the wars, and in those wars, humans kill with malice. In Lord Of The Flies: there may be outstanding examples of humans parading their violence, but only one character is exempt from “mankind’s essential illness.” (Document F). As a result, this character acts as a catalyst for the brutality of a murder to be amplified. Additionally, he was murdered in a primitive way, not pinned down by the hammer of distorted justice, but torn apart by the claws and teeth of animals who have shed the distant constraints of civilization. These animals began their descent into chaos ages prior when they chose to shed humanity, letting the island skin away their morality piece by piece. The children’s evil nature wasn’t brought about by their desolation, but rather had been there the entire time, only to surface with their abrupt liberation from

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