Monsters In William Golding's 'Lord Of The Flies'

Golding paints Roger as a boy with little care for the world around him, acting solely according to his perceived ‘right’ actions. Seconds after Roger had been “dropping [stones]” (180) he took it a step further. “...with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever” (180) which held in place a large boulder. “The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee. Piggy fell forty feet and landed on his back across the square red rock in the sea” (181), Roger appears to have taken particular delight in sending the boulder down toward the other boys, as the scene seems to play out from Roger’s perspective, “Piggy's arms and legs twitched a bit, like a pig's after it has been killed” (181), given Roger has seen.

Lord of the Flies is a marvelous non-fiction paradigm of the contrast of civility and savagery in human nature. In the novel, the author, William Golding, masterfully tells of how one characteristic taints the other, and eventually takes possession of its host. Throughout the novel, multiple results of these two attributes, along with many other situations, are portrayed using objects and characters, conveying the overall message

Maurice continues with the original plan and goes swimming, but Roger hides in the forest and starts to throw rocks at Henry. His intent is not to hit him, but rather to scare him and feed into the fear of the beast. This evil act is significant to Henry and the rest of the impressionable littluns, because in their eyes it is another offense from the beast which is the embodiment of all the boys fears and insecurities. Even though Roger obviously takes pleasure in hurting other people, he is still “conditioned by a civilization that knew nothing of him and was in ruins” (82) and therefore decides to only throw the rocks in his general direction. Roger’s behavior at the beach demonstrates an overall negative presence which is Golding’s way of portraying Roger as the shadow archetype. This furthers the theme of all people are inherently evil by describing how the only reason Roger does not throw the rocks directly at Henry is because he has not forgotten all of the rules modern society has set. The rules most of society follow are to never hurt anyone unjust and to be respectful and kind. In this situation Roger is not fully savage and still has societies basic rules lingering in the back of his head when he only throws the rocks near Henry and not directly at him. Although, Roger was more civilized, he becomes full savage and forgets all of the rules of civilization when he malevolently kills Piggy. After Jack and the

Throughout the novel Lord Of The Flies, the boys on the island are continuously faced with numerous fears. Subsequently there is nothing on the island which they fear more than the beast. The beast is not a tangible object that can be killed or destroyed by conventional means, but an idea symbolizing the primal savage instincts within all people. Its Golding’s intention to illustrate the innate evil inside man through his view of human nature, the actions of the Jack and his tribe, and the relationship between the beast and the school boys.

This behaviour is a big act of having too much power and he does not know how to use it properly. Torturing for Roger makes him feel good and powerful and the fact that he did this to a female shows how much dominance he is over the only female figure on the island. Afterwards, Roger’s spear has a big influence over how powerful he feels. He uses it to hurt and get what he wants at many times. His spear is a sort of way to manipulate the weaker boys to make them like him and do what he wants.

Roger stalks Henry as a prey and gathers stones to throw at the boy, but when he throws them, he purposely misses. Deep down, despite his mercilessness, the "taboo of the old life" is still present, as well as "protection of parents and school and policemen and the law," (pg. 65). At this point of the novel, the inhumanity in Roger further develops, yet proceeds with insufficient guilt.

William Golding, the author of the “Lord of the Flies”, pits democracy against anarchy throughout his book. The author tells the story of a group of young boys stranded on an island, trying to find a way to get home. Golding shows that every man shows a level of evil from within throughout his life. Golding uses his book to represent the evil inherent in man. Golding uses symbolism to demonstrate that without authority, chaos and confusion occur.

After Roger and Maurice stomp through the littluns sand castles Roger followed Henry toward the beach. Roger began to throw rocks at Henry but made sure not to hit him for henry was protected by “parents and school and policemen and the law”(62). Henry was protected by this previous notion of civilization but now it was a “civilization that knew nothing of [Roger] and was in ruins”. As this freedom dawns on Roger he will begin to act more towards his vile desires. Roger acts on his desire to cause pain when he runs around “prodding with his spear whenever pig flesh appeared”(135).

He “led the way straight through the castles, kicking them over, burying the flowers, scattering the chosen stones,” only to remain, “watching the littluns.” Maurice, however, “still felt the unease of wrongdoing.” Jack’s only fault was yearning for power, which corrupts those who wield it. Roger is corrupted and malevolent without ever thirsting for this power, and is therefore more evil than Jack. Roger keeps to himself, much like Simon, and remains consistently evil throughout the novel. Near the beginning, he “picked up a stone, aimed, and threw it at Henry-threw it to miss,” held back by “the taboo of the old life.” Later, he did not miss and “with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever,” releasing a huge boulder and killing Piggy. Under the weight of the boulder, “the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist.” The main symbol for the democracy, equality and justice was indirectly destroyed by Roger. To him, “Ralph was a shock of hair and Piggy a bag of fat,” thus dehumanizing and objectifying them. When Sam and Eric were cornered by Jack’s group of savages, Roger demonstrates his enjoyment for hurting others by “[advancing] upon them as one wielding a nameless authority.” It was not for the sake of supremacy or control, but for unbridled sadistic pleasure. When Ralph finds Sam and Eric, they say that Roger is “a terror”. He also points out that Jack is a terror, but the twins respond with “only

Earlier Roger is seen throwing rocks at Henry but he “threw it to miss” and his “arm was conditioned by civilization” which shows that he has not fully forgotten his values (Golding, 64-65). Later on Roger starts to hurl rocks at Piggy due to his frustration. Roger manages to push a boulder and “the rock struck Piggy” which concluded with Piggy’s death (Golding, 200). Although anyone could have pushed the boulder down at Piggy, Roger was the one who seemed savage and cruel enough to do it that way. At first Roger was shadowed by sophistication, and he was significantly influenced by civilization which led him to do the right thing. Afterward, civilization had no power over Roger which made him free to do whatever he likes. Roger has shown that savagery turned into a large part of his nature due to his exposure to

William Golding explores the theme of violence throughout his novel ‘Lord of the Flies’. He believed that every individual has the potential to bring out their inner evil, and that every human being is flawed in their nature. Hence, he wrote a novel with

This story shows that the evil around us can sometimes deceive us into wrongdoing if we do not trust our moral instincts or trust those in higher positions than us. William Golding, the author of Lord of the Flies, used his work to show the public that fear can lead people to destruction and evil ways if we do not attempt to control the beast within us. The way that Golding showed his audience this, was by carefully and thoughtfully placing symbolism throughout the novel and in each and every character.

Our world is full of vicious, hazardous and dangerous aspects of life, but if there is anything we should be afraid of most, it is ourselves. William Golding’s 1954 World War II novel, Lord of the Flies, revolves around a group of English schoolboys whose plane crashes on an island after being shot out of the sky. The wilderness and lack of pre-existing society prompts them to develop a civilization, but things turn sour and man's malign nature quickly takes hold. The Lord of the Flies is not a physical being or object, but a representation of the idea that all humans are inherently evil and deep-rooted with masochistic, selfish instincts. Before one can understand how the Lord of the Flies represents innate evil, it is important that the three constituents of man’s depravity are explored.

William Golding’s allegorical novel, Lord of the Flies, demonstrates the chaos in human nature with the loss of order and government. A group of boys is trapped on an island without an adult and are forced to survive using their own set of skills. Each boy struggles with the beast within, some boys are able to control it while other let it take over them completely. Golding illustrates the balance between order and chaos that each boy deals with and through this he displays the darkness that lies in the hearts of all humans.

Although not mentioned much at the start of the novel, by the end, Roger becomes Jack’s right-hand man. The following quote best captures Roger’s merciless savagery, Golding writes, “‘High overhead, Roger with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever… The rock struck Piggy a gleaning blow from chin to knee… the body of Piggy was gone.”’(Golding 181). Roger, in this scene, murders Piggy in cold blood. Roger clearly knows it is wrong to kill; but, with “abandonment” pushed the rock. Roger, who was first seen throwing stones at Henry, throws the rocks in the area around Henry. This demonstrates that he still has traces of civilization left and that the thought of rules exist. Roger; although, slowly afterwards loses most of his civilization. Once again seen with Jack after they kill the mother pig, Roger, tortures the pig with no remorse. During this sick scene, Roger stabs the pig in whatever place he can find. After all of this, the first thing Roger asks is how are we going to cook it. Finally, when Roger kills Piggy he reaches his final transformation into savagery; therefore, without parental supervision, Roger’s extremely corrupt human nature emerges. Along with Roger’s exhibition of corruptness, Ralph also displays the true human