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William Golding's Lord Of The Flies Essay

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In 1998, a Harvard University professor of Ethics told his class that their final that year was going to make up 90% of their grade. Essentially, that one test would decide if the Harvard students would pass or fail this class. The professor made an apparent mistake when he left a copy of the final exam answers out on his desk after class, and one of the students in the class copied it. From there, the exam was copied and passed out to select students who wanted it beforehand. All those students who elected to cheat on the test ended up failing the class because the real test for the Ethics class was to see if anyone would give into the temptation to cheat. The professor had left the answers on his desk on purpose. Nearly half of the class …show more content…

Such a viewpoint might lead to a pessimistic view of humanity. This issue of human nature is what author William Golding analyzes in his novel Lord of the Flies. Golding’s novel suggests that despite people’s best intentions, fear corrupts and strips away the good in people. This idea isn’t shown through a test, but rather through the usage of symbolism in the story and the way that certain character’s traits are played against each other.
Ralph is the central protagonist of the novel, and in many ways he’s the character that best embodies the idea of hope. Golding makes it clear from the beginning that
Ralph is symbolic of positive emotions in the story. “There was no devil in the boy”
(Golding 8). The lack of a devil in Ralph is indicative of his brighter nature while bringing in a religious allusion as well. Ralph is one of the few who will resist the 2 darkness in life. In fact, Golding uses lots of light imagery around Ralph, whether it’s calling him the fair haired boy or talking about his bronze skin in order to drive home how Ralph never gives into darkness. That lightness can also pertain to hope, as both fall into positive connotations, and it’s not infrequent for hope to be referred to as a light

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