How is violence presented in Lord of the Flies?
Planning (remember to get quotes):
Key ideas:
Introduction
Setting -> This island -> pathetic fallacy, descriptions
Binary oppositions: Civilisation vs savagery (breakdowns). Zoomorphism
Binary oppositions: Dictatorship vs democracy (juxtapositions)
Deaths of Simon and Piggy – animalistic, savage chanting, violent behaviour when they let their temptations get the better of them.
Simon and the beast?
Conclusion – end of the novel
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
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Simon’s allegorical role or function in the novel includes biblical insinuations. “…and was covered with a coat of pearls…” these divine allusions emphasise the violence present, as they contrast with the angelic and Christ-like quality of Simon, whom the savages mercilessly murdered. Following this incident, the conch is shattered and when Piggy’s glasses are broken (along with the death of the fire that previously occurred), it foreshadows the total destruction of any possible civilisation ever returning back to the island, showing the demise but need of law, order and reason in society). Hereafter, Ralph is left alone to face the savages. This all underlines Golding’s ideas that humans have evil and hatred deep inside of them, and could let the inner beast completely and violently take over if they be submissive to even a bit of temptation.
The other binary opposition also prevailing in this novel is dictatorship versus democracy. This juxtaposition is also used to portray violence across the novel. For example, “………….” Here, we can see the development of the behaviour of the, as turning more and more violent as soon as they lose sight of the conch, and the sense of democracy is broken down or lost.
Violence is presented in the novel through the very diverse deaths of both Piggy and Simon. Prior to Simon’s murder, the boys had been chanting “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” in “complementary circles”. These are powerful phrases which
Simon and Piggy are brutally murdered by the power-hungry savage, Jack Merridew. The island is never the same after their departures. Ralph reflects on how much the island has crumbled when hiding from Jack and his tribe of savages, "The breaking of the conch and the deaths of Piggy and Simon lay over the island like a vapor. These painted savages would go further and further" (Golding, 184). Both Piggy and Simon have such an important role in keeping the balance on the island. Piggy’s character is symbolic for knowledge and reason; Simon’s for faith and religion. Both of these righteous attributes are lost when the boys leave. Ralph loses all his leverage over the naive littluns when Simon and Piggy pass away. They join Jack’s silly tribe which leaves Ralph outnumbered and ideologically alone. Because of their departure, the basic principles of civilized life are forgotten and beastly savages take over the island. Shakespeare and Golding both emphasize the influence that characters have on the plot of the story. As soon as a significant character is taken away or changed in some way, the environment is reshaped either for better or for worse. The deaths of King Duncan, Simon, and Piggy in Macbeth and Lord of the Flies create consequences that gravely affect other characters, such as Macbeth and Ralph.
Even though Golding had an enormous amount of symbols throughout his novel, Simon is the first to recognize the complication posed by the beast and the “Lord of the Flies” that is, that the monster on the island is not a real, physical beast, but rather a savagery that lurks within each and every human being. As a final point, the loss of social structure within civilization can lead to the demise of the boys on the island whether it's between Ralph vs Jack, the boys vs the island, or even Simon vs
In the novel ‘Lord of the Flies’, Golding uses the theme of violence surfacing throughout the text. One reason for this was, Golding believed that every individual has the potential for evil and that the flawed human nature is seen in ‘mankind’s essential sickness’. His belief in this arrived through his time spent in war, so his aim was to challenge Ballantyne’s novel ‘Coral Island’, and in which Golding’s book the truth would be shown about his own thoughts of the darkness of mankind. As the theme of violence is in the heart of the novel, another reason of this is due to the quick breakdown of civilisation on the island. Through the breakdown, an ideal situation of
Jack had successfully killed his first pig and the hunters began chant a song “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” – (pg. 152) The kids dance around a slaughtered mother pig spilling the pigs’ intestines on the ground and rubbing the blood on each other’s faces. When all authority is taken out of the picture, the kids are free to do whatever they want. This is where their true nature is exposed. The boys don’t put into practice their teachings from school on the island, but become savage beasts. This shows us that man is civilized in our society, only because of the fear for higher authority, not because
This scenes important because the violence went from killing pigs to killing humans who were there friends: ‘“Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood! Do him in!”The sticks fell and the mouth of the new circle crunched and screamed.”(152) This chant shows us how violent they were especially since they use to chant “Kill the pig! Cut her throat! Spill his blood!”(69)and now they're killing humans while saying the same phrase. Piggy's death was more traumatizing them simon's: “The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist…. Piggy fell forty feet and landed on his back across the square red rock sea. His head open and stuff came and turned red.Piggy’s arms and legs twitched a bit like pig’s after it has been killed.”(181) This quote tells us how violate the boys got adding to Golding's theme of humans are naturally
Unlike most the other boys Simon retains civil. Simon displays his maturity through the sacrifices he makes Golding writes, “Someone's got to go across the island and tell Piggy we'll be back after dark." Bill spoke, unbelieving. "Through the forest by himself? Now?" "We can't spare more than one." Simon pushed his way to Ralph's elbow." "I'll go if you like. I don't mind, honestly” (Golding 117). Furthermore, Simon’s death displays the groups true maturity Golding writes, “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood! Do him in!” (Golding 152). This scene depicts the group killing Simon out of fear, this displays the island reveals their low maturity because they ignore reason and act in fear. Clearly the Goldings novel displays the island reveals maturity through
The real problem during the boy's experience is they succumb in human nature. After some time on the island and civilization is slowly starting to rot Golding states, “Surrounded by a fringe of inquisitive bright creatures, itself a silver shape beneath the steadfast constellations, Simon's dead body moved out toward the open sea" (Golding 154). To clarify, the boys as they were babies their parent always taught them to never murder anybody as a rule. As the boys start to realize that there are no rules on the island and are given freedom their human nature breaks and murders a little boy. Furthermore, after Simon's death, Jack wasn't done with lurking for more blood to spill, Golding says, “The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee: the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist.
No one would think kids could turn to cruelty, but in this book, you can see how human nature turns people against each other. Not all the boys turned to savages, but there were times when there actions were questionable. Take Ralph for example, he was probably one of the least barbaric of them all, yet he still joined in on the murder of Simon. While most boys were oblivious to their descent into savagery, people like Ralph realized this ongoing turn, “I’m frightened. Of us. I want to go home, Oh God, I want to go home” (Golding 157). The boys change into savagery was not gradual, and even some of the boys, such as Ralph or Simon, noticed this trend, and as young boys it frightened them to realize the fact that they were altering towards inhumanity. As well, the book represents that evil is in all of us. The Beast, which was the main source of evil in the book, was not real. It was only a figment of the boys’ imaginations. While the Beast wasn’t a physical thing it represented
To begin with, the death of Simon in Lord of the Flies illustrates innate human evil. Simon's death is preceded by Jack's tribe singing a savage chant. They violently murder Simon, mistaking him as the beast. Children's instantaneous instincts drove them to kill Simon. Engaging in an unplanned murder, these children effectively demonstrate that when they relinquish rationale which is a product of civilization, impulses lead them to act savagely. What is also significant in this scene is that Ralph and Piggy, the two characters mainly portrayed as being rational, join the cruel murder and even begin to express instinctive behavior from their inner self. It is irrational for any person and especially children, to commit murder. Therefore,
The excessive hunting showed how the boys just killed for no apparent reason; this is not a normal thing for an innocent boy to do. It seemed as if all jack wanted to do is hunt instead of caring about protection and shelter. Humans were killed because the boys began to unravel the true nature of humans. Simon died when Jack said "Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill His Blood!" Simon is eventually stabbed with a spear and that causes his death. The boys devour what they believe is the beast (Simon) and even if it was the beast, eating a beast doesn’t sound like what ‘innocent boys’ would do. Piggy’s death of course was most certainly not an accident. Rodger clearly knew what he was doing and he was throwing rocks just aiming to cause harm to someone, the rock hit Piggy and he fell off Castle Rock and died.
The classic book Lord of the Flies written by William Golding is a story of a group of schoolboys being stranded on a tropical island during World War II. The three main boys are Jack, Ralph, and Piggy, but there are other boys with them on the island. As the book progresses, our group of protagonists slowly lose their morality and become wild savages. In the story there are three specific pig hunts the group has that canonize their steps to insanity. On the first hunt, three boys come across a piglet caught in the vines. The boys attempt to kill it, but the piglet escapes. During the second hunt, a larger group of boys run into a wild boar, which also escapes. On the third hunt, the groups hunters find a sow feeding her piglets. The boys slaughter the pig and put its head on a pike. Ultimately, the piglet, boar, and sow hunt slowly show the boy's madness progress. This helps to portray Golding’s theme that there is a darkness in every man’s heart.
This is like when Simon was killed, Ralph kept blaming everything on him and Piggy, constantly freaking out about how they killed Simon. Piggy was the one to reassure Ralph that everything was going to be all right and that everyone was in a frenzy so it all on Simon. In the book, all of the boys were in the frenzy. ““Kill the beast! Cut his throat!
He is always helping the Littluns when they are struggling and many other boys that are vulnerable such as Piggy. "Simon sitting between the twins and Piggy, wiped his mouth and shoved his piece of meat over the rocks to piggy, who grabbed it" (Golding 74). This quote interprets an example of Simon showing his whole heartedness by giving Piggy food when Jack did not want to feed him because he did not hunt. "The vast majority of people reside prominently in civilized society, and they dismiss their instinct for aggression and dominance" (Wood, Bryan). This quote shows that people like Simon are always more civilized than those who begin to change into savages, Simon is the last piece of civilization on the island. "What I mean is...maybe it's only us" (Golding 89). Simon, himself, proposes to the rest of the boys that perhaps the beast is not only an external force, but an internal force within themselves. Simon is the only character to reveal Golding's point that innate human evil exists.
And later the death of Piggy too. When the boys kill Simon it shows us how insane and savages the boys have actually become. We see them kill an innocent boy who has done nothing wrong, and most of them do not even acknowledge it happening the next day. “Surrounded by a fringe of inquisitive bright creatures, itself a silver shape beneath the steadfast constellations, Simon's dead body moved out toward the open sea"(Golding 154). This quote really shows us what the boys have done, they have made a huge mistake, and the reality of what had happened the night before. Next is Piggy’s death, his death symbolizes the complete loss of order. "The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee: the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist….. Piggy fell 40 feet and landed on his back across the the square red rock in the sea. His head opened and stuff came out and turned red. Piggy's arms and legs twitched a bit, like a pigs after it has been killed"(Golding 181). When the conch is smashed it is a symbol of the little civilization they had getting destroyed. When Roger kills Piggy he turns into a crazed murder who no longer is sane. There is nothing to do to fix these boys, they will forever have to live with the consequences they have made on the island. As theses school boys have made two murder
Simon, for instance, battles with himself about the 'beast'. When the discussion about the beast goes on in chapter five, Simon is hesitant on explaining about the beast. From his line “maybe there is a beast” (pg. 89), he struggles to explain to everyone what he thought the beast really is. Simon knows that the beast is not corporeal, but rather an evil within humankind. His conflict within himself regarding the beast's identity moves the story when he ventures out to search for the beast. In result, he stumbles into the Lord of the Flies, who confirms his knowledge about the beast – that it is actually the evil within the boys. It also ends up in his death, when he wants to tell the boys about the 'real' beast. As for Piggy, he tries very hard to gain everyone's approval, especially Ralph's. His desire for approval is apparent since the first chapter, when he asked for Ralph's name and expects Ralph to ask his in return (pg. 11). But it is more apparent in the fourth chapter, when Piggy suggests to Ralph that they build a sundial (pg. 64). Ralph's reaction towards Piggy's idea was out of pity, but Piggy misinterpreted it as “friendliness” and “rejoiced” at Ralph's smile. Piggy, however, did not seek Jack's approval, as he always retaliated Jack's abusive behaviour towards him. Jack kept on bullying Piggy physically – punching him and broke his glasses in the fourth chapter – and verbally –