People are Not as Innocent as You Think

Categories: Lord Of The Flies

William Shakespeare onboyse said, “hell is empty and the devils are here”. The devils and evil are roaming around in our societies burying wickedness in the naturenaturalnaturenatural through nature natural nature'snaturalizing of individuals. The Lord of Flies by William Golding displays how a civilized civilization can not stand if there is evil present. A group of English boys survive a plane crash and land on a stranded island with no adults. This group of boys starts changing mentally based on the setting.

With no adult supervision, things get out of hand and there is no civilization left on the island.

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The readers understand Golding’s message as each boy displays his character by the actions each individual makes. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses Freud’s theory, diction, and allusion to illustrate his complicated set of ideas.

The Freudian psychology theory is used by William Golding in his novel to display the desires of the boys on the island. Based on each boy's character, each one displayed a role as the id, superego, and ego. The main characters Ralph, Jack, and Piggy presented Golding's idea of how a civilization corrupts with evil based on their selfless action and personality. In the beginning, the stranded boys used the conch for rules as it symbolized their civilization. However, Jack wants to serve his purpose and takes advantage of life without adults. He becomes obsessed with hunting and killing, it becomes his priority. Like the id, Jack releases evil forces due to his desires in the novel.

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He does as he pleases without anyone’s consent. When the boys build a signal fire in an attempt to get rescued, Jack leaves. Jack abandons the signal fire to go hunt for a pig. “Jack began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling”(Golding 60). As the story progresses, the evil within Jack emerges and he has no civilized behavior. His barbarity behavior is used against Piggy and the other boys with him on the island. Golding uses Piggy to represent the “standards of con entail modern society”. Piggy is intelligent but is powerless in the sense that his ideas are not heard or cared about. Piggy is contrary to Jack. Similar to the angel and devil. Piggy has morals and standards of what a society is because of his past. When the boys first arrive on the island, he calls out for his Aunt. The readers identify that Piggy has a sense of civilization. Ralph and he find a conch on the beach and use it for rules. It displays order. As well the readers infer that based on Piggy’s past he knows his limits from the rules made by his Aunt. When Jack lets out the signal fire, Piggy confronts Jacks' careless behavior. This shows that Piggy is pure inside because he confronts Jack about the bad he is doing. Piggy is warm-hearted and ensures safety by thing about the well-being of the other before acting upon something. Piggy says “the first thing we ought to have made was shelters down there by the beach” (Golding 79). Piggy is seen as an adult figure in the novel. He suggests ideas to the others just like an adult. Ralph is chosen to be the leader, he is the mediator between Jack and Ralph. Ralph in the novel is displayed as the ego, he uses judgment to overpower Jack. He takes control and thinks reasonably before hitheftwell-beingsisthe is decision natural. Ralph knew that the boys needed to have rules to keep the living environment under control. He tells the other boys “we’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages”(Golding 74). Ralph has good reasons and a mindset to get to the goal of being rescued. However, Jack (id) took over Ralph (ego). When Ralph lost his ego under the influence of Jack, he participated in the killing of Simon; another boy on the island. “The desire to squeeze and hurt was overmastering” (Golding 213). Ralph realized that Jack’s inner evil is coming out and influencing him to do bad. Ralph unconsciously attacked Simon without realizing his actions. Going emphasizes that everyone has evil disguised within, it comes out without thinking or well-being theofthethrough is knowing, it is a natural well being taunt. Freud’s theory allowed readers to understand that without civilized rules, the forces of the id and superego will come out of the hidden kid just like joe they came out within the boys on the island.

Diction is the use of word choice by an author to emphasize the theme and set a tone in the novel. With that being said, The Lord of the Flies as a whole is all diction. Golding’s reflective word choice in specific scenes contributes to the reader's understanding of the message in the novel. The story opens up with a group of boys surviving a plane crash and landing on an island. He gives us a descriptive image as he describes the scene. “Behind this was the darkness of the forest proper and the open space of the scar”(Golding 9). As the reader reads the description, it paints an image of how dark and gloomy the setting is. Diction also is used to foreshadow. This causes suspense in the opening chapter as he also foreshadows the events that will happen on the island. As the boys start aggressing throughout the chapters, especially Jack, William Golding uses specific negative connotated words to emphasize the drastic violent side that is coming out of him. “He tried to convey the compulsion to track down and kill that was swallowing him up”(Golding 90). When hunting becomes Jack's number one priority, he can not control himself. He wants his desires filled. Compulsion and swallowing address it in a way that this has become a disorder for Jack and he has no control over it. Referring back to Golding’s overall message, people have evilness within them and they do not realize what they are doing is an issue. The word swallowing emphasizes how Jack can not escape from what has become his addiction. The readers identify the evil in Jack displayed by his action. When Jack makes his first kill, Golding describes it using intense words. “Here struck down by the heat, the snow fell and the hunter hurled…”(Golding 245). The readers interpret this as a rape scene. The author's word choice of seductive and maddening describes the sounds of the helpless creature. The hunter's form of killing the pig is seen as rape. The diction in this scene forces the readers to understand how the evil within the boys emerged in a sexual release on a female pig. Furthermore, the words “squeeze and hurt were overmastering”(Golding 254). This form of language illustrates how the boys released their sexual desires violently. Golding is an expert on word choice as it helps the readers understand the literal meaning that contributes to the overall message.

Illusions are used to reference any point that can be used to highlight the purpose. In this novel, William Golding uses many biblical allusions to emphasize a point. He uses symbolic places, and character references to remark the Bible. Out of the many allusions Golding uses, three important biblical allusions focus on the evil that comes from within and are roaming around in mankind. In The Lord of the Flies, The readers understand why Simon is a reference to Jesus. Through his actions, he represents goodness, wisdom, and knowledge. “Simon found for them the fruit they could not reach, pulled off the choicest…”(Golding 100). Simon cares for the littluns, he does not use his power against the. He does good for the ones around him. Later on in the story, Simon sits alone in the jungle where he feels calm surrounded by nature. This refers to how Jesus sat in the Garden of Gethsemane. As Simon sits in the garden, he hallucinates and thinks he is talking to the pig head, lord of the flies. “And in front of Simon, the lord of the flies hunger in his stuck and grinned…”(Golding 260). Simon thinks he is talking to the pig head. It begins to taunt him by telling him to be evil and it becomes angry. This shows how it is evil within the own boys, and that an actual beast does not exist. The pig head symbolizes the devil and evilness. The pig head was placed on a sharpened spear and was worshiped by the boys. This alludes to the story of the people of Israel who build calves to worship. Jack says “this head for the beast. It is a gift” (Golding 258). To emphasize, The pig head is an allusion to Beelzebub who was the prince of demons. This demon tempted others with pride when doing evil and it reflects the separation of the boys from each other at the end of the story. The island is where the boys are stranded with no adults. It is a tropical place with jungles, beaches, and a mountain. As the story progresses, the readers begin to see how the boys try to create a civilization of their own, but the evil within the boys is holding them back. The general setting of the novel is an allusion to the Garden of Eden. “This is our island. It’s a good island.” (Golding 58). To the boys, it was their paradise with no adult rules. Golding illustrates the evolution of mankind by showing the reader how savagery was coming out of the boys. As a result, things got intense much like in the Garden of Eden. One of the little boys on the island claims he saw a snake and he is afraid. “Tell us about the snake-thing. Now he says it was a beastie” (Golding 60). The snake-like creature is a reference to the snake in the Garden of Eden. the boys also sense a beast that is taunting the, which this beast is an allusion to the devil. When referencing the Island and the Garden, Golding is expressing his idea of man’s inhumanity to man even in a symbolic holy place. Biblical allusions at depth and meaning to the author's message.

William Golding expresses his idea that society depends on the nature of an individual by using Freud‘s theory, allusion, and diction in his novel. In Lord of the Flies, the readers identify jack as the evil character (id), Piggy as the good character (superego), and Ralph as the barrier between the two characters (ego). On the island with no adults consisting of boys in their instincts evil is emerged from within due to the society they are living in. With William Golding’s use of writing the readers understand his overall message. Buddha always said, “it is a man’s mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways”. Be conscious of one’s actions, as though that individual is not as innocent as one thought.

Updated: Nov 01, 2022
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People are Not as Innocent as You Think. (2022, May 27). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/people-are-not-as-innocent-as-you-think-essay

People are Not as Innocent as You Think essay
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