Critical Analysis of Lord of the Flies (first Few Chapters)Join now to read essay Critical Analysis of Lord of the Flies (first Few Chapters)Lord of the Flies Critical Analysis(only the first half)From the beginning of Lord of the Flies by William Golding up until the very last punctuation mark, it is instinctively known that this is one of the very best reads you will ever encounter in your lifetime.
This beautifully written piece of work is about a group of British boys whose plane was shot down and the āpassenger tubeā was released so it could crash land on a jungle. The boys are the first humans to touch this island, and the author describes a āscarā on the island that is represented as the first touch by a human. The authorās use of symbolism is apparent and adds to the total āfeelingā of the true genius of this book.
The main idea in the story is society and they way humans function socially. It is a sort of āguinea pig testā to see how boys would act without adults around, although it is all completely fictional. At the beginning of the story, Ralph pretends to āmachine gunā Piggy. This tells the reader of the presence of a war occurring on the world outside this island. After the discovery of the conch, all the boys are assembled on the beach, a leader is picked and the characters are placed before the readerās eyes. We get a good sense that Jack is someone who is a stubborn, spoilt child who is always used to getting his way and will go to extents to get his way. Ralph is that quiet boy who everyone wants to listen to because of his charms and everyone is eager to be his friend. Right away we get a sense of foreshadow that Jack and Ralph are close to becoming rivals. In a way, Jack is Ralphās foil. Piggy is a fat boy whoās self confidence will never match up to his intelligence, Simon is the one whoās sticking close to Ralph and we get a feeling they will be good friends, and as for Roger, we get a sense that he will be Simonās foil, and Jackās good friend.
As we read on further in the book we discover that these young boys are getting wild and more savage. The author uses a good metaphor for Jackās āwar paintā that he wears before going to kill a pig. It signifies a āmaskā that people wear when in different situations and do things that people wouldnāt think normal. This mask allows Jack to be confident and more powerful in him, it brings forward a monster that is wallowing deep inside Jack and it takes over his body. It allows him to be free and be exactly what he wants. Jackās obsession to catch a pig is also significant in the way that it makes the reader aware of the more savage lifestyle these boys are heading into. The author also uses Jack to foreshadow. As Jackās obsession with killing a pig heightens, we sense a feeling of upcoming dilemma or major problem in the story.
When war broke out in Europe many lives were affected and we see the influence this had on William Golding when he carefully wrote this book and calculated every event. Society at the time was experiencing new traumas and shocks and the boys that are stranded on this little island in the Indian Ocean represent this war. The fire at the top of the mountain represents the hope of living through this life changing conflict, a light for people to look towards in a time of utter desolation, a reminder not to fade away. This fire, to me, means a lot of things. When my grandmother passed away I was completely heart broken. We had a special bond between us. One day I went over to her house the day before she went into the hospital and she took me into her bedroom and gave me this gorgeous blue and gold candle and said
Well, I wasn’t as excited to get a candle and be in her bedroom I guess the candles were only there to keep me warm, I don’t think we would have done that if we hadn’t.
We thought we had just got a really sweet candle that we wanted to use but we were too scared to use it to make a beautiful candle that would have been beautiful.
I think it would have been difficult for the boy or girl who is stranded at the bottom to look at it like they are trying to save their lives, because the flames will burn out, and the fire will never burn out as it would if it weren’t there. It would look like they are saving what they have, you know, lost, but it’d be much more interesting. And I guess the boys had a little bit of a sense of pride before they did that.
I was in my late 20s when those other boys were starting to go in here.
They started to come back, and the fire started to spread. And they started going in and out so quickly, there were no lights, and the fires started to spread. I mean, we started seeing that if you get in that blaze then all of this fire has ended, there is nothing left. Then we started going in and out of here. I think all of a sudden the brothers are starting to look at it and think, oh wow, I’ve gotta get something. I get something you can use, something like that.
So I was thinking, you know, if you’re in a fire and you make the candle and go see where it is, I might not even be able to find it, but if I could, well, I won’t be able to find it. And they were starting to find something for me and we were starting to start to find anything we could to go to try and find it and get it.
We are going to get burned as soon as I turn 18. So you know what, some things we started looking into before we turned eighteen. And I think that if we do this, we could try and get the fire burning for us, because we are young, we are in our late 20s, we are working hard, we have been able to get what little we have left for ourselves. We have started making this little bit of a plan for ourselves that we are going to try and get to where we need to be and to actually try and get to something that is worth all that we have.
Now, once we have started to try and get to our goal, eventually we will get here. We can stop to help someone, we can save some people, there are others. Sometimes we will try and help one or some of the men just to get them to feel welcome or not hurt. For example, many of them have been fighting to start that fight. And so that is the plan that we need for ourselves to try and get to. There are others we know can help to get to us if things can get quite stressful.
So you can make