Lord Of The Flies Term paper

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Turning Paradise into hell

By Stephanie Luong

What could have been paradise quickly turned sour for a pack of British schoolboys stranded on an island. The disintegration of order also came when atavism rose and came to power. Ralph, Simon, Piggy, Jack and Roger all played key roles in the battle of good/evil. There were also many symbols that represented order and the effects of man's savagery.

Ralph, the elected leader of the island, tried to prevent atavism from taking over but he failed. He represented society and all of its rules and limitations. From the quick decisions he made as Chief near the beginning of the novel, it could be seen that Ralph was well organized. But even so, Ralph began repeatedly to long and daydream of his civilized and regular past. Gradually, Ralph became confused and began to lose clarity in his thoughts and speeches. "Ralph was puzzled by the shutter that flickered in his brain. There was something he wanted to say; then the shutter had come down." (156) He started to feel lost in their new environment as the boys, with the exception of Piggy, began to change and adapt to their freedom. The advice from Piggy, a fat boy, helped renew the civilization and rational thinking in his mind. At times atavism had deluded his thoughts but it did not have a very strong hold on him. "Ralph too was fighting to get near, to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh. The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering." "That was a good game, said Jack. "Yes just a game," said Ralph uneasily. Although atavism tried to get his claws on him, he resisted. Ralph ordered the others to keep the fire burning, which symbolized rescue. Without this fire there was no hope of rescue. "Hasn't anyone got any sense? We've got to re-light that fire. You never thought of that, Jack, did you? Or don't any of you want to be rescued?" (102) He also made rules but they others would not listen. "Things are breaking up. I don't understand why. We began well; we were happy. And then .then people started getting frightened." (82) When the others lost respect for him, he slipped off the pedestal of power. Atavism took over their bodies and would not let go. Order was a meaningless word. " There isn't a tribe for you anymore! The conch is gone-I'm chief!"-Jack

Jack, the other leader of the group had power, skill and hatred. When the idea of having a Chief was mentioned, Jack spoke out immediately. "I ought to be chief," said Jack with simple arrogance, "because I'm chapter chorister and head boy." However, despite his unpleasant personality, his lack of courage and his conscience prevented him from killing the first pig they encountered. "They knew very well why he hadn't: because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood." (34) The freedom of no adult supervision offered

to him by the island allowed Jack to express the darker sides of his

personality. This freedom coupled with his malicious and arrogant personality made it possible for him to quickly degenerate into a savage. Jack put on paint, first to camouflage himself from the pigs but he soon discovered that the paint allowed him to hide the forbidden thoughts in his mind that his facial expressions would otherwise betray. "The mask was a

thing on its own behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness." (69) Through hunting, Jack lost his fear of blood and of killing living animals. He reached a point where he actually enjoyed the sensation of hunting a prey afraid of his spear and knife. "He sought, charitable in his happiness, to include them in the thing that happened. His mind was crowded with memories; memories of the knowledge that they had outwitted a living thing, imposed their will on it, taken its' life like a long satisfying drink." (70) His hunting of pigs brought out his natural desire for blood and violence. As Ralph became lost in his own confusion, Jack began to assert himself as chief. The boys, realizing that Jack was a stronger and more self-assured leader gave in easily to the freedom of Jack's savagery. Freed from the conditions of a society, Jack gradually became more violent and the rules and proper behavior by which he was brought up were forgotten. As the key player for atavism later, it seems ironic that, in the beginning he said that we should have rules and lots of em. " Bollocks to the rules! We're strong- we hunt!" (91) Now there was a Jack, who was no longer proud to be British, and who was not shaped and unbound by the laws of a civilized society.

Piggy was the thorn in Jack's side. He represented the clear and rational human mind. Physically, he was not a leader, and because of this he was quickly labeled an outsider. "We don't want you," Jack had said to Piggy. (26) His status in their society allowed him to look at the boys from an outsider's perspective. Piggy could learn of the hatred being brought

out of the boys without having to experience the thirst for blood that

Ralph was exposed to. Although the other boys easily intimidated him, he did not lack the self-confidence to

protest or speak out against the indignities from the boys. Piggy was more aware of why the rules were imposed, thereby ensuring that he would abide by them even when they were not enforced. An example of this would be when the boys flocked to the mountaintop to build the fire, Piggy shouted after them, "Acting like a crowd of kids!" (42) In the other boys' mind, Piggy was a prick and no doubt...

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