Literary critique for "Lord of the Flies"

Essay by dx91High School, 10th grade August 2007

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"The Savage Inside us All’William Golding’s best book yet, is bound to give you a whole new perspective on human nature. Lord of the Flies was born out of his own experience serving in the Royal Navy in World War II, which made Golding lose his belief in the natural innocence of humanity and even in the innocence of children.. A running theme in the allegorical book is that man is savage at heart, always ultimately reverting back to an evil and primitive nature.

Golding skillfully tells the story of how a group of civilized British schoolboys eventually turn to savagery. Their plane has crashed onto an uncharted island and there are no parents. The children are forced to awaken their basic instincts and find food, and shelter. The more gentle minded readers would be shocked at what happens when these boys survive on basic instincts for too long and forget their social morals.

The characters in Lord of the Flies, while metaphorical and symbolic, are very descriptive and three-dimensional. The protagonist, Ralph is the appointed chief and sensible leader who tries to establish a democracy on the island. At first the schoolboys have good intentions, keeping a fire going so that a passing ship can see the smoke and rescue them, however because of the inherent evil of the many, the good intentions of the few are quickly passed over for more exciting things. The killing of a pig slowly begins to take over the boys life, and they begin to go about this in a ritualistic way, dancing around the dead animal and chanting. “Kill the pig, cut her throat, spill her blood”From here on, the boys have forgotten all their social morals. A pair of twin boys, Sam and Eric, become known as Sam’neric and...