Reflective Novel Essay

Essay by swts0litude July 2004

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"There's a light at the end of every tunnel." If we break this quote up into two parts, the first picture that usually pops up into every one of our heads is the darkness itself--an area devoid of all light, a place where we can't perceive anything, a place where we're blind to every sneaky form lurking in its keep. The second part to this whole picture is the light in the distance, a light emitting from somewhere up above, a light that cuts off all that unwanted blindness. If we broaden our thinking a bit, we'll come to realize that not only is darkness all of those things previously mentioned, but so much more, and we'll also come to realize that there's always going to be a light at the end of every rough course, which breaks through to that darkness. In all the books that we've read this past year, each one seems to define its own definition of what "darkness" means.

With that, however, hand in hand, each one also shows its own way of how brightness broke through to the situations where originally no "light" had been. This can be seen when darkness is represented as evil, jealousy and hatred, and confusion and wonder.

First of all, darkness is represented as evil and wickedness. For example, in Lord of the Flies, Jack undoubtedly seizes Ralph's power as chief, and slowly ends up picking away at Ralph's tribe until he's able to form a separate, rival tribe of his own. Ralph's once civilized group, which had been created to help rescue them all from the solitary island, was now beaten into a group of malevolent and savaged beasts. Furthermore, Jack, with his spiteful intentions, took everyone on Ralph's side away from him, just so he'd be able...