All humans have free will. All the major characters in Lord of the Flies are human! And to take it one step further they are children. I think this is reason enough to explain why there are significant weaknesses in their personalities, which in the end lead to develop chaos on the island. Most of these weaknesses are exposed through out the book by temptation. When on this island the boys lose sight of sense and being rescued by taking up practices and adventures such as hunting and tribal dances. Take Jack for example, in our modern day society, the kind of child that Jack is would simply be labeled a ‘little snot.’ He is a arrogant, power thirsting boy who craves stature and knows how to reach the top; he could be compared to a ruthless businessman of our times. If we were to label his personality weaknesses I would easily make the word length requirement for this essay, but when summarized they all come down to evil. In the Lord of the Flies, Jack is indeed responsible for a majority of bad events and trickery.
Whether it is stealing fire, even though it would have been given, or leading people away from the one person who wants to help them and get them saved. This to me shows a comparison to Satan and Jesus. In the bible we are told that in order to be saved, (rescued) we are to stay with Jesus. Satan then comes and lures people away with trickery and adventures and makes Jesus despised and a outcast. Jack much like Satan tempted the children to join his camp through games, meat and hunting. Also Ralph much like Jesus offered a stable but fulfilled life through shelters, rules and regulations. Ralph does not impose these rules to be cruel and mean, but so things run in order and everyone is benefited. When comparing Ralph to Jesus it is only in the fact that in order for people to be saved they should follow Ralph, but Jack tempts them and they leave. Because Ralph himself although a better and fairer leader is not at all perfect and has significant weakness in his personality as well.
Ralph to falls victim to the temptation of hunting and savagery and on page 188 he joins in with the murder of Simon. Jack invites everyone to his camp for a feast of meat that they gained through a bloody death of a sow. Ralph goes to have a look and is curious through this temptation and then gets caught up in the dance and murder frenzy. In the Lord of the Flies Piggy seems to take up the role of a disabled person, he can never join in and is constantly teased for this reason of simply being different. This creates a extremely low self-esteem problem and this brings out his personality weaknesses. Piggy always has a suggestion at the assemblies and always gives his point of view, by doing this I believe he makes himself venerable and the others take advantage. When Ralph made up the rules of the conch on page 43, Piggy is the first boy to take the conch out of Ralph’s hand and say something. To me this shows that for Piggy to gather up confidence he needs to look outside of himself for a source of power. This is shown in chapter 5, Best on Water, when Ralph made a remark about Piggy sticking up to Jack, and Piggy says “I had the conch, I had the right to speak” without this right I doubt that Piggy would stand up for himself. Piggy lives for the rules and is the only one who truly lives by them and I think this is symbolized by it being smashed when the massive boulder kills Piggy. Although the Island itself can’t be described as a character it is in a way similar. It at first seems perfect like the Garden of Eden and all things function perfectly, or do they? For example in what sort of paradise would the fruit give diarrhea and stomach cramps. Also every time the boys venture inside the jungle it is mentioned that everything is dark and covered over, the jungle might look beautiful from afar but once penetrated is dense with vegetation, which absorbs and eats up any light. The island is constantly abused, through fires, stripping of the fruit trees and the littl’uns even go to the toilet where ever they please in this perfect paradise of theirs. This is a perfect example of humanity finding a undisturbed place and eventually ruining it. In conclusion I would like to state that I agree that all the major characters have weaknesses in their personalities and these contribute to the chaos that develops in the book.
I believe this is because they are all human and have free will, and humans, especially children misuse this free will when tempted by certain things. I think that temptation is a theme in the book that brings about these weaknesses. I think without these human weaknesses the characters would be less lifelike and this would disadvantage the book. Although I haven’t enjoyed Lord of the Flies I must be truthful in stating that William Golding has developed great characters that seem real and believable. The characters to me are really the strength of the novel.
English – Lord Of The Flies
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