Frustration on a Deserted Island Essay

William Golding wrote a book Lord of the Flies that has his thoughts about human nature and his central idea of the theme civilization versus savagery. The book starts with kids that are stranded after a plane crashes and fight for survival. Two characters show their differences in the book known as Ralph and Jack. Golding uses these characters as a foil that will lead to the overall theme, shows how violent people get when there are no rules that control them and he also shows symbols in the book that defines each character. In the book Ralph and Jack have their differences and similarities. Ralph shows how he wants to rule in a form of civilization that will unify the group as one. But Jack opposes to the way Ralph rules, Jack wants to rule in a savage way of killing pigs to eat meat and have no responsibilities of keeping the fire going to be rescued. But they both have a common enemy known as the beast the beast has caused terror ever since they heard and thought they saw in the mountains. Making them realizes there aren’t alone in the island. Golding uses Ralph and Jack as a foil to show they don’t like their way of how they rule, so their there is a conflict that leads to the overall theme. Ralph tries to lead as a civilization and make a fire for a signal for rescue, but no one likes his idea. Jack rules with fear and savagery in his group, he tells them that he will protect them from the beast and will provide meat by killing the pigs in the island. I believe that Ralph is the better leader because he is using his knowledge on what he has learned back home of civilization. There are symbols that represent Ralph and Jack on how they act on the island. The symbol that represents Ralph based on his ideas of trying to keep the group unified is the conch. The conch represents Ralph when first used it and everyone gathered up like there were a civilization. A symbol that represents Jack is the beast in the island. The beast symbolizes Jack on his way of treating his tribe bad and killing Simon thinking he was the beast. Both characters start acting opposite to each other after Jack believes that Ralph is trying to be better than him leading to the conflicts between these two characters. Golding uses his thoughts in the book using Ralph and Jack. He shows these two characters about violence, human nature and government. He thinks that there is a part of violence in human nature but there is a government that maintains people as a civilization with laws. Golding also uses foil to lead to the overall them. He uses these two characters against each other to let people know how we need laws for civilization because savagery can overcome civilization like in the island. Without laws that we can follow, human instincts will lea to think we can do anything we want. Golding has shown many clues in the book Lord of the Flies to represent the theme of the book. He shown how the kids in the island how they used to lived in a civilized society and then being stranded in a island can make them turn into savages after living with no laws or rules.