Lord of the Flies - Changes of Freedom
Uploaded by Admin on Jan 08, 2001
William Golding the author of the book Lord of the Flies used a group of boys on an isolated tropical island to illustrate problems in the nature of mankind. The group of British school boys that become stranded on the island had to deal with changes that all the boys underwent as they gradually adapted to the isolated freedom from society as they knew it. Three of the boys that had to adapt to the island were Ralph, Piggy, and Jack and each of the boys had different effects on themselves under those circumstances. Piggy was a very educated boy who was mature than the other boys because of his academic childhood. He grew up as an outcast and all the things that happened to him, as a child made him more aware of the cruelty people possessed in the world. As chief of the savage tribe Jack was very arrogant and self-righteous. The freedom of the island made him develop the darker side of his personality even more than it already was. The last boy was Ralph who was very dependent on Piggy’s wisdom. Towards the end of the book Ralph is rejected from the society of the boys on the island and had to fend for himself. The events on the island made the boys more aware of the evils inside themselves and others even though the experience differed from boy to boy.
Piggy was the educated boy who was rejected by the other boys because he was overweight. His academic background and his isolation from the savage boys made him able to remain mostly unchanged from his primitive experiences on the island. His unattractive attributes separated him from the other boys on the island. Piggy was not welcomed by the other boys on the island, on their first exploratory trip of the island. “We don’t want you,”(Golding 24) Jack said to Piggy before the boys left on the trip to explore the island. Learning from the actions of others Piggy was like the observer on the island. His status in their society allowed him to look at the boys from an outsider’s perspective. He learned of the hatred being brought out of the boys without having to experience the thirst for blood that Ralph was directly exposed to. The other boys did not easily intimidate Piggy, especially not Jack. He also did not lack the self-confidence to...