Essay Topic:

The ways the characters of William Golding’s “Lord of the flies” influence each other in the island.

Essay Questions:

What is tragedy of the “Lord of the flies”? What are these boys looking for in their “struggle” for dominance?

What heritage have these boys taken from the society they grew up in?

Thesis Statement:

Each of the characters of William Golding’s “Lord of the flies” is copying what they have learned from the world of grown-up people.

Introduction: One of the outstanding traits of William Golding’s “Lord of the flies” if the allegoric character of the whole novel. The characters of the novel represent people within the society and their desire to dominate one over another, to fight for power over other people. Each of the characters of William Golding’s “Lord of the flies” reveals the tragedy of the society in its inability to remain human and always turn into a “beast”. This “beast” is the moral degradation of the civilization.

Ralph – becomes the boy who is elected as the leader of the “littuns” and “biguns”. The major reason he is elected is his good looks and charm and not his intellectual or physical superiority. He appeals to the boys and calls them to stay civilized and wait for rescue from the island. His “orders” have mainly a civilized domestic orientation which is undermined by Jack who decides to take over this “little” society with the help of “a piece of meat”.

Piggy – is an overweight, sick and weak kid. The group always makes fun of his physical weakness due to the weight and asthma. The boy nevertheless, is very smart and it is owing to his glasses the fireplace become possible. The boy eventually dies as he opposes Jack together with Ralph.

Simon – is a weird boy who spends a lot of time alone in the jungle looking for the “beast”. The boy stays true to his nature and nature in general. He results as a victim of a ritual tribe-kill.

Jack – becomes the one who opposes Ralph in his civilized leadership and offers a piece of meat to the boys which is supposed to substitute any civilized traits they have left. He turns the boys not into hunters but more into animals, “beasts”.

Roger – is a type of boy who plays of the weaknesses of other people and ridicules them by deeply hurting them. This violent boy is the one who causes Piggy’s death and the one who prepares a stick for Ralph’s head. Being truly weak himself he tries to compensate it with the help of torturing other people.

Conclusion: Each of the characters presented in William Golding’s “Lord of the flies” represents the society and its degradation.  All of the show that it is matter of time that the “savage”, the meat, the animal instinct takes over the civilized people.