Lord of the Flies

A Utopia is a place or society that appears perfect in every way. The government is perfect, working to improve society’s standards of living rather than their own, social aspects of the community run perfectly. There is no war or disease, only peace and happiness. Dystopia- Dystopia came from the term Utopia. It defines a place or society which is in complete chaos. The citizens are all suffering and are miserable. Often times in novels what appears to be a Utopian society it first by the visiting protagonist is actually revealed to be a dystopian society.

The citizens are often revealed to live in terror, under complete control by the government, unaware of corrupt world in which they actually live in, or suppressed by the society as a whole. 3. ) This island in to be a utopia because in the beginning of the story they had this beautiful new environment they could explore and run wild through without any adult supervision or anyone to tell them what to do. The boys were only concerned, at first, about having fun with no adult supervision. The island than became a dystopia when Ralph was struggling to regain his power while Jack was trying to have complete control.

It also became a dystopia when everyone started to fight amongst each other and then when two of the boys died the island had defiantly become a dystopia. Utopia Quote: “Aren’t there any grownups at all? ” “I don’t think so. ” “The fair boy said solemnly; but then the delight of a realized ambition overcame him. In the middle of the scar he stood on his head and grinned at the reversed fat boy. ” “No grownups! ” Dystopia quote: “But then the fatal unreasoning knowledge came to him again. The breaking of the conch and the deaths of Piggy and Simon hung over the island like a vapor.

These painted savages would go further and further. Then there was that indefinable connection between himself and Jack; who therefore would never let him alone; never. ” 4. ) The Running Man by Richard Bachman, 1984 by George Orwell, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley 5. ) In the article Utopias and Dystopias: A Comparison of Lord of the Flies and Animal Farm, I believe the author did a very good job. I liked how the author organized the article and how she included quotes that went well with what she was just talking about.

I also liked how she had a small summary of the stories she was talking about because since I had only read Lord of the Flies and not Animal Farm I would have been very confused with what her point was and what she was trying to get across. But since she had a small summary that went with what she was talking about, not a huge summary of the ientire book chapter by chapter, I understood just what she meant. I also appreciated how the author included page numbers after the quotes she used. Such as, “Apart from food and sleep… found time for play, aimless and trivial” (Golding 49).

If you were placed onto a stranded island in the middle of nowhere with no hope of being rescued, even the most civilized person would turn to savagery by the end. This is a fact about human nature, and at one point humans lose their morals and values. In The Crucible and the Lord of the Flies, both authors, Miller and Golding, show the evil in nature, the fight for truth, and mob mentality in certain situations. Abigail Williams and Jack both become very power hungry by the end and show the evil in nature, while and Simon are looking for the truth, and Mary Warren and SamnEric follow the mob mentality that is going around.

In The Crucible, Abigail Williams is first seen as a child speaking the truth and pointing out the people in the town who are “witches”. Everyone in the town believes her and her group of friends. But as she realizes that she has the power to condemn anyone as a witch, she overuses that power. Since Abigail desires to be with John Proctor, but he is not willing to be with her due to his wife, Abigail decides to condemn Elizabeth Proctor as a witch, so that she would be able to be with John. This clearly shows how people can use their power that they might have for their own good and use it for evil.

This occurs in The Lord of the Flies when Jack slowly becomes more and more power hungry. Throughout the novel, Jack always wants to become chief but Ralph is chosen as chief and this did not please Jack. But as the novel progresses, Jack slowly turns to savagery, and the others follow Jack with his savagery. An example is his wild hunts for pigs, and his crazy dances after killing the pig. He feels much more powerful as more people start to enjoy killings pigs with him and he starts to form a type of mob.

“His mind was crowded with memories: memories of the knowledge that had come to them when they closed in on the struggling pig, knowledge that they had outwitted a living thing, imposed their will upon it, taken away its life like a long satisfying drink. ”(Golding 70) This quote explores Jack’s mental state in the aftermath of killing his first pig. This slightly shows the decline into savage behavior. This quote shows Jack’s feelings of power and superiority he experiences after killing the pig. This power slowly transitions into creating his mob and gaining more power from everyone around him, which causes him to become the chief.

With this power he gains, Jack now controls most of the island, which allows him to do almost anything he wants, including to set the island on fire just to kill Ralph. At the same time in both The Crucible and The Lord of the Flies, John Proctor and Simon are looking for the truth for the fear in which everyone was going crazy in the town or island. In The Crucible, John Proctor looks for the truth as he questions the honesty of the girls calling out the witches in the town. John carefully looks for evidence to prove that the girls aren’t telling the truth.

Fortunately Mary Warren admits to John that they are all playing along only because of Abigail. But at the courthouse, no one believes Mary Warren, and she is also called a witch, so to save herself, she blames John Proctor in threatening Mary to lie. As much as John tries to fight for the truth, he fails at showing everyone because of the power everyone else has over him. Simon in The Lord of the Flies also fails to show the truth over the “beast” that everyone feared. “‘As if’, said Simon, ‘the beastie, the beastie or snake thing, was real. Remember?’” (Golding 50)

From the beginning Simon doubts the truth about this beast in the island and tries to assure the younger kids that there is no beast. Simon is the only character who truly looks out to find the truth about the beast. But in the end, he is seen as the beast and is killed by the boys who change into savages. When Simon returns to the campfire to tell everyone what the beast that everyone has feared of, he is mistaken as the beast and never gets to explain the truth. This is just like John Proctor in which he is also killed before the truth gets out.

This comparison is similar because both Simon and John were the only people to reveal the truth to the public but no one listens to them, and they end up dead before they say anything. During all of this in The Crucible and The Lord of the Flies, there are the leaders, Abigail and Jack, and then there are the followers, Mary Warren and SamnEric. In The Crucible, Mary Warren follows the mob mentality because of Abigail, and the fear of getting caught. If Mary did not follow what Abigail had said in the beginning to play along with her, Abigail threaten to kill them all, or at least hurt them.

Due to this Mary went along with the mob. Although Mary tries to confess in the courtroom, in the end she still retreats back to the mob mentality and blames John Proctor. This also happens in The Lord of the Flies when SamnEric join Jack’s mob. “Now the painted group felt the otherness of SamnEric, felt the power in their own hands. They felled the twins clumsily and excitedly. Jack was inspired. ”(Golding 191) This quote shows how Jack becomes happy with the increasing number to his group and it shows that SamnEric join due to the mob mentality and the power that Jack has compared to Ralph.

They try to follow their conscience but end up joining the mob and go along with the savages. Throughout the movie and novel, people end up losing their morals either due to having too much power or not having enough and going out of their way to gain that power. The evil in nature is clearly shown by both authors and depict how far people would go for ambitions that they want such as power. Both authors also show that the truth never gets out, which is unfortunate, but life doesn’t always have happy endings either. And last but not least, the mob mentality is a driving force for all the madness in the town of Salem and the Island.

Thomas Hobbes was one of the most controversial philosophers of all time. He argued that the, “Life of man [is] solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short” (Hobbes 77). Clearly he didn’t think that humanity was a good group of beings. In the Lord of the Flies by William Golding, one character, Jack Merridew, displays many characteristics of Hobbes’ philosophy on man. Time after time, Golding subtly refers to Hobbes’ philosophy through Jack and his reactions with other characters in the book. After Golding introduces the boys, they want to elect a chief, and already, Golding is using Hobbes’ anthropology.

In Hobbes’ Leviathan, he states, “And therefore, if any two men desire the same thing which nevertheless they cannot both enjoy, they become enemies” (Hobbes 76). The two main contenders for the chief position are Ralph and Jack. Jack fervently believes that he should be chief, and he says, “’I ought to be chief,’ said Jack with simple arrogance, ’because I’m chapter chorister and head boy. I can sing C sharp’” (Golding 15). Fortunately, Ralph is elected chief, and Jack is disappointed. This simple election creates the dispute between the two boys for the whole book.

Ralph and Jack cannot share the position, and both cannot enjoy it, so Jack begins to have an aversion to Ralph. Hobbes’ philosophy basically predicted that this would occur. They both wanted a thing, leadership, and one got it, making them both enemies. This enmity that Jack has eventually pushes him to the point of wanting to kill Ralph in order to lead the island without opposition. This craving for murder also demonstrates another philosophical point by Hobbes. Far later in the book, Jack’s relations with Ralph once again clearly display one of Hobbes’ points.

In Leviathan, Hobbes writes, “In all times kings and persons of sovereign authority, because of their independency, are… in the state and posture of gladiators, having their weapons pointing and their eyes fixed on one another” (76). After Jack splits from the tribe in order to make a new one, he immediately sees the other tribe as a threat. He even literally has his weapons pointed at Ralph in one scene specifically, in which the two leaders are dueling. The narrator narrates, “Jack made a rush and stabbed at Ralph’s chest with spear. Ralph sensed the position of the weapon from the glimpse he caught of Jack’s arm and put the hrust aside with his own butt” (Golding 159). Even though Hobbes may have intended this to be figurative without the actual leaders fighting, but their armies doing their work, this seems to fit the same kind of description. Hobbes really means that kings, or in this case chiefs, are always looking to fight each other, always ready for battle, always looking to rid themselves of their opponents. In the same way, Jack is always looking to fight Ralph, always ready for battle against Ralph, always looking to rid himself of Ralph. Golding ultimately connects Jack to Hobbes through Jack’s lack of mercy and justice.

An unknown author composed a summary of Hobbes’ argument pertaining to this subject, and wrote “The state of nature… was founded upon a savage egoism which drove man to seek a maximum of pleasure without hindrance from a norm of justice or mercy toward other men. Every man was continually engaged in war against all other men” (Paragraph 9). Throughout the book, Jack fastidiously tries to not offer mercy or due justice to people. In one instance, Ralph pleads for mercy upon the twins, Sam and Eric. The narrator says, “’Grab them! ’ No one moved. Jack shouted angrily. I said ‘grab them’! ’ Their spears were taken from them. ‘Tie them up! ’ Ralph cried out hopelessly against the black and green mask. ‘Jack! ’” (Golding 161). The key word of this scene is “hopelessly. ” This simple word makes Ralph’s plea seem impossible; henceforth, Jack is not giving mercy at any cost. Jack wants the twins to leave Ralph and join his tribe. This essentially gives him pleasure because he knows that Ralph is hopeless. Whatever plea Ralph makes will not be granted because it will hinder his pleasure. Justice will not be served because it will hinder his pleasure.

Mercy will not be served because it will hinder his pleasure. Hobbes directly says that people will not give justice or mercy when it will hinder his own pleasure. For Jack, to offer mercy is to rid himself of pleasure; therefore, he will not give the mercy according to Hobbes’ philosophy. Golding clearly thought of Hobbes’ philosophy when he was contriving Jack. Jack displays almost all of the qualities that a human being should display according to Hobbes. First, his enmity toward Ralph is solely based on a thing that he can’t have, which is what Hobbes predicted would happen.

Second, he and Ralph, because they are both opposing leaders, have weapons pointed at each other, symbolizing how opposing leaders always quarrel with each other according to Hobbes. Third, his lack of mercy and justice for those who deserve it is nonexistent because it will hinder his pleasure according to Hobbes. In conclusion, in almost every act that Jack does, he relates back to Hobbes’ philosophy pertaining to human nature. Works Cited “The Philosophy of Thomas Hobbes. ” 1998. The Radical Academy. 15 March 2010. <http://www. radicalacademy. com/philfthomashobbes. htm>.

Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan. The Harvard Classics. 1904-14. ——————————————– [ 1 ]. I used passive voice because the subjects are more important than Jack, who would be doing the action. (This isn’t rhetoric, it’s just and explanation) [ 2 ]. I used epistrophe to emphasize the point that Jack will not do the things that will hinder his pleasure [ 3 ]. I used antithesis here to kind of show a cause and effect. If he was to offer mercy (the cause) then he would accept defeat (effect). It seemed more logical to use antithesis right here than other forms of rhetoric.