On the inborn human nature - Lord of the flies

One of the themes of the novel, ‘Lord of the flies’ is that human’s inherent nature is savage and cruel. Therefore, Golding appears to say that our civilized society is highly prone to break into conflicts or wars, and that these conflicts or war do not result from a defect in the system but from inherent flaws in man.

In China, there have been two opposite view points on the fundamental human nature. The one is that human’s nature is inherently good, which is due to Mengja. The other is due to Soonja who believed that human’s inherent nature is bad. Both philosophers lived around BC 200. On the other hand, Hindu view point in India around BC 2000 is that the distinction of good and bad is not universal, but is arbitrary and relative. Suppose that there lives a bacterium in our stomach, but that a new bacterium ‘invades’ into the stomach and killed the first bacterium to monopolize the 'food' in our stomach. Should we feel sorry or sympathetic to the first killed bacterium in our stomach?

I feel that Mengja’s view is naïve and not quite correct. It is likely that Soonja’s (or Golding’s) or even Hindu view points are closer to the truth. Although I am not completely sure, Golding might have some of Hindu view points too, when he says that the dead bodies of Simon and Piggy are cleaned away by the enormous natural power of the sea, as I mentioned in my another blog.

Memorable setting of Lord of the flies

The boys fall in an unmanned, tropical, coral island whose description by Golding is very detailed. The shore where boys stay and sleep is described to have a lot of palm trees making shadow on the ground and behind those trees is dark jungle and space formed by scar. The shore is white because of the coral reef and surf while the sea is dark blue. There are a high platform of pink granite soil and coarse grass on top of it. One of the other significant places would be the top of the mountain. When the three boys arrive at the top they discover a circular hollow filled with overflowing blue flowers. The flowers are strewn over all places on the top of the mountain.

The island is described as a very beautiful and peaceful place like the setting of The Coral Island, a classic boys’romantic adventure story whose plot is exactly opposite to Lord of the Flies. While reading the first few chapters of Lord of the Flies, it is likely that a reader expects a happy ending. However, it is shocking that murder takes place in such a peaceful island forming a sharp contrast between the setting and the conflict.

Enormous natural power cleans up vicious things human have done, restoring the peaceful and beautiful setting. The crashed plane has been dragged out by the storm. The dead bodies of Simon and Piggy also have been removed by waves into sea. Humans destroy and nature cleans up, and this sequence continues, even at this moment. Would this alternating sequence lasts forever?

Significant passages from Lord of the flies

I like the two passages in chapters 9 and 11. The children thought that Simon was the beast and beat him. Eventually he was killed and ‘its blood was staining the sand’. Then ‘the great wave of the tide moved farther along the island and the water lifted. Softly, surrounded by a fringe of inquisitive bright creatures, itself a silver shape beneath the steadfast constellations, Simon’s dead body moved out toward the open sea’. This is the end of chapter 9. Another similar passage appears in chapter 11 after Piggy’s death - ‘the sea breaths again in a long, slow sigh, the water boils white and pink over the rock; and when it goes sucking back again, the body of Piggy is gone’.

Virtue symbolized by Simon and Piggy is destroyed by vice embodied by the savage. Of course, this unfortunate disturbs us awfully because we believe that it is not right for vice to win against virtue. The above passages, however, say that the results of intense conflicts between virtue and vice do not have much meaning because they disappear immediately by supernatural power as if nothing has happened. Perhaps, there are no such things like virtue or vice to begin with. Or the universe might not care much about the difference of virtue and vice on the tiny Earth, although it is an important matter of life and death to us.

These two passages also remind me of my favorite poem, ‘On the seashore’ written by Rabindranath Tagore.

Mood of Lord of the flies

Compared with other dystopian novels I have read, Lord of the Flies is not excessively gloomy. Most of time, I felt rather relaxed, while reading the novel. Unlike to our usual expectation after a plane crash, majority of the boys find things to eat by themselves and have fun not being stressed that they are caught in an island. They are rather enjoying living in the island because there aren’t any adults. This attitude of many boys makes the situation doesn’t look serious.

As time progresses, along with the fear about beasts, they start to worry if they end up staying in the island for the rest of their life. From that point the mood changes to hopelessness. As the boys’ cruelness starts to appear, I am shocked because I couldn’t expect those terrible things to happen. I am surprised not only by what the boys have done, but also by the progressing, and sometimes rhythmical, change of the mood. The mood becomes extremely horror at the end of the novel. I feel that the relaxed atmosphere at the beginning makes the boys appear more ruthless.

I like this change of mood better then the end-to-end gloomy mood such as in 1984 written by George Orwell. I remember that 1984 made me feel oppressive and mentally weary while reading 1984. I was more relaxed while reading Lord of the Flies. Furthermore, the intense and horror mood that lasts just for a short time at the end appears to be more effective.

I found the mood, setting and plot of the classic film (1979), 'Apocalypse Now' is a lot similar to those of Lord of the Flies.

The climax of Lord of the flies

The climax of this novel is when Piggy is killed by Roger in chapter 11. Ralph and Piggy go to Castle Rock to get Piggy’s stolen glasses back. They are stop by Roger and Jack who appeared from the jungle refuses to return the glasses. Piggy lifts the conch and says repeatedly ‘Which is better – to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill?’ From the action of Piggy who still sticks to the old conch protocol, we can see that he is the kind of person who always respects the order or rule even though no one else would think that the rule is still effective. At that time Roger throws a rock to Piggy that strikes Piggy ‘a glancing blow from chin to knee’. Then the conch breaks and Piggy falls from the cliff and is killed with ‘his head opened and stuff come out and turned red’.

Piggy is the first who is killed by the savage on purpose. (The previous killing of Simon is somewhat accidental.) Piggy represents the orders or rules of our society, and therefore this killing symbolizes the complete destruction of civilized nature of the British children.

I was terrified by this chapter not only by the killing of Piggy itself, but also by the silent grave terrorist, Roger. Even Jack feels ‘the hangman’s horror clung round him’. Samneric cease yelling when ‘Roger advances upon them as one wielding a nameless authority, edging past the chief, only just avoiding pushing him with his shoulder’.

Main characters of Lord of the flies

Major protagonists are Ralph, Simon and Piggy while antagonists are Jack and Roger. Ralph is elected as the leader of the children by popular majority vote. He has leadership, and looks believable, dependable and well-mannered. His leadership comes from instinct and not as much as from his deep insight about human nature, and therefore he was not able to keep the children civilized when the antagonist Jack allures them into instinctive animal pleasure. Simon is good-natured and has insight in the true nature of man, although he is a little younger than the other main characters. His flaw is that he wishes to be alone and does not like to talk in front of others. Piggy is smart and wishes everything in universe to be in good order. However, he is a little lazy and his appearance is not attractive so that others make fun of him. Jack was the leader of the choir before the plane crash, but lost the popular vote against Ralph because he looks ‘ugly without silliness’ and intimidates others. Later he wins against Ralph by providing the children with meat in return for submission to him. He represents the savage nature in man. Roger is quiet and dismal. He appears to be resentful to everyone probably because he has an abused childhood. He is much worse than Jack and represents the evil.

Do I like them? No, because they all have character flaws. They are far from idealized heroes in ‘ordinary’ happy-ending novels. I should however admit from the bottom of my heart that theses characters represent the realistic human natures of you and I.

Current situation in the world related to Lord of the flies

It may be argued that many conflicts between individuals, between individual and society, or between nations result from our internal character flaws. One example I can think of is the massacre at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007. The shooter Seung-Hui Cho who was also a student killed thirty two other students and himself. The cause of Cho’s behavior is generally regarded as his mental illness and resentment to other students. However, Cho had never thought his behavior was because of his internal ‘beast’. Instead, he said ‘I die like Jesus Christ, to inspire generations of the weak and defenseless people’ in the video message mailed to NBC News. He must have thought that he ‘Kills the beast! Cuts his throat! Spills his blood’ during his shooting.

Cho acted like the ‘tribe’ in ‘Lord of the flies’, or Roger more specifically, when the tribe kill Simon. The problem with the English professor who had read Cho’s dreadful drama script was that he was a ‘poor chess player’ like the leader, Ralph who fails to see the true human nature and to prepare for its potential devastating consequences. The hospital psychologist who had examined Cho’s mental problem before is like Simon who is intelligent enough to see that ‘the only beast in the island is in themselves’. His problem is however that he is not a good articulated communicator. The judge in Montgomery County District Court who ordered Cho undergo mental evaluation acted like Piggy who always wants everything in order. He also has the problem that he (or the law enforcement system) is very lazy.

Then, what could be a resolution of this problem? I believe we should admit that we are not flawless. All the wars that mankind have conducted or suffered from are merely projections of our faulty internal characteristics. In particular, the Virginia massacre could have been prevented if the possession of guns had been banned by law, even though that law would deny our individual freedom or right before the safety of the society.

The major theme of Lord of the flies

The novel, ‘Lord of the flies’ by Golding descries the savagery behaviors of young British children survived from a plane crash in an isolated unmanned island. What Golding is trying to reveal to us in this novel is the faulty but true human nature or characteristic, which could be very cruel and destructive, or lazy, ignorant and incompetent at the best. The major theme of this novel is that our animal-like brutal nature is hidden barely below the ethical or legal restrictions of our society, and that our beast could erupt anytime into violence or wars when the subtle equilibrium of our society is impaired.

Last year when I was in Toronto, I read the novel, ‘The chocolate war’ written by Robert Cormier, which was among the highly recommended books. At that time, I could not quite understand why I should read such a terrible story. This year, I was told to read two other miserable novels; 1984 by George Orwell and this one. The reason that these novels about dystopia are recommended and that this kind of themes is important to us is, I believe, because teenagers should be prepared to confront the real world. The utopia like ‘Coral island’ does not exist. It is nothing but illusion – not because of other bad peoples around us or the unfair society, but because of the inherently faulty human nature of all of us.

The innocent looking bird needs to kill insects to survive, but the insect would consider the bird as an evil.

Comparison of 1984 and The Chocolate War

While Winston Smith, the main character in George Orwell’s 1984 tries to destroy the government, Jerry Renault, the main character of The Chocolate War written by Robert Cormier, tries to ruin a powerful secret student association of his school.

Jerry Renualt, a freshman of a private high school, fights both mentally and physically against the student association named The Vigils. Jerry knows they are excessively strong to be an opponent of a small freshman; however he believes that he can change the ‘world’ by winning. Winston and Jerry have amazing similarities while they have differences that shouldn’t be ignored.

The strongest similarity would be that they both revolt against the dominant group of people but eventually lose in the mental and physical fight against the group. In The Chocolate War, Jerry is bothered and distressed by The Vigils, which is a stratagem of Archie to make him mentally fatigued and eventually powerless. Also, Jerry does a boxing match with a seriously dangerous student who is in the same side The Vigils, while Winston was brainwashed and subjected to torture in a prison of Ministry of Truth. They both could somewhat overcome mental pressure; however they collapse during physical fight. I believe they could have won if they perceived the power of themselves, but lost confidence and dreams that supported him throughout the whole fight by physical fright and weakness.

Though Winston Smith and Jerry Renualt have many things in common, they have several differences. While Jerry mainly acts according to how he feels, Winston thinks how and why the Party is controlling citizens and tries to devise how to destroy the government, though he couldn't do nearly anything productive. Actually, Jerry realizes why he himself, a weak coward, has desired to revolt against The Vigils in the last part of the book. On the other hand, Winston has a definite reason of his actions which is reestablishing the country like the one during his childhood.

Both 1984 and The Chocolate War do not show a single ray of hope at the catastrophe. Nevertheless, I believe people like Winston Smith and Jerry Renualt will eventually destroy the dystopia if it faces us someday.

Memorable setting of 1984

Winston and Julia spends their time in a small room above Mr. Charrington’s shop in the later part of the novel. Winston and Julia seem like escaping from the society and create the world of their own in the room though it is temporary. In the first part of the novel it is mentioned that Winston bought a note book and a pen from a small curio shop which happened to be Mr. Charrington’s shop. The note book and a fountain pen are things that represent the past which is what Winston wants to discover and approach closer. I believe those would have played a mentally supporting role for Winston who is tired of the pressure from telescreens, mikes, poster of Big Brother and 2 Minutes Hate. In the later part of the novel, Winston borrows a room over Mr. Charrington’s shop to use it as a secret meeting place with Julia, his girlfriend. His physical appearance and health improves by the care and love of her while the stress and strain of Hate Week increased.

My pervious home in Canada – which used to be the place where I could rest and felt secured– was in a big contrast with the outer unfamiliar world. During the first six months in Canada, I didn’t have any friend to talk in school, which made me feel ashamed and sad though it was what I wanted and chose to concentrate on studying. Thus, my house was where I could rest and relax comportably with my family not needing to hide from unfamiliar eyes of my classmates.

The situation where Winston is placed has many differences from my experience, for escaping to the room was chosen completely by his will. Nevertheless, I could sympathize with him – though mine will not be as intense as his – as a person who has once tried to escape from society.

Current situation in the world related to 1984

People in the book 1984, written by George Orwell are controlled by surveillance cameras named ‘telescreens’ located everywhere: houses, offices, streets and buildings. Now take a look around you just for a second. If you live in an apartment, you must have felt the lens of a video camera gazing on back of your jacket in the morning. We do not feel safe just because 1984 is a mere science fiction, since circumstances demonstrated in the book is currently happening in reality.

According to a news article in England, “The country’s more than 2.5 million CCTV cameras catch each British resident as many as 300 times each day” (Smile, You’re on Surveillance Camera). Imagine yourself exposed by cold lenses of millions of surveillance cameras through which an agent you don’t even know is watching. This privacy infringe happens elsewhere too. Despite the complaints of privacy promoting groups, Washington police have set up a video surveillance network that can zoom in on people half a mile away. In Korea where speeding cameras are all over streets, situation is even worse. Furthermore, the ticket dispenser in every tollbooth of Korean expressway entrance has a camera and takes picture of entering divers with a time stamp on it. Of course these CCTV cameras are set up to cope with accidents, crimes and terrorisms. However, nobody knows when and where these photos might be abused by a dishonest government officer. Dystopian society demonstrated in 1984 –citizens controlled and by ‘telescreens’ of a totalitarian government monitoring them day and night- might no longer be a simple fictional story in a nearby library anymore.

The major theme of 1984

The major theme of 1984 is that psychological control of a large number of people by a totalitarian government will be possible soon or later. We should take Orwell’s theme as a warning, and be prepared that this terrible situation would not happen to us.

People in the book 1984 do not have their private life. All citizens are monitored -regardless of time and place - through microphones and telescreens. The telescreen is a kind of video cameras that can send scenes to the government in real-time. In fact, Thought Police are the people who monitors people through these telescreens to search for and arrest traitors, the people who committed a ‘thoughtcrime’. Thoughtcrime is mental revolt against the Party or detesting the leader, Big Brother – which most people in Korea enjoy to do with their President these days - even though emotion is neither openly expressed nor discussed with others. People who have committed thoughtcrime are arrested as soon as it is discovered and they will be executed or tortured until they obey and love Big Brother. For instance, Winston Smith, the main character, gets caught by Thought Police, and as a result of torture, threat, and psychological control in the Ministry of Love, he finally loves Big Brother earnestly at the end of the book. The power of the Party finally controlled the main character who appeared to be the last controllable person in the world.

Forging the past data is another method of controlling citizens in the novel. Majority of Outer Party members including Winston revise past data so that they exactly match the current state. For example, Big Brother usually predicts the state of wars currently happening in his announcements, which is recorded in the Times magazine, and they are mostly different from what really happens. Consequently, Ministry of Truth has to forge Big Brother’s announcements to show that Big Brother is always right. Since the past data is unreliable, people have nothing to compare their life with when the Party announces that there are more food, clothes, babies, houses, fuels and transportations. The Party slogan is “Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.”

Any reader would think that it seems impossible to resolve the dystopian society after completing the novel. However, there is a sentence occasionally mentioned by Winston Smith; “If there is hope, it lies in the proles” (60).Winston is convinced that proles, the lower class people who occupies 85 percent of the population and not monitored by telescreens, must be able to destroy the Party only if they recognize their strength. I remember a similar situation in the novel, ‘Chocolate War’ written by Robert Cormier, where Archie controls students psychologically, and the students just follow The Vigils reluctantly not knowing that they have the power to overthrow The Vigils. Therefore, I believe that solution is right here as far as we believe in our power.

It is generally agreed upon that most developed countries in the world nowadays are not totalitarian. Nevertheless, several phenomena, which we need to be aware of in the light of the theme of George Orwell’s 1984, can still be found in those countries.

A significant passage from 1984

‘Goldstein! bellowed the boy as the door closed on him. But what most struck Winston was the look of helpless fright on the woman grayish face’.

First, I shall explain the situation in the passage. ‘The boy’ is the son of Parsons, Winston’s fellow worker, who is the leader of various committees and volunteer activities, though he is rather fat in appearance. ‘The woman’ is the boy’s mother or Parson’s wife. The boy, like any other child in his age at that time, hates the Thought-criminals and traitors, worships Big Brother, and adores the banners, songs, slogans, and processions. Winston happens to go to their house to help with some mechanical problems, and meets this boy yelling at him, “Traitor!” and throwing something on his neck with a catapult. In addition, in a later part of the novel, the younger sister of him listens to her father, Parsons, talking “Down with Big Brother” in his sleep through a keyhole. Immediately after his little daughter accuses him to patrols of the thought crime, next day, Thought Police takes Parsons to a prison. Children in the book 1984 are depicted as ‘little savages’. As you might have predicted, the government is brainwashing children because they are the ones who might lead Oceania.

I believe this passage is significant. A similar phenomenon is happening in Korea these days. Some teachers in schools tend to brainwashing students, especially young elementary school children, saying that The United States is the ‘bad guy’ and that we should unify with North Korea to be able to repulse the US, since we alone are too weak. I feel that those teachers might have some connections with the North, or be brainwashed themselves by the North. It is a serious crime to implant incorrect ideas to the brains of young children imperceptibly. It will make their flexible thinking permanently while world always goes through changes. In fact, several students in my age think that the US is always acting bad, violent, and cruel. Adults are using innocent young children to make social situations beneficial to themselves and to achieve their political greedy ambition. This crime must be stopped now.

Mood of 1984

The general mood of this dystopian novel, 1984 would be hopeless, dark, heavy, and restrained atmosphere. The book is divided into three chapters and the first chapter foreshadows the mood of the whole story. Smelt of boiled cabbage, old rag mats, poster of the face of Big Brother with a sentence, “Big Brother Is Watching You,” the cold looking world, Two Minutes Hate, all creates dark and restrained atmosphere. In addition, a little thrilling mood is felt in the part where Winston opens a thick, quarto-sized note book with a red back and a marble colored cover. Regardless of weather he wrote on the book or not, the fact that Winston owns it is enough for him to be caught by Thought Police. Depressed mood also arouses several times when Winston tries to recollect his past memories. The second chapter creates more thrilling atmosphere as Winston becomes more intrepid. He starts to meet the young woman with black long hair, Julia, and he also rents a small room above Mr. Charrington’s shop, and meets O’Brien personally for the secret association, the Brotherhood. The scene that forms the most intense atmosphere is when Julia and Winston are arrested by Thought Police disguised as an old man. The third chapter is in full of thrilling, horror and depressed mood. Winston gets caught by Thought Police and is sent to Ministry of Love for his reintegration which means being tortured. I feel very sad at the last part of the book, since my hero Winston loses all the character traits I like most.

The climax of 1984

Room 101 in the book 1984 written by George Orwell is the place where prisoners are brainwashed and reshaped as the type of person government wants; sordid, and obedient. Among the several incidents, the passage when Winston goes to Room 101 creates the strongest atmosphere. The climax of this novel develops at this passage where not only the intense scene is created but also where the theme of the book is revealed, since Winston finally surrenders here.

Winston has completed two stages of reintegration in the Ministry of Love, and he has left the last stage. It can be predicted that Winston has lost most of his desire and strength but he is still willing to destroy the Party. Room 101 is the place where the object a prisoner most fear is located, and in fact, what Winston fear with horror is a rat. O’Brien threats Winston vividly explaining what would happen to Winston’s body if he releases the rat on the top of his head. Winston begs to O’Brien, and recognizes that he must put someone else between the rat and himself so that the person will get tortured instead of him. Winston finally shouts to do this to Julia, instead, desperate to survive, becoming degraded and betraying. Upon observing Winston I am shocked, disappointed and felt as if a thin ray of light is shading, though I knew he will. I laid at least a little bit of hope on him, however he betrays Julia at last desperate to save his own life. Winston seems to become miserable and wretched to me even though he gains strenth again, since it seems that he is starting to do ‘crimestop’ and ‘doublethink’ just as other typical Party members.

To conclude, the climax of this novel is the scene when Winston is sent to Room 101, which is the passage that shows the weakness of human beings. However, a question still bothers me; “Are we so weak that we would not be able to resist to the power of a bad government? Wouldn’t we be able to fight against evil?”

The main character of 1984

Winston Smith, the main character of George Orwell’s 1984, is a 39-year-old employee working in Records Department in the Ministry of Truth. He seems to be a typical middle aged man but hates Big Brother in his mind. My emotion towards Winston has changed as the story goes on. I liked the main character while reading the first part of the novel since he was not brainwashed as most of the other people were. Winston seemed to be the only hope in the dystopian society. Nevertheless, he acts very foolish, such as keeping a diary which is unworthy since nobody will be able to read it, renting a small room above an old curio shop of a man that he doesn’t know enough to trust, and having a relationship with a girl though he knows it will be discovered soon by Thought Police. It seems that Winston do those actions because he is not courageous and confident enough to fight against the Party face to face or because he wishes to revolt against Big Brother but he couldn’t think of any other way to do it. I am disappointed when Winston starts to think that two plus two is five, and is gradually brainwashed by O’ Brein’s obstinate questions and painful torture.

Winston Smith at the end of the novel reveals how weak we are. Our hero has proven that humans are so fragile both physically and psychologically, that we all eventually surrender if we are obstinately brainwashed. Nearly all main characters has something special that will lead them to show readers what writers want people to know, which turns out to be the weakness of human in this novel. Though Winston Smith has defeated, I believe he has done a great job in sending us the message from Orwell.