Lord of the Flies Group

Question:

nataliqtaneva
nataliqtaneva
Student
High School - 11th Grade

How does this novel (Lord of the Flies) represent what goes on within our society?

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Posted by nataliqtaneva on Monday May 7, 2007 at 5:31 PM and tagged with goes on, lord of the flies, novel, our, represent, society.

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  1. gbeatty Teacher
    College - Freshman

    eNotes Editor

    Lord of the Flies represents what goes on in our society in several ways. First and most simply, the boys on the island have been trained and educated well. They should be able to live moral lives, and to organize a peaceful and healthy society. That they cannot points out some of the weaknesses in our civilization.

    Second, individual characters represent different types of person from our society, and therefore can be read as commentary upon them.

    Third, and most generally, they form a society in miniature. Therefore, what happens in their society mirrors what happens in ours (and vice versa).

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/flies/

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    Posted by gbeatty on Monday May 7, 2007 at 5:37 PM


  2. mrerick Teacher
    High School - 12th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    Take a look at any situation where supervision is removed and see how people of any age act. In a school setting, do the students act the same when a teacher is out of the classroom as opposed to in it? Do teachers act the same when a principal is supervising? It's the same for most jobs - do any employees do the same things when they know a boss is watching as opposed to when they know a boss isn't?

    This novel is a large, vicious view of that concept. What happens to people when authority and accountability are removed? Golding contends that we're savages underneath and can't help but revert back to savage behavior. However, there is always the Ralph or Piggy who is able to retain those civilized ways. Unfortunately, they're a minority with a large uphill battle to fight.

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    Posted by mrerick on Monday May 7, 2007 at 9:47 PM


  3. alanrice Teacher
    High School - 10th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    One reasonable approach to the novel is to regard it as a political work. Golding sugests that reasonable, benelovent, "fair" governments are ineffectual compared to the compelling dynamism of an auturocracy. In order to repel such dictatorships, democracies need to be willing to dispense with some of the liberties which their people so cherish. Jack's tyranny is fearful, but it's fun. It's exciting. It brings out the beast in the boys, just as a charasmatic dictator brings out the beast in society.

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    Posted by alanrice on Tuesday May 15, 2007 at 7:00 AM