Savagery and Civilization in Lord of the Flies
Lord of the Flies is set during an unspecified nuclear war, the boys arrive on the island after their plane crashes on to an isolated island. What follows is the boy’s descent into savagery after they realise they are not confined to the rules of civilization. Lord of the Flies displays the conflict between our civilised selves and our brutal inner nature.
Character analysis Lord of the Flies
Ralph
He is twelve years old, athletically built and from a prosperous family.
He has natural leadership qualities which do not depend simply upon his possession of the conch. These qualities however, do not include the ruthlessness and assertiveness needed to counter Jack’s opposition.
Ralph thinks slowly and is dependant upon Piggy’s inspiration for ideas.
He and Piggy are the only boys to set their minds on the ultimate necessity of rescue.
Ralph is a kind character and feels responsibility for the ‘littluns’ and guilt over his participation in Simon’s death.
Ralph’s moral sense survives longer than most other characters. At the end of the novel, when he believes he is to be executed, this moral instinct is still preserved: ‘he was down…trying to cry for mercy’.
Ralph’s most notable quality is his conscience as he worries for the welfare of the other boys and is determined to keep a fire on the beach so they will be rescued.
Jack
Jack is first described as ‘something dark…the creature’. He wears a swirling black cloak and is the head of a procession of choirboys.
He is always associated with shadow or darkness and lack of light.
Jack differs from Ralph both physically and emotionally as he lacks compassion for the other boys. He sets himself in competition with Ralph from the start and eventually becomes the leader after he promises more ‘fun’.
There are occasions when he can be seen as quite vulnerable such as when he finds he is unable to slaughter a pig.
Jack learns to exploit the fears of the littluns generally because he shares them.
Jack represents the ‘reversion to savagery’. Behind the war paint he is able to conceal his civilized persona of ‘Jack Merridew’ and become a savage creature.
Piggy
Piggy is described as fat and greedy as his nickname implies.
He tries to present himself as a mature character by describing the other boys as a ‘crowd of kids’, yet he fears being alone.
He is the most intellectual of the children and advices Ralph on survival techniques.
He lacks the ability to impress the other boys like Ralph and Jack do but he does present the most sensible suggestions.
Piggy maintains a loyal friend to Ralph.
Piggy represents man’s capacity to invent. His death shows the intolerance of society towards its thinkers.
Initially the boys in Lord of the Flies enjoy their new freedom, but under the strain of complete isolation they develop tensions which result in conflict. They reject the first leader, replacing him with a boy that they feel is more capable of coping with the physical hardship of the island. The community they develop is aggressive but also prepared to accept his absolute authority. When rescue finally arrives the boys of Lord of the Flies have lost all touch with the civilised values of their former lives.
“The Universe is not hostile, nor yet is it friendly. It is simply indifferent”.-
J.H.Holmes-‘Sensible Man’s View of Religion’(1879).
‘Snowdrop’-Ted Hughes (1930-1998)-
Now is the globe shrunk tight
Round the mouse’s dulled wintering heart.
Weasel and crow, as if moulded in brass,
Move through an outer darkness
Not in their minds,
With the other deaths. She, too, pursues her ends,
Brutal as the stars of this month,
Her pale head heavy as metal.
10 Facts for the week-
1.Nissan is Britain’s biggest car maker.
2.The bootprints on the lunar surface dust made by the Apollo astronauts will probably last for a million years or more. Only the gentle erosion of micrometeorites will eventually destroy them.
3.The winter of 1683-84 is the coldest winter ever recorded in the United Kingdom.
4.Adolf Hitler was sworn in as the 15th Chancellor of the Weimar Republic of Germany on 30 January, 1933.
5.Cricket-Sri Lanka hold the record for the World’s highest ever Test score, 952-6 declared v.India at Coliombo,1997. The match ended in a draw.
6.The supporting tower of the 1976 Montreal Olympic Stadium, at 574 feet(175 metres) high is the World’s tallest leaning building. The Leaning Tower of Pisa is 183 feet high.
7.Red Dwarf stars are so miserly with the burning of their nuclear fuel that many will live for 10 trillion years, 1,000 times as long as the Sun.
8.The Colosseum, Rome was built 70-80 A.D. on the site of Nero’s Golden House. The classical orders of architecture are used to decorate the exterior of the building.
9.Horse Racing-In 1934 Golden Miller won the Cheltenham Gold cup and the Grand National in the same year, the only time this feat has been achieved.
10.During World War Two, Tours was capital of France for 4 days in June 1940, after the government fled Paris after the Nazi invasion.
“History is a myth we all agree to believe”- Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821).
‘The Sunlight On The Garden’-Louis MacNeice-(1938)
The sunlight on the garden
Hardens and grows cold,
We cannot cage the minute
Within its nets of gold,
When all is told
We cannot beg for pardon.
Our freedom as free lances
Advances towards its end;
The earth compels, upon it
Sonnets and birds descend;
And soon, my friend,
We shall have no time for dances.
The sky was good for flying
Defying the church bells
And every evil iron
Siren and what it tells:
The earth compels,
We are dying,Egypt, dying.
And not expecting pardon,
Hardened in heart anew,
But glad to have sat under
Thunder and rain with you,
And grateful too
For the sunlight on the garden.
10 Facts for the week-
1.Singaporewas founded as a trading post by the British in 1819.
2.With a spire that reaches to 530 feet high, Ulm Cathedral,Germanyis the tallest church in the World.
3. Folding in 1992, Maidstone Utd were the last Football League club to be liquidated.
4.It was uranium mined in the Belgium Congo (now Democratic Republic of Congo) that was used in the atomic bombs dropped onHiroshimaand Nagosaki in August 1945, which brought World War Two to an end.
5.The Proclamation of theTurkishRepublicin 1923 marked the end of theOttoman Empire(founded 1288). The Empire was extant 635 years.
6.Tanganika merged withZanzibarin 1964 to becomeTanzania.
7.The Siberian taiga makes up a quarter of the total area of forest in the World.
8.In the Universe, if the dark-energy expansion continues, it will push galaxies away farther and farther. That means, by A.D. 100 billion, the Milky Way will be the only galaxy in the observable Universe.
9.The Mercers are number one in the City Livery companies list.
10.A lettuce leaf is 94% water.
“When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more hideous crimes that have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion”-C.P.Snow (1905-1980)
I stood and stared, the sky was lit,
The sky was stars all over it,
I stood, I knew not why,
Without a wish, without a will,
I stood upon that silent hill
And stared into the sky until
My eyes were blind with stars
And still I stared into the sky.
-Ralph Hodgson (1871-1962)
10 Facts for the week-
1.Veniceis sinking at a rate of 12 inches each century, there are several reasons including compression of the mud on the floor of the lagoon and water being extracted from wells. The rising of the world’s sea levels will also add to the problem.
2.Football-No London club has ever won the European Cup/Champion’s League. Chelsea have reached the 2012 quarter finals with a 5-4 aggregate victory over Napoli and are the only English team still in it, so may be the capital’s long wait for a victor in Europe’s premier competition could be over.
3.Aristotle (384B.C.-322B.C.) thought that the Earth was eternal, but not infinite. He thought the Earth was the centre of the Universe.
4.The British, led by Sir Herbert Kitchener defeated the Sudanese Dervishes atOmdurman,2 September,1898, adding one million square miles to theBritish Empire. The British lost 48 men, compared to over 10,000 Dervishes.The Battle featured the last cavalry charge made by the British army.(Sir) Winston Churchill was a participant in the conflict.
5.The ice in an Antarctic iceberg is around 100,000 years old.
6.Saint David’s in West Wales, with it’s tiny 12th Century Cathedral, is the U.K.’s smallest city.
7.Palermobecame capital ofSicilyin 902 A.D. Art critic Andrew Graham-Dixon describes it as his “favourite city anywhere in the World”.
8.’Bild’, founded in 1952 isGermany’s biggest-selling newspaper.
9.At the summit ofMount Everest, the air pressure is only 0.31 of what it is at sea level.
10.Metallica’s third studio album ‘Master of Puppets’ (1986) is said by many rock journalists to be “the greatest metal album of all time”.
“In every outthrust headland, in every curving beach, in every grain of sand there is a story of the earth.”- Rachel Carson (1907-1964)-
‘Ballade of the men who were hanged’ by Francois Villon.(1431-1463)-
My brothers who live after us,
Don’t harden your hearts against us too,
If you have mercy now on us,
God may have mercy upon you.
Five, six, you see us, hung out to view.
When the flesh that nourished us well
Is eaten piecemeal, ah, see it swell,
And we, the bones, are dust and gall,
Let no one make fun of our ill,
But pray that God absolves us all.
No need, if we cry out to you, brothers,
To show disdain, if we’re in suspense
For justice’s sake. How few of the others,
Are men equipped with common sense.
Pray for us, now beyond violence,
To the Son of the Virgin Mary,
So of grace to us she’s not chary,
Shields us from Hell’s lightning fall.
We’re dead : the souls let no man harry,
But pray that God absolves us all.
The rain has soaked us, washed us : skies
Of hot suns blacken us, scorch us : crows
And magpies have gouged out our eyes,
Plucked at our beards, and our eyebrows.
.
There’s never a moment’s rest allowed :
Now here, now there, the changing breeze
Swings us, as it wishes, ceaselessly,
Beaks pricking us more than a cobbler’s awl.
So don’t you join our fraternity,
But pray that God absolves us all.
10 Facts for the week-
1. February 2012 – Apple shares reach $500 each-cementing its position as the World’s most valuable company.
2. There was no year zero, 1 B.C. was followed by 1 A.D.
3. Viewing a supernova is rare, however, at any moment in time there is one happening in the known Universe.
4. Pygmalion was the mythical King of Cyprus who sculpted an ivory statue of the goddess Aphrodite and then fell in love with it.
5. The Saffir-Simpson Scale is used to measure the strength of hurricanes. The scale runs from 1 to 5 and the same hurricane can be gauged at different points on it, depending on its current strength.
6. Football-February 2012Zambiawin the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations for the first time in their history. In 1993 18 members of the squad were killed in a plane crash.
7. Pearl Jam’s 1992 debut album ‘10’ is so-called because their favorite basketball player, Mookie Blaycock wore the number 10 on his shirt. Pearl Jam was originally called Mookie Blaycock.
8. After the Peloponnesian War 431-404 B.C., in whichSpartadefeatedAthens, neither city-state attained their previous strength, due to war fatigue.
9. British transportation of criminals toAustraliawas ended in 1852 – due to Australian complaints of being used as a dumping ground.
10. If two pieces of metal touch in space, they become permanently welded together.
1.There are at least 2 solar eclipses to be seen from the Earth every year.
2.Formula One-In 1975 Hesketh Racing won a Grand Prix, the last private team to do so.It was the only F1 victory in Hesketh’s 1973-1978 participation and took place at the Dutch Grand Prix with James Hunt as driver.
3.Quebec Cityis the only walled city inNorth America.
4.Mozart-‘A Musical Joke’ was so called because he was having a joke at the quality of some of the orchestras he had to work with. The piece is used as the theme tune to theBBC’s ‘Show Jumping’ programme.
5.TheLondonEye is the biggest wheel in the world.
6.In the Bible, the book ‘Ruth’ is set inPersia.
7.There are no volcanoes inEgypt.
8.The Earth is closest to the Sun in January and furthest from the Sun in July.
9.The Rolling Stones- ‘Sticky Fingers’ 1971 album cover was designed by the artist Andy Warhol.
10.Football – West Ham Utd in 1980 were the last team outside the top tier to win the FA Cup. They beat Arsenal 1-0.
Macclesfield Tutorial College requires graduates to join our expanding team of tutors. We specialise in providing tutors for individual tuition and class tuition at our centre or at the home of the pupil. Although we already have a large number of tutors on our database we are always happy to hear from new ones.
We are looking for enthusiastic graduates who can tutor in the following subjects:
- Geography
- History
- English Literature and English language
- Art
There is work available in the daytime, evening or weekends. We aim to offer tuition at all levels from primary tuition to ‘A’ Level
The registration is completely free! We do require details of two referees prepared to give confidential references. All you need to do is contact Macclesfield Tutorial College on:
Tel: 01625 501440
Email: office@experttutorials.co.uk
It looks as if most of the mass of the Universe is in the form of ‘dark energy’-an incredible proposition. Dark energy-not to be confused with dark matter is gravitationally repulsive, making the Universe expand faster and faster. Nobody knows what dark energy is. It could be the energy of outer space, as was suggested by Albert Einstein in 1917, or it could be a mysterious new field.
Familiar matter, such as atoms makes up only about 4% of the mass of the Universe. 22% is dark matter, as yet unidentified, while 74% is in the form of dark energy which pervades all space. Nothing less than the ultimate fate of the Universe hinges on the nature of dark energy. Accelerating expansion turns the Universe into a sort of inside-out black hole. In an accelerating Universe, the galaxies move apart from one another, faster and faster, and eventually disappear completely across one another’s event horizons. It looks from currant observation that the accelerating nature of space means that eternal expansion is the fate of the Universe, which would continue eternally. At present it is suggested by many cosmologists that our Universe is just one set amid an infinite assemblage of ‘universes’- a multiverse- itself embedded in inflating space that exists without end.
“Art is never finished, only abandoned”-Leonardo da Vinci
‘The Rock Pool’ – Edward Shanks(1892-1953)-
This is the sea.In these uneven walls
A wave lies prisoned. Far and far away
Outward to ocean, as the slow tide falls,
Her sisters through the capes that hold the bay
Dancing in lovely liberty recede.
Yet lovely in captivity she lies,
Filled with soft colours, where the waving weed
Moves gently and discloses to our eyes
Blurred shining veins of rock and lucent shells
Under the light-shot water; and here repose
Small quiet fish and dimly glowing bells
Of sleeping sea-anemones that close
Their tender fronds and will not now awake
Till on these rocks the waves returning break.
10 Facts for the week-
1.The Venetian Empire lasted from roughly 1000 to 1500. It was a loose network of ports and bases with little actual territory to administer.
2.Football-The ‘double’ of League Champions and F.A.Cup winners has been achieved 11 times, starting with Preston North End’s win in the inaugural 1888-9 season. It has been done by 7 different clubs-
PrestonN.E.-1889
Aston Villa-1897
Tottenham Hotspur-1961
Arsenal-1971,1998,2002
Liverpool-1986
ManchesterUnited-1994,1996,1999
Chelsea-2010
3.The 9.0 magnitude earthquake off the coast ofJapanin March 2011, tilted the planet by 25 cm.
4.Botony-Candlemas Bells is another name for snowdrops.
5.There are about 3,000 species of catfish in the world. They are found in every continent, exceptAntarctica.
6. Fuzzy Logic-in mathematics and computing. A form of knowledge representation suitable for nothing (such as ‘hot’ or ‘loud’) that cannot be defined precisely, but which depend on the context e.g. a jug of water may be described as too hot or too cold, depending on whether it is ti be used to wash ones face or to make tea.
7.The last time theU.K.won the Eurovision Song Contest was in 1997, with ‘Love Shine A Light’ by Katrina and the Waves.
8.The average salinity (salt content) of the World’s oceans is 3.5%.
9.The Winter Palace, built in 1732 inSt Petersburg,Russiais so-called because it was the winter home of the Tsars.
10.The Zollverrein was a German customs union between various large and small independent states that made upGermany. It developed between 1815 and 1830 under the leadership ofPrussia.
