2008년 3월 3일 월요일

Lord of the Flies - Characters


*who are the main characters in the novel? do you like them? why or why not? what is special about them? what do they reveal about the universal human experience?

There were mainly six characters that represented certain aspects in our society. Used to be the team leader, Ralph represented human civilization but more generally, the good side of human beings. He wanted to settle there to survive. Also, he was the one who supported building shelters and a signal fire. Although he was full of good ideas, he failed to persuade and control others to support himself due to his lack of leadership.


On the other hand, Jack represented the natural savagery. Angered at Ralph's leadership position, he decided to rebel against him and finally gained attention and formed his hunting group. He only thought about himself and the short-term future, which led him and his group to do what they want, not thinking about the counter plans about the final outcomes.


In addition, Piggy represented the scientific aspect of our nature. Even though he was fat, ugly, and had asthma, he had a superior brain. He invented water clock and suggested Ralph to blow the conch to summon the boys. Because he was weak at speaking in front of others, he used Ralph to suggest ideas instead and worked with him.


Representing the natural goodness, often related to Jesus, Simon was the only one who knew the truth of the beast. However, due to his calm and peaceful characteristic, he could not get along with other boys well, which often led him to go into the forest and meditate.


Furthermore, Roger, being the lieutenant of Jack, represented the sadistic aspect of human beings. He often irritated or annoyed the little kids by throwing rocks at them, making them frightened. Also, he killed Piggy at last by rolling the huge boulder.

Lastly, Lord of the Flies was a significant character too. Actually, it was the pig’s head that Jack offered to the beast. It represented the human beings’ internal evilness. Through the Lord of the Flies, we could know that there are limits to people’s tendency to be civilized and have rules. It proved that the natural evilness is embedded in everyone’s mind.


In addition, the novel itself was a microcosm of our society. The older boys ruled while the little kids such as Sam and Eric had to always obey at them. This phenomenon is the basic idea of nowadays-political society.


I really liked Ralph. Although he was not successful at being the leader of the whole, he tried his best and never gave up his will. Even everyone joined Jack's group, he thought that he himself was doing the right thing and had to endure from other boys' attack.

댓글 1개:

Soulja Mogli :

First of all, it would be my pleasure to tell you what a good job you have done. It is great, however, there some things that I disagree. First, I do not agree that there are six characters, but rather four: Ralph, Piggy, Simon, and Jack. Roger is merely a character, just simply another servant of Jack, simply serving him. But, you did a good job in an attempt to persuade to me that the lord of the flies (pig head) is one of the main characters. However, I still believe that the focus in more of the evil inside the kids rather than the evil of the lord of the flies.Well, overall,it was good.