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Verslag Lord of the Flies VWO4
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Lord of the Flies VWO4 report, fully developed and achieved a 10.0 in VWO 4.
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A summary for Chapters 7-12 in Lord of the Flies by William Golding includes QUOTES (please check the description as I have split the original document and have included something in the description)
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Summary of Chapters 1-6 in Lord of the Flies including QUOTES
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WHOLE BOOK SUMMARY OF LORD OF THE FLIES
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Human or inhuman?The Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a novel in which the theme of civilization versus savagery is explored.
William Golding’s 1954 novel “The Lord of the Flies,” tells the story of a group of British boys that are stranded on an
isolated island during a fictitious nuclear war. On the island, there are no rules, no parents, and therefore no
structure. It is just the group of boys that need to survive. All boys are reckless at heart when they find themselves in
an unstructured setting, their Id is stronger than their superego, they have different values and priorities, and being
in a group badly affects their behavior. We see a conflict on the island between two main characters, Jack and Ralph,
who represent civilization and savagery, respectively. This conflict affects the rest of the boys throughout the story as
they delve further and further into savagery.
The Id of boys is stronger than their superego. They are pleasure-oriented and selfish instead of being considerate.
“The id is the most primitive part of the personality that is the source of all our most basic urges. The id is entirely
unconscious and serves as the source of all libidinal energy,” (Kendra Cherry, 2022). One of the ways Golding shows
us this is when Jack and some of the other boys are killing the first pig on the island. “Kill the pig, cut her throat, spill
the blood” (Golding, 1954)1. The boys are violent and aggressive when killing the pig and do not even care a little
about the feelings of the pig. Jack is talking about cutting the pig’s throat as well as spilling the blood which shows
the lack of feeling and care shown towards the pig. This incident exemplifies that boys prioritize their feelings and
pleasure over those that from others. In conclusion, boys do not care enough about others’ feelings to let their Id
down and show empathy.
Another point to consider is that boys have different values and priorities, even at times when they shouldn’t. The
boys are stranded on an island where the main goal is to survive, at least, that is what you would think. On the
contrary, Jack is a savage, and he is not interested in what others have to say, even though it might be helpful to
survive on the island. “You didn’t ought to have let that fire out. You said you’d keep the smoke going—" (Golding,
1954)2. This sentence was said by Piggy. They made a fire so the group could get noticed by passing boats and could
get rescued from the island. Whereas Piggy prioritized the fire to keep on burning, Jack thought it would be fun to
slaughter a pig. At first, Jack hesitates to slaughter the pig, he is still relatively civilized. As such, he cannot yet handle
the enormity of shedding the blood of another creature. However, their different desires show that Piggy had
different priorities than Jack. “The fire was dead, the ship was gone. Could they not see? Anger instead of decency
passed his throat” (Golding, 1954) 3. Ralph gets angry at Jack for attacking Piggy. His priority is to enforce rules and let
everyone have an equal say. “That was a dirty trick” (Golding, 1954) 4 he said. This shows that Jack, Piggy, and Ralph
have different values and priorities. Jack wants to be cool, Piggy wants to survive and Ralph wants civilization.
When boys are in a group, it badly affects their behavior. “Researchers find that being in a group makes some people
lose touch with their personal moral beliefs,” (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2014). Being in a group
drastically increases the chances of something unusual happening. When people come together in a group, it makes
them more likely to harm others that do not belong to this group. Take Jack and the boys killing the pig as an
example. They killed the pig because it did not belong to the group and therefore did not matter. The same thing
happens a few times in the book with Piggy too. For example, Piggy is not get taken seriously when he has the conch,
even though the rule was that everyone needs to listen to the person with the conch. He belongs to the group but is
also different from the rest. Jack makes impulsive decisions whereas Piggy is smarter. The fact that he is left outside
the group allows him to make decisions properly and stay close to himself. So, we can conclude that being in a group
influences the behavior of boys in a bad way.
In conclusion, William Golding’s novel “The Lord of the Flies” shows the theme of civilization versus savagery. Ralph
represents civilization as he wants to let everyone have an equal say in contrast with Jack who represents savagery as
he is not interested in what the other boys have to say. Also, Jack just does what he feels like doing because he
enjoys adventure and life without adults. The fact that the Id of boys is stronger than their superego, the different
priorities and values, and being in a group makes it hard for the boys to be reasonable. Through the actions of the
boys, Golding demonstrates the importance of having structure and consciously enforcing them in order for society
to function correctly.
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Page 96
2
Page 100
3
Page 102
4
Page 102
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