Lord of the Flies Literary Analysis Essay Sample

Can you imagine being in a plane crash during a war and then landing on an island with nothing but children and the children include you?  This is the exact scenario that a 12 year old boy named Ralph was in.  In this essay we can see how this book was not just a book, but also an accurate depiction of a life that I do not think anyone wants to live or be a part of.  We could still fall into the same situation that Ralph was in if we are not careful on who we relate ourselves to.  This book teaches us to always be cautious.  

The book “Lord of the Flies” had many themes in it.  After doing research on all the themes that could have applied to the book, I think the one that was most applicable was the theme of how humans have an inner evil and savage part to them and when that part of them has the opportunity to come out it does full throttle.  We can see after not too long of time on the island by themselves, some of the boys already started with the littlest thing of painting their faces but then quickly advanced to basically sacrificing one another.  Another example that would support my idea of the theme is how Jack used to be just an innocent little choir boy and then he turned into this vicious tribe leader who was willing to burn down all his resources to live just to kill an enemy of his.  There are many more examples similar to Jack’s situation, and they all followed the same similar pattern, they boys were originally innocent and then it seems almost within a week, if not shorter, they turned down a totally different path.

At the time that “Lord of the Flies” was written it was a controversial time.  A big and major event that probably most influenced the book was World War II.  This book was written in 1954, so the world was still recovering from the tragic war that affected everybody.  Another way that the war may have influenced the book was how the author, William Golding, was actually in the war and served in command of a rocket launcher and was there and participated in the invasion of Normandy.  Coming out of the war Golding was able to see firsthand all of the evil that humans were capable of, and I think we can read that very vividly on the pages that he wrote.  Though this novel is fiction, we can see how it explores human evil and how one could truly imagine how humans could be if they were to go uncivilized.  

I think the theme that this book has will always apply to any culture as long as humans live.  Still today, we as humans sometimes struggle choosing between what is right and what is wrong.  If you were to put humans in the same situation that the boys were in in this novel, you would find a very similar outcome.  When there is no one to control and limit what we can do, people will revert back to prehistoric days when there was no filter.  But as soon as those people come across a leader who represents civilization, you will find that all of the sudden the savagery is gone just like how the boys were when they stumbled upon the solider on the beach and then the people would immediately regret what they have done. 

In conclusion, this book was a warning sign made back in the 50’s that we still should watch out for today.  Although time has changed, peoples actions have not.  Since this book was so strongly influenced by World War II, it still has the message of how if we let the wrong people in power how bad things can happens to people who do not deserve it.  There was such a strong sense of fear in this book that radiated from Piggy so it also shows us how we cannot always be scared because then we will end up with a fate similar to him.  This book was a great book to read and really gave a good outlook on what life can be like.