The Best of the Bureau/The_Best_of_the_Bureau_Bureau_Development_Inc._1992.iso/dp/0126/01260.txt

Text File | 1992-08-07 | 28KB | 488 lines

$Unique_ID{bob01260}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Works of William Golding
Character Analyses}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Golding, William}
$Affiliation{Department Of English, Bard College}
$Subject{boys
answer
evil
society
ralph
represents
human
novel
island
jack}
$Date{}
$Log{}
Title:       Works of William Golding
Book:        Lord of the Flies
Author:      Golding, William
Critic:      Dewsnap, Terence
Affiliation: Department Of English, Bard College

Character Analyses

     Ralph: An attractive boy and a natural leader, the sort of intelligent,
well-adjusted, athletic boy who easily might become the idol of his
schoolmates. We meet him in the first chapter as he leads the way out of the
jungle while Piggy lumbers after him. That he is fair-haired suggests that he
is a child of fortune, one who is blessed by nature with grace, strength, and
luck. There is recklessness to his manner. He seems happy at the prospect of
living on a deserted island, away from the influence of adults. The setting
fosters dreams of heroic adventure in which he is the protagonist. He will
overcome all of the difficulties present in his surroundings, lead a
joyously exciting jungle life, then optimistically await a glamorous rescue
by his naval-officer father. Unfortunately, his dreams are frustrated when
nature and his fellow youths refuse to cooperate with his romantic vision.
And, as his dream becomes more difficult of attainment, he loses confidence
and calmness and begins to indulge himself in escape fantasies and dreams of
the past. Gradually, he forfeits the respect of the other boys. A contrasting
characteristic to his tendency to dream is his common sense. He is quick to
assess the situation of the boys in realistic terms. He sees what must be
done for their survival and rescue and sets about arranging parliamentary
meetings, building a signal fire, and constructing huts. He appraises the
advice of Piggy according to its practicality. He fights against the
superstition and terror of the boys as being detrimental to the organized
progress of their society. Ralph is by no means a perfect character. He is
often mean to those weaker than himself, particularly the faithful Piggy.
Occasionally he performs rash and foolish actions. He even joins in the murder
of Simon. He shares in the universal guilt of man. But he does show a
clearsightedness that none of the others possess in the same way. It is his
common-sense view that prevails at the end of the novel when he graduates from
his experience on the island with a more mature knowledge of himself and the
world around him. He recognizes the universal presence of evil as a condition
of life. He is capable of appreciating the tragedy of the loss of innocence
that is the common heritage of man.

     More than any other character, Ralph represents the outlook of the
author-and the outlook that he expects his reader to share. He is not as
intellectual as Piggy and he is not as religious as Simon, but he dreams the
dreams of freedom and adventure that enliven the progress of western society.
He is the most complete, most human, and most heroic of the characters in the
novel, and the one with whom readers most readily identify.

     Jack Merridew: "He was tall, thin, and bony, and his hair was red beneat
the black cap. His face was crumpled and freckled, and ugly without
silliness." A cruel and ugly bully, he early develops a taste for violence. He
is a leader of the choir at first, and then of the hunters. His leadership
resides in his ability to threaten and frighten those under him. He is always
ready for a fight. His victory over Piggy represents the triumph of violence
over intellect, as he smashes one of the lenses of the fat boy's glasses. The
knife that he carries is a symbol of the death and destruction that accompany
his every act. He does have some attractive qualities-bravery and
resourcefulness. But these are easily obscured by his wrath, envy, pride,
hatred, and lust for blood. He is constantly attempting to weaken Ralph's hold
on the boys. He suggests opposite measures, he shouts abusively, he threatens,
he is constantly demanding to be made chief. In all, he is a complete stranger
to polite behavior. In his constant rivalry with Ralph, and in his constant
preoccupation with killing, whether it be pigs or fellow human beings, he is a
diabolical force, plunging the boys into a chaos of brute activities. His
egotistical outbursts and his temper tantrums suggest that he is immature in
his social development. But as hunter and killer he is extremely precocious.
The readiness with which he throws himself into the existence of a savage, as
he pauses to sniff the air for scent, or falls to his knees to inspect the pig
droppings, or runs naked and painted through the forest, suggests the
flimsiness of the restraints and patterns of civilization in a personality in
which the destructive passions flow strongly.

     If the novel is read as religious allegory, Jack emerges as an envoy of
the Devil, enticing the other boys to sin. If the novel is read as a
representation of Freudian principles, Jack represents the primitive urges of
the id. In the symbolic representation of the processes of life and death,
Jack suggests, both in the black cloaks which he and his followers wear and in
his association with darkness, the power of death. In his first appearance,
coming out of the "darkness of the forest" to face Ralph, whom he cannot see
because his back is to the sun, Jack represents the Satanic and deathly force
coming to confront the divine and life giving man of light. The blood that he
wallows in is a further representation of deathliness. When, after his first
kill, "Jack transferred the knife to his left hand and smudged blood over his
forehead as he pushed down the plastered hair," he unconsciously imitates the
ritual of the tribal initiation of the hunter, whose face is covered with the
blood of his first kill. Finally, if the novel is read as the story of human
civilization, Jack represents the influences of unreason and confusion and
violence as they operate counter to the progress of human virtues and social
institutions.

     Piggy: This intellectual is an outsider. He manages for a time to have
some influence on the group through Ralph, who recognizes his brilliance and
puts into effect several of his suggestions. But, generally, the boys are
quick to ridicule him for his fatness, asthma, and lack of physical skill. An
orphan brought up under the care of an aunt, he has developed into a sissy. He
cannot do anything for himself, whether it be to gather fruit, blow the conch
shell, or build huts. He always tries to hide when the other boys are involved
in manual labor. At home, presumably, his favorite pastime would be sitting in
a chair, reading. His frequent appeals to the adult world, and his attempt to
model his behavior on that of teachers and other grown-ups evokes the contempt
of the boys. Further, he makes the mistake of pressing too hard for
acceptance. In his first appearance in Chapter 1, he attempts so diligently to
win the favor or Ralph that he only alienates Ralph at the same time that he
gives him personal information about himself that Ralph can then use to hurt
him. His life on the island is a series of unhappy embarrassments, including
being taunted by the boys, being beaten, and having his glasses broken and
stolen. Finally, at the instigation of Jack, he is killed by Roger.

     He represents an attitude of mind that is conservative and civilized. His
eyeglasses, which are constantly steamed, and that he absolutely needs to see
anything, separate him from the world of activity and adventure in which he
cannot participate as freely as the other boys, and confine him to the realm
of his own mind. Possibly because he is the bookish member of the group, he
tends to be more scientific than the rest, and also more skeptical. His
knowledge of science is shown in his plan to build sundials. His skepticism
keeps him from participating in the superstitions of the other bo