Essay: William Golding's "Lord of the Flies"
Evil will triumph until we realise that
there are inner evils within ourselves. The eye-opening novel, Lord of the
Flies written by William Golding, embodies such an idea that humans are
inherently evil, not the objects of which that are usually blamed. This theme has
transcended time and brings to our attention that we are ignorant of our sins and
warns us of the dangers of blaming our faults on other objects. I have
displayed this key theme in my representation through use of visual techniques.
The salient feature in the background is an
image of a knife and gun that have been used to represent typical things that
are blamed for evil acts, which are on demand. Beneath are hands that all point
to the objects, signifying the accusation. However, both the gun and the knife
are man-made. This, coupled with the lack of any natural objects or materials
subtly emphasises the human nature and fault that is present. The hands are
black, juxtaposing to the empty and colourless objects, emphasising that the
hands which are pointing to the objects are at fault, not the objects
themselves.
The eyes are drawn to the foreground by
vectors along one of the arms to the central and salient feature, the human silhouette.
Lack of realism has been used in the silhouette and the lack of facial features
allows the viewer to assimilate with the representation. The juxtaposition of
black and white within the person has been used to show the battle between good
and evil within all humans and how inherent evil is present – the black
sections. The majority of the person however is black; signifying that evil
within is triumphing over the good, as it goes unnoticed. Furthermore, to
encourage the idea that evilness is triumphing dark clouds are emerging, slowly
consuming the background. However, the
viewer can see that the attention is instead on the man-made objects.
The angle that has been used is an oblique
angle and the hands appear to come from the viewer. Tis derives the notion that
we are the ignorant and evil ones. The words in the upper left corner
exacerbate this idea. An Albert Einstein quote has been used “”. This coupled
with the other two quotes by … and … respectively “” and “” show the capacity
that humans have for evil. It informs us that humans are the ones that are evil
not the rest of the world. In addition,
it brings to our attention that our ignorance will allow evil acts to
continue and warns that if we don’t see our faults then we won’t realise the
damage that we’ve made until it has already been done.
This message of evil triumphing due to
ignoring our inner evils has transcended time; such is shown in my
representation with the lack of time identifying objects or materials. I’ve
highlighted that the evils behind the acts were not the weapons through
juxtaposing black and white and have used visual techniques to not only draw
the viewer in but to also re-emphasise that humans do have the capacity for
evil and the danger of evils growing if we don’t realise our faults.
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