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These two texts are examples of allegories. On the surface they are both exiting adventure stories about people being stranded on desert islands. However both texts can also be interpreted as moral messages. In Lord of the Flies Golding explores the theory of atavism, that is whether the boys (representing human kind) are naturally evil but have had their nature stifled by the ritual of society, and whether when society is left behind people will naturally decent into savagery and malevolence.
In Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe displays a search for lost faith on the part of Crusoe himself and examines the conflict between passion and reason present in the soul of Robinson Crusoe as he deals with years on the island. The two texts both rely on the assumption that self-scrutiny is natural for any castaway. Robinson Crusoe looks back at his own past and tries to evaluate his past life and weigh up whether his decisions then were the cause of his wretchedness now. He also reasons with himself by saying he must have done something good as he was the only crewmember who survived the shipwreck.
The conflict between passion and reason is within him. In Lord of the Flies the boys are looking back at their memories of society and trying to apply these to their survival on the island. However each boy remembers a different aspect of society and so there conflicting ideals and priorities cause social rifts to form. The main themes in Lord of the Flies that society holds everyone together and without these conditions our ideals, values and the basic principals of right and wrong, light and dark, good and evil are lost. Without the rules and moral priorities and guidelines of society anarchy and savagery can come to light and a decent into instinctive iniquity is imminent.
Golding also shows us that we fit our moral values round our surroundings and that when there is no civilisation around us we fall into a moral maze and become wild and unkempt like the jungle on the island. Secondary themes are also included in Lord of the Flies that link in to this main theme for example, People will abuse power when it´ s not earned. This is shown in Jack the leader of the spin off group of savages who abuses and controls his hunters´ in a very dictatorial way. This is passion i. e. the way the hunters do everything on impulse and don´ t think it over or consult others.
When given a chance people often single out another to degrade to improve his or her own security. This is shown in the treatment of the Piggy and Simon. Because they are different Jack, and even at some points Ralph pick on both boys because Piggy is fat and asthmatic and Simon has his head in the clouds. This shows that they don´ t think about whether these boys could be useful in some way. They take their first impressions and stick to them. This again shows passion.
You can only cover up inner savagery so long before it break out, given the right situation. This is best shown after the killing of the pig when they are all sat round the fire and Simon approaches them. They do a war dance round Simon in which even Ralph is included and kill him. All the boys have totally reverted to savagery so much indeed that they don´ t think twice about killing a human being.
Ralph and Piggy regret it afterwards but by then it is too late. Here passion is shown as secondary to the idea of atavism and natural evil. However it is still present in the fact that the boys get wound up to a point where reason no-longer has any control over them and they attack and kill Simon. It is better to examine the consequences of a decision before you make it than to discover them afterwards. For example when Jack decides to go hunting rather than look after the fire. He doesn´ t think about why the fire was lit and why it should be kept alight.
Therefore he is shocked and angry when Ralph chastises him because the ship passed without seeing their smoke but in his inner self he knows he has done wrong. This is one of the first major rifts between Jack and Ralph. This shows the consequences of a lack of reason. Ralph shows reason by having the fire lit and organising people to look after it. However passion drives Jack away from the task with the consequence that the ship goes past. The passion in this instance is the thirst for blood.
The fear of the unknown can be a powerful force, which can turn you to either insight or hysteria. This is shown in the form of the beast´ . The little uns are terrified of it and run away or hide. They are so scared they are hysterical. However Simon realises that there is no beast it is just in the imagination and that the only beast on the island in the boys themselves and the way they treat each other and their surroundings. Here Ralph again is in conflict with Jack reason versus passion.
Ralph tells the little uns that they are imagining things, to put their minds at rest and thinking about the future i. e. that they will be scared if they think it does exist. However Jack just say straight off I´ ll kill it which means there must be a beast, this is passion as Jack has not thought about the little uns feelings but just his carnal desires and thirst for blood.
The themes in Robinson Crusoe are similar but different. Robinson Crusoe has disobeyed his father and mother by running off to sea like the man in the New Testament story of the prodigal son. In the story the symbolism is of a person disobeying god and this theme comes up in Robinson Crusoe i. e. that by disobeying his mother and father Crusoe has disobeyed god (the ten commandments thou shalt honour thy father and mother). He has very bad luck on most of his voyages and even after a successful period as a Brazilian planter, he sets off to sea again and eventually ends up on the island.
He starts to weigh up his decisions and think about why he is stranded is it the consequence of his past actions? Here he displays reason, but while he is thinking about it he finds food and shelter and displays the want to look after number one passion. The conflict is within his soul. The first similarities between the two texts appear right at the beginning of Lord of the Flies and round about PG 50 / 51 in Robinson Crusoe (when he wakes up on the island. ) The islands both represented beauty at the beginning, a microcosm of the world before humanity entered it. They were both untouched by humanity and in tune with nature and the earth´ s natural cycle. Nothing killed for pleasure.
However with the arrival of the humans this perfection is destroyed like the Garden of Eden was destroyed by greed. Even before the boys in Lord of the Flies have emerged from the plane the scar, which symbolizes mans destructive capabilities, has been created. In Robinson Crusoe the wreck has blighted the landscape and damaged the perfection of the island even before Robinson Crusoe has landed on shore. Also the island is providing everything the boys need whether that is food, water, relaxation or play. The jungle is close and hot but there are no real threats from wild animals or creatures. This is shown again in Robinson Crusoe.
All Crusoe needs, except company, is there for him on the island. There are goats and birds for him to eat as well as fruit and fish. There is wood to build with, a convenient cave and all the objects he has managed to salvage from the wreck. Apart from being lonely (Robinson Crusoe´ s case, ) or each other (boys in Lord of the Flies, ) there are no threats on the islands that might cause problems or help the boys come together in aid of a single cause as in society. There is nothing to stop them from reverting to savagery but equally they have nothing to make them savage either. Therefore, is human nature savage?
This is an example of atavism. There are many similarities between the characters as well in the two books. Ralph represents democracy along with the conch, though Robinson Crusoe has no other people to judge ideas as Ralph does, he does reason with himself. Robinson Crusoe wants to solve the immediate problems of a food source and somewhere to sleep for the night, I went to the tree, and getting up into it, endeavoured to place myself so as that if I should sleep I would not fall; ´ ´ pg 51, ln. 16 Ralph also wants to deal with the immediate problems and cool down, find food etc. He became conscious of the weight of his clothes, kicked off his shoes fiercely and ripped off each stocking with its elastic garter in a single movement. Pg 4, ln. 29 Both these quotes reflect the characters dealing with their immediate problems.
They are not shown to be thinking particularly far ahead but just dealing with the present. They are acting passionately. Robinson Crusoe is similar to Piggy as well as Ralph in some ways. He thinks ahead as well as dealing with his immediate problems. Crusoe decides to salvage what he can from the ship he has the foresight to know he may need some of the things on the ship later if he has to stay. Also he knows he may be on the island for a long time so he builds himself a sturdy shelter.
In Lord of the Flies´ Piggy is the one who wants to build shelters for the night. He is the one worried about counting the little uns so they don´ t get lost and / or hurt He wants to organize people and thinks ahead of everyone. However Piggy is also quite naive unlike Robinson Crusoe. Defoe balances out the aspects of character within Crusoe himself whereas Golding uses different characters to show aspects of a personality. Piggy is the one who is still clinging on to society. He wants to impose all the rules he has had drummed into him on the other boys and doesn´ t want to change any of them It is Piggy who wants to have an adult figure to guide his wisdom but instead as there are no adults turns to Ralph.
Piggy wants to be rescued and taken home to society. His soul cries out for civilization and he doesn´ t fit in on the island. His first thought when the conch is found is that´ s expensive. However he doesn´ t think about the absence of a monetary system.
He has knowledge but is powerless to either use it properly or put it into practice as he is fat ungainly and his asthma prevents him from doing any work. As he hasn´ t got the looks of Ralph which earn him respect, or the dictatorial authority of Jack, his knowledge is powerless and he is weak. He can also be impractical; he wants to form a committee on the island like you would get in a town or large company however there is nothing for a committee to do on the island so this is an impractical idea Crusoe also shows similarities to Piggy in the way he treats other people. He wishes that the other crewmembers could have survived and even looks around to see if any one has survived. Piggy is aware of the situation they are in and wants to group together with the other boys on the plane and is concerned with their well-being. Piggy and Crusoe both show signs of reasoning, in Piggy´ s case he does it aloud with Ralph trying to put across his more cultured ideas.
However Crusoe reasons with himself thinking about why he was wrecked and why he was saved. On pg 69 of the text Crusoe actually lists this reasoning, Evil I am cast upon a horrible desolate island, void of all hope of recovery. I am singled out and separated, as it were, from all the world to be miserable. I am divided from mankind, a solitaire, one banished from human society. I have no clothes to cover me. I am without any defense or means to resist any violence of man or beast.
I have no soul to speak to, or relieve me. Good But I am alive, and not drowned, as all my ship´ s company was. But I am singled out too from all the ship´ s crew to be spared from death; and he that miraculously saved me from death can deliver me from this condition. But I am not starved and perishing on a barren place, affording no sustenance. But I am in a hot climate, where if I had clothes, I could hardly wear them. But I am cast on an island, where I see no wild beasts to hurt me, as I saw on the coast of Africa.
And what if I had been shipwrecked there? This shows Crusoe weighing up his thoughts and reasoning with himself about the causes and effects of what he has done in the past. In conclusion these texts both show reason versus passion. However this is presented in two very different ways. In Lord of the Flies´ the conflict is between the characters and their feelings. However in Robinson Crusoe´ it is within the character of Crusoe himself.
These are both effective for their time and indeed are also relevant to today´ s society. It is possible to relate to either the boy´ s in Lord of the Flies´ or the character of Robinson Crusoe. Another main difference is the outcome of the conflict. In Lord of the Flies´ for a while passion takes over and indeed for most of the book it is passion ruling most of the boys climaxing in the deaths of Simon and Piggy. However in Robinson Crusoe´ it is reason that wins but not as out rightly as in Lord of the Flies´ . There is always the thought that passion might take over again.
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