Lord of The Flies and All Quiet on The Western Front are two pieces of literature that deal with the horrors of war. However, they approach this topic in different ways. Lord of The Flies is a story about a group of boys who are stranded on an island and must fend for themselves. All Quiet on The Western Front is a novel that tells the story of a young man who goes to fight in WWI and experiences the horrors of war firsthand.
One of the main differences between these two works is their tone. Lord of The Flies is written in a more lighthearted tone, while All Quiet on The Western Front is written in a much more serious tone. This difference can be attributed to the different authors who wrote them. William Golding, the author of Lord of The Flies, was a student of literature, while Erich Maria Remarque, the author of All Quiet on The Western Front, was a soldier who fought in WWI.
Another difference between these two works is their perspective. Lord of The Flies is told from the perspective of the boys who are stranded on the island, while All Quiet on The Western Front is told from the perspective of a soldier who is fighting in WWI. This difference can be attributed to the fact that Lord of The Flies was published in 1954, while All Quiet on The Western Front was published in 1929.
Despite these differences, Lord of The Flies and All Quiet on The Western Front are both effective at portraying the horrors of war. Lord of The Flies shows the reader the horrific consequences that can occur when people are left to their own devices, while All Quiet on The Western Front shows the reader the brutal reality of life in a trench during WWI.
The views of authors on human behavior are frequently reflected in their writings. Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front and William Golding’s Lord of the Flies are two novels that illustrate their author’s viewpoint towards man, as well as his attitude toward war.
Golding’s Lord of the Flies is a superb example of Golding’s belief that society is a fragile and permeable barrier that, when torn down, reveals man as he really is: a savage beast. Perhaps the wager demonstration of this given by Gold on Jack’s progression to slaughtering the sow is his first landing on the island with Ralph, Simon.
Ralph is eager to find food, Jack is eager to find a way to kill the pig, and Simon is in awe of the beauty of the island. It is not long after this that Jack begins to take over as leader on the island. He does so by promising the boys that they will have meat if they follow him. The first time Jack and his hunters bring in meat, it is from a boar that they had killed. This event causes a rift between Ralph and Jack, with Ralph believing that hunting for fun is wrong and Jack believing that it is necessary in order to survive.
As the novel progresses, Jack becomes more savage and brutal in his methods. He kills a boy who he believes is spying on them for Ralph, and he also tries to kill Ralph on a few occasions. In the end, Jack and his followers become completely lost in their savagery and are killed.
Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front also shows man at his worst. In the novel, Paul Baumer is drafted into the German army and sent to fight in World War I. He and his fellow soldiers soon realize that war is not what they were promised it would be. They are ordered to do things that go against all sense of human decency, such as attacking a retreating enemy or killing wounded soldiers.
As the novel progresses, Paul and his friends lose more and more of their innocence. They see death and violence up close, and they come to realize that war is not a glorious thing, but instead is a terrible atrocity. In the end, Paul and most of his friends are killed.
Both Lord of the Flies and All Quiet on the Western Front show man at his worst. They are both excellent examples of how an author can use their work to communicate their opinion on human behavior.
Their journey takes them up the mountainside, where they encounter the island’s pigs for the first time. They notice a piglet trapped in several of the plants as they pass. Jack draws his knife as soon as possible to execute the piglet. Instead of committing the deed, Jack pauses for a moment.
“The pause was only long enough for them to realize the immensity of what the downward stroke would be,” Golding states. Golding is implying that Jack has ingrained societal restrictions on killing deep inside him. The next significant event in Jack’s development is when he kills his first pig.
This event is very significant because it allows Jack to tap into the savage inside him. Up until this point, Jack has been trying to hold onto the civilized aspects of his personality.
In All Quiet on The Western Front, Paul Baumer kills his first enemy soldier. This event is very significant for Baumer because it allows him to tap into the savage inside him. Up until this point, Baumer has been trying to hold onto the civilized aspects of his personality. In both Lord of The Flies and All Quiet on The Western Front, the protagonists are forced to kill in order to survive.
However, in Lord of The Flies, Jack is able to kill without any hesitation or guilt. In All Quiet on The Western Front, Baumer struggles with the guilt of killing. This is likely due to the fact that Baumer has seen the horrors of war and knows that he is fighting for a terrible cause. In Lord of The Flies, Jack has not seen the horrors of war and does not understand the implications of his actions.
For this reason, Jack is able to kill without any hesitation or guilt. This difference in perspective is indicative of the different ways in which each society is structured. Lord of The Flies is a society in which there are no rules and everyone must fend for themselves. All Quiet on The Western Front is a society in which there are rules and people are expected to follow them. This difference leads to different outcomes for each society.
