Hit: Literary Analysis

I found my literary analysis to be an interesting experience. To start, I think that this was a hit because of the Analytical aspect of it. Most of my other papers relating to books had been reflections that dealt with more creative aspects, but this essay revolved around a more analytical rhetorical situation.
The Observation of Chaos
People observe chaos every day, but few people ask the right questions about chaos. The question that people should ask is what the path to chaos is? As with many inquiries about humans and their nature, William Golding's Lord of the Fliestries to answer these questions. Golding answers this question in particular with the use of his setting. The island the boys are on quickly changes throughout the novel. These changes all head towards one eventual fate, the destruction of the island. These changes all happen while the boys make their society, which changes and revisions fill. Those changes also lead to the same fate, destruction. In Lord of the Flies, Golding displays the physical island that the boys are on as slowly deteriorating and being destroyed by the boys to parallel the downward spiral into the chaos of the boys' society.
The chaos we see when the boys first arrive on the island is different than what eventually befalls them. This descent into chaos starts with the boys' ability to interact and directly affect their environment. When the boys first arrive on the Island, they are scattered throughout the island. Ralph eventually finds Piggy, and they start exploring. While they explore, the narrator states, “The boy with fair hair lowered himself down the last few feet of rock and began to pick his way towards the lagoon. […] All around him the long scar smashed into the jungle was a bath of heat” (1). Notice how the author uses the word "scar" to personify the island. The scar is the place where their plane crashed and left a straight of smashed trees in its wake before sinking into the ocean. The notion of scaring indicates that something has healed, but you can tell it was damaged before. Also, the narrator refers to Ralph as the fair-haired boy, even though he is a third-person omniscient narrator. It shows that the narrator isn't especially interested in revealing things to us. This initial "scar" is the first mark of the boys' troubles on the island. These struggles build up to their descent into chaos.
As the boys directly interact with their environment, one element shown throughout the book is the boys' inability to keep their society together, which helps lead to their destruction. One example of this is found after Jack, Ralph, and Roger have just to see the "beast" that has landed on top the island. After they come back, Jack questions Ralph's leadership qualities and calls for a vote to see who wants him to be chief. Nobody votes to remove Ralph and place Jack as the leader. Jack then says, "‘All right then.’ / […] The humiliating tears were running down his face. / […] ‘I'm going off by myself. He can catch his own pigs. Anyone who wants to hunt when I do can come too" (127). This example shows an abrupt mark in the state of their society. In the book, a general concept has been that they say they are going to complete tasks in the assembly, but nobody ever accomplishes the tasks they set out to do. This scenario is a prime example of how everybody rejects Ralph's idea in the assembly, but in reality, most of them go and join Jack's tribe. The narrator also states that Jack's loss in the assembly made him cry and was humiliating. This event reminds the reader that they are all just children. Jack’s abrupt departure and the people that follow him show the state of their society as weak in general, and on a downward spiral.
Even though the boys' play a role in this phenomenon, the island must show these changes occurring. When huge disagreements happen in the society, the island is damaged. When these quarrels transpire, the society falls more towards chaos. One example of this is when the boys have gotten their society’s priorities in place. Their first goal was to get a fire going. When they finally got their fire going, it spreads to an area of forest. The narrator describes the blaze as, “Beneath the capering boys a quarter of a mile square of forest was savage with smoke and flame” (44). This first quarrel damages the island. It is especially important to note the language of this sentence alone. Goulding uses the word "savage" to describe the fire. This description also hints towards the path their society moves towards, the destruction of the island and their society. This example shows that the arguments that damage the society directly damage the island. These damages cause to the society make it trend towards chaos. Each "scar" on the island always leaves a mark that is there forever. 
These arguments that cause "scars" keep piling up until finally, they practically destroy the island. This pattern is especially relevant in the final moments of the book. The "destruction" of the island results in the boys' departure from the island and therefore the destruction of their society. At the very end of the novel, Jack tries to find and kill Ralph, who is hiding from them. One savage comes up with the idea of smoking him out by setting fire to the island. Jack accepts the plan, and they put it into action. After the savages spot Ralph, he runs and eventually runs into this Navy Officer on the coast. The narrator and Navy officer say, "The fire reached the coconut palms by the beach and swallowed them noisily. […] / ‘We saw your smoke. What have you been doing? Having a war or something?’” (201). The fire that the savages start ends up making them visible for people to rescue. This event is ironic from Jack's perspective, which wants to stay on the island and have fun, but this fire causes them to be visible for rescue. This blaze stops their little war, but they end up having to return to a much larger war that is in progress. This "destruction" of the island causes the abrupt end to the boys' society. The “destruction” is a direct correlation between the state of the island and the state of their society.
As the boys are taken from the island, their society and the island are in tatters. It appears as if all their blood, sweat, and tears have only gained them destruction. All the ways they tried to make the island a better place and all the times they damaged and hurt the island just washed away as they depart from it. The reader sees the boys’ society eventually fall into chaos only to have them saved by the outside world. It suggests that people may never be able to fully understand the route that people take to chaos or even observe and learn from it directly, but someone can observe the path by looking through the surrounding area. Chaos always leaves a wake in its path.

Works Cited
Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. Penguin, 1954. 

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