CROSSING BOUNDARIES: A JOURNEY OF SELF DISCOVERY IN LORD OF THE FLIE

Abstract

The current study explores two protagonists in Lord of the Flies Ralph and Jack, and their rivalry from Jungian perspective of archetypes. Furthermore, the study reveals that the progress and growth of these two characters in the novel corresponds to a particular process of human psyche known as ‘individuation’.  Both the characters struggle for power and leadership, which becomes synonymous with the degeneration of human race from civilized men to wild savages. Thus, the dispute between refinement and barbarity constitute the main conflict in the novel. Golding narrates a timeless struggle of ambivalent forces gone astray in unimaginable imbalances. It shows that when the children are left isolated on an island, far away from civilized society, they begin to hunt each other, thus glorifying murder. They begin to create rituals of sacrifice and slaughter. The absence of law and social codes render violence dissolute and human beings become embodiment of evil. Hence this study considers Lord of the Flies a parable in which evil is not a mere animal instinct but an instinct that emerges with the dawn of civilization and social ethics.