Essays must contain a minimum of two body paragraphs, with a minimum of two concrete details per body paragraph.
1. Perhaps to create a perfect society was beyond the boy’s capability in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, but could it have realistically gotten better? How did it fall apart, and could the society have been fixed?
Write an essay that discusses what crucial errors the boys made that they actually could have made different and, thus, made a better island society.
2. During pre-election campaigns, Presidential candidates can say absolutely anything about their opponents and their own qualities as leaders, the policies they will champion, and the direction they will lead the nation if they are elected. However, citizens can reach the most reliable evaluation of their Presidential potentials through scrutinizing the established records of their leadership up until now. In Lord of the Flies, if Jack and Ralph’s tribes were countries and they the nations’ leaders, judging by their records, which boy would make the best national leader?
Write an essay that discusses whether Jack or Ralph would make the best national leader in terms of personal freedoms, environmental policy and labor/industry. Be sure to base your judgment on their established records (what they have actually DONE in the novel) and not what they say.
3. William Golding has said that his novel Lord of the Flies was symbolic from the beginning until the end when the boys are rescued. During the course of the novel these symbols are constantly changing, giving us a new interpretation of the island society.
Write an essay that discusses three different significant symbols from the book. Explain the significance of the symbol, why it is symbolic and how over the course of the novel that symbol changes. Make sure to explain why the changes to the symbol are significant to the interpretation of the novel. (remember symbols can be both objects and characters)
4. The boys initially chose Ralph for their chief/leader in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, a position he still claimed even in the end when all the remaining boys nearly successfully hunted him down to put his head on a stick. Considering the state of affairs at the end of his term as chief, how did Ralph measure up to the job?
Write an essay that evaluates Ralph’s performance as chief of the boy’s island society. Be sure to include specific details relevant to Ralph’s performance.
5. In the novel the Lord of the Flies author William Golding constantly has the reader questioning the true nature of humans-whether it is good or bad.
Write an essay that discusses the idea that humans are essentially good or that humans are essentially bad. Choose one side and convince your audience (me) with two detailed examples from the text and two detailed examples from the last 50 years in history that humans are essentially good or that humans are essentially bad
6. Maybe true “ world peace” is a simple minded dream of beauty pageant bubble-heads, but does that mean that people should stop trying altogether? Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream; considering “ human nature” should he have abandoned it? William Golding did not write Lord of the Flies to make us feel defeated but to empower us through a fuller understanding of “ human nature.”
Write an essay that discusses what lessons/insights Lord of the Flies offers that people today could put to use and how they could put it to use.
