In “The Lord of the Flies” written by William Golding, there are no female characters in it. If an introduction of a female character were to happen, the boys on the island may have shown more respect and try to impress her. I think that girls on the island the boys may also fight over her, trying to claim her as property, but the girls would’ve made everything more orderly, because back then boys had more chances to become educated while girls sewed and learned to cook, they would’ve prevented their government from becoming so chaotic because they might’ve respected her ideas and decisions. The boys may become more self-conscious around the girls as well, in the beginning of the book, they may have acted more politely instead of yelling amongst one another. And, girls on the island would symbolize purity and truth, like Mary Magdalene from the Bible.
It really depends on the boys and the girl how the reaction of the story will be but whether they respect her or push aside her ideas, the boys would steal try to compete for her because of how Jack and the other biguns’ feel like they need to mark their territory and look like the man of the island by trying to claim more than the other boys have. I think the girls might’ve allied with Ralph because I don’t think girls back then wanted to watch boys do war dances around a fire like wild animals.
I think that the boys may become savages faster but sane ones like Ralph, Piggy and Simon may have actually shown respect towards the girls, while Jack would completely take them for granted and would just find them as objects. Depending on the female characters, I still think most would take Ralph’s side of the tribe, therefore making them seem more unthreatening. Even if Jack is the most savage of them all, I think that he wouldn’t try to kill any of the girls because although Piggy and Simon’s death did not faze him, he would still feel guilt in killing something that symbolizes innocence and purity like female characters would.
Female characters can have also stopped violence and brutally killing, or setting the island on fire because she would’ve been able to talk sense into the boys and she could’ve been the practical one like Piggy, except no one would disrespect her as they did Piggy and the boys might not want to show that they’re so savage in front of her. On the other hand, a female character may have caused more deaths because the boys would try to compete for her, try to make her property and fight over jealousy. The boys may have lost all sense of control and would try to hunt more pigs to prove that he is the man of the island while some of the boys may try a different way and try to look more of a gentleman in front of her, either way I think the boys would forget about everything should come first like shelter and food; just like Jack and the other biguns’ got so caught up in trying to catch a pig.
A female character may not have been much of a voice as well, because the boys would push aside her ideas thinking that the boys should do all the thinking while the girls just stood by them, but I still think girls would’ve been able to stop Piggy and Simon’s death because if just enough girls had arrived on the island, they can still stop Jack and Roger from doing something so horrible. It depends on the girl because some of them might take pleasure in seeing Simon and Ralph dead as well, but most wouldn’t want anyone dying.
I think that Jack and his tribe may have found a girl useless but they would probably try to compete for her and make her property like I explained, because of their savageness and animal-like actions. The island may have not become so out of control because girls being girls, they would be ordered or feel obliged to cook, fix shelters, while the boys hunted. They would’ve been more orderly because girls would probably take on the responsibility to look after the island, so she would’ve been the mother of the island and the one that takes care of everything while the boys go around and have fun because girls feel more mature and have to take on the duty to look after everything the boys have left them with.
I think the girls may symbolize purity and holiness like Mary Magdalene from the Bible. Mary Magdalene was known to be Jesus’s most celebrated disciples and was first to see Jesus’s resurrection, she was also famous to be “apostle of apostles” meaning that she was in one of Jesus’s closest circles and took meaning and depth from Jesus. She witnesses to Jesus' crucifixion, his burial, and the discovery of his tomb to be empty. So I think a girl would represent Jesus’s right hand follower and the sanity and gentleness that girls tend to have an aura of.
Golding did not want female characters in his book is because he didn’t want an introduction of a girl to interfere with the whole story, which is the affect that the wild has on the boys and how they grow to change amongst each other, and what they do to survive in the wilderness without any adult supervision that they were always so used to and of innocence being killed and all logic and sanity destroyed and everything all about what they want, and the impact that nature has as the boys changed over time. The way that boys act more immature in the book, the girls may feel a little more reassured that there is no adult supervision or anyone to tell them how to behave and what and what’s not how a “young lady” should act, but I think a female character would’ve felt more responsible of everyone’s action. So I think that Golding felt that he didn’t need any girls to have an influence on the boys and their manhood.
The fact that Golding did not include a girl in the book is an insult in my opinion, because from a girl’s perspective I find that the book is sort of saying that girls can’t handle the wilderness and that there really was no need for a girl to be mentioned in the book which is all about the boys and how they changed into men and how they are like soldiers scarred from battle and there is not girls on the battle field because there are no girls in war. Some people may think that its not an insult or a compliment but I feel that its more of an insult to women because although its a great book, there should be a mention of girls somewhere along the way because it just shows how they don’t really need them to change and feel like they have just turned their whole lives around, so really, I feel like it’s saying that they don’t need girls to feel like a man in the book.
If there were a female character introduced into the book, the whole book would’ve changed, I think it would’ve been worse because of how the boys are just about to hit their teens but the more gentle of the boys like Ralph and Piggy wouldn’t try to use pigs to impress her, but the story may have become more violent in the competition to own a girl as property. Decisions would’ve been changed based on the girl’s reaction towards them and boys would probably become more chaotic and wild, but the island would become more orderly because of the role that girls tend to have as they try to take on responsibility and their act as the mother amongst siblings and boys and how they tend to mature more faster than boys.
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