“Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide;” John Adams wrote to John Taylor in 1814 when discussing the perfect government. Mankind has always striven to create the perfect community but has always fallen flat on its face, no matter how great the idea was. What is the perfect government? The perfect society? Nothing can offer wholesome satisfaction on earth, and that is what Lord of the Flies by William Goulding and The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway are about. Based upon a close reading of these two books, it has been concluded that both books show the circle of human nature by portraying a constant strive for perfection that cannot be attained.
Written in 1954, Lord of the Flies begins after the events of an airplane crash. The crash strands many schoolboys on an island in the middle of nowhere. The boys believe they must be as grownups are and work together to create a society they can live in and be rescued because of it. However, the boys slowly lose their rationale because of “the beast,” a creature they first believe is fake, but later believe is truly haunting them. The beast, called the “Lord of the Flies,” divides them and leads the boys from a well-ordered democracy to chaos-driven anarchy.
Written in 1926, The Sun Also Rises is about Jake Barnes and his expatriate friends in Paris who, part of the “lost generation” after World War I, try to live a good life overshadowed by misery. Jakes Barnes, whose war wound has made him unable to have sex, is in love with Lady Brett, who also loves him, yet they cannot have each other because of that wound. This has caused much pain and agony for the two of them. Brett has already married–twice–and is now engaged to Mike who everyone claims will be rich someday despite his perpetual bankruptcy. Robert Cohn, a friend of Jakes is an American Jew who did not fight in the war, falls in love with Brett and has an affair with her at San Sebastian. These characters, along with Jake and his friend Bill, go to Spain for a fishing trip and the fiesta. During the fiesta, Brett becomes obsessed with a 19-year-old bullfighter named Pedro Romero. Robert loses his innocence when he is rejected by Brett, Mike, and Bill, while Jake takes to drinking. Brett and Romero leave the fiesta with each other, leaving the others to go their own ways. However, at the end of the story, one learns that nothing has changed; Brett is unwilling to marry Romero because of her nature and still loves Jake. All the characters yearned for happiness and satisfaction yet did not find it by the end of the book, they only ended where they started.
From these books, one can conclude that the circle faced in both stories is of human nature; everyone in this world has a strong desire for something to permanently satisfy them, yet they go endlessly in circles, taking no profit for all their labor1. The first lines of the book of Ecclesiastes begin, “Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” These words were said to remind both men and women that “what has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1: 9). It is from these words that The Sun Also Rises derives its name. As much happiness as one can attain on earth, it will never satisfy one completely. Everyone’s life is full of problems that cannot be fixed and that keep them from ever attaining what they think will satisfy them. Everyone, whether on an individual level or a communal one, wants wholesome satisfaction. They have some idea of a utopia that they think they can create. Because of this, they order their lives in such a way that they may attain it. This drive a person has to reach his goals results in ordering one's life accordingly, or in a community, creating a democracy. The reason for democracy is so that the desires of everyone may be heard freely and something decided upon that helps the “common interests” of the people. It is quickly realized that someone more capable than the others must have the final say in order to maintain order. This is how democracy flourishes, but it is also how it falls. The reason democracy fails, in the end, is due to two reasons: fear of imperfection and division from within. The title, “Lord of the Flies," is a translation of the Hebrew word Ba’alzevav (or Belzebub in Greek). A beast from within, the ultimate anarchist or more distinctly known as the Devil. It is he who feeds on the selfishness of human nature and twists their utopian aspirations towards Hellenic ambitions. In the end, turning order into chaos.
This circular nature of the world can be understood by how it governs itself, beginning in chaos and anarchy, going in many directions in search of a perfect landscape, yet only descending back into anarchy once again, and so forth2. The cycle of community always begins in democracy or chaos and only goes in circles from there. Each government is slightly more chaotic than the rest, as fear of imperfection and division within the communities cause communities to change over time until they descend into chaos. Both of the stories that will be analyzed adhere to this cycle:
I must admit, I’m not great at making graphs. This is impressive for my skill level.
Lord of the Flies begins in chaos and, after going through the entire cycle, ends in democracy; The Sun Also Rises begins in democracy and ends in democracy once again. The chaos is felt at the beginning of Lord of the Flies when Ralph is “clambering heavily among the creepers and broken trunks” after an airplane crash that strands the surviving boys on a scorching hot island where no one knows they are there (Lord of the Flies, Chapter 1). A place where they may “stay until [they] die” (Lord of the Flies, Chapter 1). Ralph believes his father, the noble Navy Seal, can save them. This is his drive. The world is a prison with the illusion of hope in power, success, and sensual pleasure. There is hope for satisfaction, a sort of yearning that cannot be fulfilled. Despite the anarchy, Ralph overthrew it.
In Lord of the Flies, Ralph is sure he can make it home. His conception of home is so perfect compared to the prison of the island that it becomes a utopia in his mind. Because of this, he does everything he can to ensure that he can make it home. This is how the chaos at the beginning of the story is overthrown. After finding a shell (a “conch”) and gathering them all together, he overthrows the chaos and gives all the boys hope. The boys, assuming that the chaos is coming to an end and order is to be restored, assure themselves as they assemble that “something was being done,” (Lord of the Flies, Chapter 1). It is related that one boy “received the reassurance of something purposeful being done [so] he began to look satisfied, and his only clean digit, a pink thumb, slid into his mouth” (Lord of the Flies, Chapter 1). The chaos had been overthrown, and democracy was to develop. But the chaos was soon to return: “Fancy thinking the beast was something you could hunt and kill!” (Lord of the Flies Chapter 8)
As all societies began, each person wanted the ability to speak freely, to voice his opinions, and to assert that his needs were met. Because it is impossible for this many opinions to correlate with each other, they soon realized they needed someone to lead them who would best find a way to decide what the large multitude would do. As in every good democracy, they elected a leader. Ralph is elected leader, not because he is better or stronger, but simply because of the emotions felt towards him. Most decisions people (and especially children) make are driven by emotions, even though most people think that they approach decision-making through logic. Goulding describes this soon after Ralph is elected:
None of the boys could have found good reason for this; what intelligence had been shown was traceable to Piggy while the most obvious leader was Jack. But there was a stillness about Ralph as he sat that marked him out: there was his size, and attractive appearance; and most obscurely, yet most powerfully, there was the conch. The being that had blown that, had sat waiting for them on the platform with the delicate thing balanced on his knees, was set apart.” (Lord of the Flies Chapter 1)
For this reason, evil demagogues and despots often take power in a democracy. The airplane crash was the beginning of chaos, but Ralph, Piggy, and Jack's leadership and influence toppled the disorder and brought democracy to the island because of their hope of getting home.
The Sun Also Rises begins in democracy. Jake thinks intercourse with Brett will satisfy him, but his wound prevents him from achieving that satisfaction. When the book begins, he is already aware of this and has already undergone chaos beforehand. They try to live in a democracy anyway. They take to drinking and partying, working, and going off with other men and women. Brett marries people she doesn’t love—twice—and Jake goes off with a prostitute despite his wound because he is bored. They obviously love each other, but they give up trying to do anything about it. Jake is in terrifying agony because of this, and Brett is miserable. They try to live on anyway and are unwilling to give each other up. Most notably, Jake avoids chaos by playing tennis and keeping up with bullfighting magazines. In this case, democracy is a way of hiding the chaos and pretending it does not exist because the utopia he desires is not possible. Robert Cohn, a Jewish man who did not fight in the World War like many of the other characters had, wanted to escape this circular nature because he could not “stand it to think [his] life is going so fast and [he was] not really living it” (The Sun Also Rises, Chapter 2). Jake knows this is impossible and tries to avoid thinking this way. Democracy seems to be sufficient enough for Jake and Brett because there is not a “damn thing [they] can do” about it (Chapter 4). However, it was soon to murder itself.
The beast exists in both stories. The beast has been there from the beginning and is only hiding in the shadows when democracy is thriving. As democracy begins to fail, it steps closer to the light, in government in the form of aristocracy. In communal life, the form of division leads to only some opinions mattering. Because of the circular nature of the world, despite a sustained attempt for satisfaction, misery mocks, and chaos strikes, due to fear. When the people begin to fear, democracy begins to become unstable. People fear what will happen to them, to their families, and to their kids. It must be noted that this affects each individual, as well as the mob of people. Democracy is destroyed by the aristocracy. In society, democracy begins to decay because some people are smarter than others and figure out how to gain power and rise above others despite “equality.” Only some opinions matter. InLord of the Flies, free speech was symbolized by the conch. Whoever was holding the conch got to speak. This ends when Jack yells, “we don't need the conch any more. We know who ought to say things. What good did Simon do speaking, or Bill, or Walter? It's time some people knew they've got to keep quiet and leave deciding things to the rest of us” (Lord of the Flies, Chapter 6). The reason Jack says this is because of Simon's words that preceded that: that the beast did exist. Because the entire island was afraid of this beast, and one of the older kids had admitted to it, the kids were harder to organize because of it. Some things needed to be kept quiet; thus, freedom of speech was lost.
In The Sun Also Rises, aristocracy and monarchy do not make their appearance in governmental ways, but individual aspects of the characters accomplish the same steps. When Brett comes to Jake's apartment with the Count, the story enters the aristocracy. The two characters once again wish they could be together again, but they know this is impossible. The count tells them that they are “very nice people” and then asks, “why don't you get married, you two?” Jake replies without meaning what he said that they “want to lead [their] own lives," and Brett declares that they “have [their] careers” to worry about (The Sun Also Rises Chapter 7). Soon afterward, Brett travels to San Sebastian and Robert Cohn also goes away, so Jake has no one to play tennis with. While awaiting his fishing trip with Cohn, he meets up with Bill. Though his thoughts on Brett are not explicitly said, they remain on Jake's mind. In his depression, he notices men and women pairing off.
We leaned on the wooden rail of the bridge and looked up the river to the lights of the big bridges. Below the water was smooth and black. It made no sound against the piles of the bridge. A man and a girl passed us. They were walking with their arms around each other. We crossed the bridge and walked up the Rue du Cardinal Lemoine. It was steep walking, and we went all the way up to the Place Contrescarpe…Through the window of the Café Aux Amateurs I saw the long zinc bar. Outside on the terrace working people were drinking. In the open kitchen of the Amateurs a girl was cooking potato-chips in oil. There was an iron pot of stew. The girl ladled some onto a plate for an old man who stood holding a bottle of red wine in one hand. (The Sun Also Rises, Chapter 8)
The story enters monarchy when Brett and Mike, the man she is engaged to marry soon, decide to go to San Sebastian with Jake, Bill, and Robert. The tension is felt when it is found out that Cohn and Brett had gone to San Sebastian together when Jake withholds the telegram from Cohn and Cohn decides to skip the fishing trip to wait for Brett and Mike because of his infatuation with her. The tension rises steadily, but the characters refuse to address it in words. This is the monarchy of The Sun Also Rises. Jake tries to ignore it and enter democracy again while he is fishing, and he has considerably more satisfaction than at any other point in the book. He is very sad when he must leave the tranquility of the place to meet up with the others at the fiesta, once again entering the rising chaos. In Lord of the Flies, monarchy is present when Ralph realizes that their original vision of a Utopia is failing as well. Now Jake and many of the other boys did not care to be brought home, they just wanted to have fun. Instead of keeping the fire going, they just want to hunt pigs. Instead of suffering in the hope of something better, they hunted for the hope of immediate pleasure. Ralph takes control. He decides that the fire must be kept without a vote for it, and asserts his authority. Then he directly opposes the common view when he cries out, “but there isn’t a beastie!” multiple times (Lord of the Flies, Chapter 2). The next stage is Tyranny.
The stories both enter the point of no return when the main characters realize that they cannot escape the chaos that is to come. In The Sun Also Rises, it is when the conflict is finally addressed by Mike that it enters tyranny. In conversation about steers (a castrated Bull), Mike tells Cohn that he thought Robert would have loved to be a steer because “they never say anything and they’re always hanging about so,” and then, in anger asks him if he is going to “follow Brett around like a steer all the time” (The Sun Also Rises, Chapter 13). At this point, Cohn has thrown away his friendship for the love of Brett. Brett, who is the sun around which all the other characters revolve, senses the chaos and is powerless to stop it. To top it all off, she has fallen in love with someone else, despite the fact that she is alreadly engaged to Mike. The only good one can see in this is that she seems to be finally moving away from Jake, the thing she desires but cannot have. While monarchy is when chaos is felt and a hero is needed, tyranny is the point of no return. When the chaos cannot be stopped, it is inevitable; no hero can save a country when it reaches this point. In Lord of the Flies, the monarchy descends into tyranny when the boys begin arguing about the beast's existence and the meeting ends.
In a moment the platform was full of arguing, gesticulating shadows. To Ralph, seated, this seemed the breaking up of sanity. Fear, beasts, no general agreement that the fire was all-important: and when one tried to get the thing straight the argument sheered off, bringing up fresh, unpleasant matter. (Chapter 5)
The order is falling away and the “Lord of the Flies” is dividing them. A ship passed but they are not saved because no one was keeping the fire.
The world, that understandable and lawful world, was slipping away. Once there was this and that; and now― and the ship had gone. (Chapter 5)
Finally, the stories enter chaos and anarchy. In Lord of the Flies, this first takes form in the breaking up of the meeting.
“The rules!" shouted Ralph. "You're breaking the rules!"
"Who cares?" [Jack said]
Ralph summoned his wits. "Because the rules are the only thing we've got!"
But Jack was shouting against him. "Bollocks to the rules! We're strong―wehunt! If there's a beast, we'll hunt it down! We'll close in and beat and beat and beat―!"
He gave a wild whoop and leapt down to the pale sand. At once the platform was full of noise and excitement, scramblings, screams and laughter. The assembly shredded away and became a discursive and random scatter from the palms to the water and away along the beach, beyond night-sight. (Chapter 5)
The Island finally turns chaotic when the fear overtakes them so strongly that the kids, at a loss for their utopia, discard it and try to bring about a new one. They choose meat over survival and hope to get home because they fear too much. Ralph sees this unfold and tries to still live his utopia but those that follow him suffer for it. After Jack starts a tribe that acts chaotically and focuses only on hunting, Piggy, and Simon are killed by Jack's tribe, and in a frenzy, the tribe tries to kill Ralph.
"I'll blow the conch," said Ralph breathlessly, "and call an assembly."
"We shan't hear it." (Chapter 9)
In The Sun Also Rises, Bill and Mike meet “an extraordinarily beautiful girl” (named Edna) and go with her to “Festa the English” (Chapter 16). While they are gone, Cohn offers to sit with Brett, but Brett tells him to go to bed instead. Speaking with Jake, Brett relates how much Cohn and Mike are depressing her, and how she “feels like hell” because she is a “goner” (The Sun Also Rises, Chapter 16). She is in love with Romero. Jake knows this is a bad idea and tries to dissuade her at first, but when he realizes he cannot, he helps the two get together.
"I've got to do something. I've got to do something I really want to do. I've lost my self-respect."
"You don't have to do that."
"Oh, darling, don't be difficult. What do you think it's meant to have that damned Jew about, and Mike the way he's acted?"
"Sure."
"I can't just stay tight all the time.” (Chapter 16)
Brett cannot escape her infatuation with the 19-year-old Romero and now goes after him, causing a loss of respect for her, Romero, and Jake. After leaving the two together at a bar, Jake goes and finds Edna, Bill, and Mike.
"We've been thrown out," Edna said.
"By the police," said Mike. "There's some people in there that don't like me."
"I've kept them out of four fights," Edna said. "You've got to help me."
Bill's face was red. "Come back in, Edna," he said. "Go on in there and dance with Mike."
"It's silly," Edna said. "There'll just be another row."
"Damned Biarritz swine," Bill said.
"Come on," Mike said. "After all, it's a pub. They can't occupy a whole pub."
"Good old Mike," Bill said. "Damned English swine come here and insult Mike and try and spoil the fiesta."
"They're so bloody," Mike said. "I hate the English.” (The Sun Also Rises, Chapter 16)
In their depression, Mike and Bill want to pick up a fight with someone, even if there is no reason.
In this way, both stories enter chaos. In Lord of the Flies, all the boys on the island turn on Ralph and chase him around in order to kill him. In The Sun Also Rises, chaos is present when Robert Cohn, in a frenzy to take Brett, knocks out Jake, and Mike, and constantly hits Pedro Romero. Romero keeps getting up, but Cohn just continues to knock him down.
In Lord of the Flies, the chaos is overthrown when the boys unknowingly allow democracy to return. They are “saved” by a sailor who sees their smoke while the boys are trying to burn the forest Ralph is hiding in. They were finally going to return to the Utopian world. But were they really? How is the world any different from the island? That is the point of this book.
In The Sun Also Rises, the chaos is overthrown by the end of the fiesta. Cohn leaves, broken and apologetic, when Brett rejects him. He is entirely sorry to everyone for what he has done. He has gone from being a child to growing up. He now realizes that his dream of “getting away from himself,” and not suffering anxiety, by going to South America didn’t mean a thing. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Recognizing this fact, he left in sadness. Brett leaves with Romero without saying goodbye. This leaves only Mike, Bill, and Jake. The chaos is over, the defining events have taken place, and the fiesta has ended.
The three of us sat at the table, and it seemed as though about six people were missing.
The soul of the group was gone, and it felt as if all were gone now. The Sun Also Rises continues into Democracy once again.
In the morning it was all over. The fiesta was finished. I woke about nine o'clock, had a bath, dressed, and went down-stairs. The square was empty and there were no people on the streets. A few children were picking up rocket-sticks in the square (The Sun Also Rises Chapter 19)
Though all the chaos had taken its toll and the day had turned into night, the sun also rises. The kids picked up the pieces. Jake moves on. Mike and Bill go home and Jake goes to San Sebastian where he, despite his unhappiness, tries to move on. He has a peaceful feeling while in San Sebastian and feels that order has been restored to his life.
Nevertheless, he has only pretended that the chaos never happened. He avoids going to Paris for this reason. However, the madness draws him in like gravity. All it took was a little push and the order came tumbling downhill again. After receiving a telegram from Brett, Jake traveled all the way across the country to see her. She has rejected Romero because she is too afraid to marry him and has resolved to return to Mike. The story ends in a cab.
"Oh, Jake," Brett said, "we could have had such a damned good time together.” (Chapter 19)
The characters are once again heading towards aristocracy and monarchy. The book correctly portrayed the meaningless circles of life.
These books are both about the cycle of community, but they both have a few differences. One of the largest differences between both stories is that Ralph and the other boys in Lord of the Flies had never experienced how the circle worked beforehand; meanwhile, Jake already understood that he could only go in circles from the beginning of the story. While the boys in Lord of the Flies lose their innocence, Jake and Brett have already lost theirs.
The final distinction involves the authors' attitudes towards the circle: William Goulding offers no alternative, while Ernest Hemmingway very subtly points one to the cross to break out instead of accepting the circle. Lord of the Flies offers a very pessimistic view of the world: that all actions towards wholesome satisfaction are useless and mean nothing in the grand scheme of things. Goulding has accepted the Lord of the Flies' abilities and waved a white flag. At first glance, Hemingway has done the same thing. His portrayal of Jacob as a non-practicing Catholic leads one to believe that Hemmingway masterfully shows how Jake was yearning for something that he couldn’t have but also didn’t need. He yearned for pleasure, but he was looking for it in the wrong place. He did not realize that what he really needed was in front of him the entire time. Instead of seeking freedom from his internal prison in the church, he sought it in the pub; the place of quick, non-lasting pleasure instead of the place of eternal peace. This is shown most adequately when Jake, Robert, and Harris walk through a chapel and remark that:
"It's remarkable place," Harris said, when we came out.
"But you know I'm not much on those sort of places."
"Me either," Bill said.
"It's a remarkable place, though," Harris said.
"I wouldn't not have seen it. I'd been intending coming up each day."
"It isn't the same as fishing, though, is it?" Bill asked. He liked Harris.
"I say not." We were standing in front of the old chapel of the monastery.
"Isn't that a pub across the way?" Harris asked.
"Or do my eyes deceive me?"
"It has the look of a pub," Bill said.
"It looks to me like a pub," I said. (Chapter 13)
They think that the church is a remarkable place, but they would rather not commit their lives to it. Jake and Bill actually gain more peace by playing tennis, keeping up with bull fighting magazines, drinking, and fishing instead. The problem with all of these is that they cannot last, and his love for Brett will only continue. He keeps on living life in a circle; a prison. One should live according to the cross instead of the circular motions of the world. The fact that the world spins is what keeps one from flying. If one wants to fly, he must leave this world after carrying his cross up to Golgotha. Jake chooses the world when he decides to travel to the fiesta, the place of drinking and misery, instead of the pilgrimage that the priest and his companions are in the midst of when Jake and Bill are on the train (The Sun Also Rises Chapter 10).
Lord of the Flies and The Sun Also Rises show how desperately man wants to be perfect, but they also make clear that this is something that cannot be attained through materialistic means. Communities change over time toward chaos that can not be avoided due to a combination of fear of the beast inside of us and our community as well as a strong desire for a twisted utopia. This is proved by both stories told through the lenses of Jake and Ralph. All of this serves to demonstrate the pointlessness of all work aimed at obtaining pleasure. There are two applications one can derive from these stories: to appeal to the glum moroseness of nothingness or to cry out in distress to the cross, that he may be transformed and reside in a peaceful life. The world forever spins; gravity pulls man down; fire offered up ascends and then escapes the ground.
“Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”
— C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
The United States is no longer a democracy. Politicians no longer have power. It is the greatest of businesses that control our way of life; therefore, it is they who have power. It is my belief that someday (I have no idea when) the United States will become some form of monarchy, then some form of tyranny, and finally descend into chaos. This is the way of the world, and this will be the way of the United States as well. Tell me what you think of this take.