Order. That's what makes us human. Every teenager in our generation has lived in a world with rules and regulations, where we are able to separate ourselves from savages and learn how to live with order. The society we live in today has been established following this crucial rule. Though life was not always like this and will not always be like this. In any world there will be savages like Jack from the Lord of Flies, or the ex-Sudanese army from What is the What. You may even find some around you! Maybe in your basketball team, maybe in your math class. In both “Lord of the Flies” and “What is the What” we notice authors representing similar themes - the lead characters in both books are looking for a way to maintain order and reclaim peace.
In "lord of the flies", Jack tries his best to maintain order but is unsuccessful to do so as he and the other boys in the group are unable to bond. At first Jack may have sounded like a strong and confident leader - as Golding describes him, “he stood with the conch in his hand shoulders upright his hair shining” Golding does not explicitly say that he is confident, but the reader is able to imply this because of the descriptions used for example “shoulders upright” it makes the reader infer that he is confident and strong and suitable for a leader because that's the type of gestures leaders use in our world, and that's what made the kids think he was suitable. However he is unable to enforce order in a way that encourages the others to work with him, one of the key parts of this problem is in the Signal Fire “Ralph glared at the group and whispered silently you let the fire go out then screamed you lot let the fire go out” Over here we notice the tone used by Ralph, though he is definitely trying to enforce order but with the incorrect tone, leaders need to make people around them cooperate and sometimes have to be strict, but Ralph did not know how far he could take his anger before he started to lose people and that's a key value leaders anywhere need, the knowledge to know when to stop being as aggressive. This brief dialogue by Ralph starts driving the kids from working together. An example of this is “the kids look awkwardly at Jack as they are coming back from the forest, even Ralph notices the looks he receives from everyone” This is a powerful description used by William Golding. It shows the shift in emotion for Ralph, it starts to show them trying to be away from Ralph, and since Ralph is the only person on the island trying to enforce order this is a problem. And this is the last thing the kids want because now the kids are unable to bond with one another and especially Ralph, and cooperation is essential whenever anyone or group is trying to maintain order, but in “Lord of the Flies” we are noticing that there are people trying to fight for order, but when we see that people are not bonding with them there is positive effect it only goes down and we start noticing negative impacts until finally there are two groups established and there is absolute chaos, and readers notice this when “by evening the beach looked less crowded all they had left were a couple of little nuns and Samneric” This is the climax, what Golding is trying to portray from this is that when you can't bond to maintain order there are groups that are going to be formed and chaos is going to be an effect of it. We know this because of the emotion Golding used in that dialogue “Ralph's shoulders slumped” they are all implying that something's wrong and something bad it going to happen and we do see bad things happen as chaos is spread.
On the other hand in “What is the What” readers understand that when Valentino is trying to maintain order the initial effects include, more death, kidnaps, and chaos but we notice that overtime Valentino finds youngs boys like him who he is able to bond and cooperate with to maintain order in the long term.
Initially, we notice that there is a lot of chaos, as the Sudanese army turns into savages. One of the key scenes when there was utter chaos was the point in which Valentino's loses his father and short after his mother, “I sat down in the wild, the world was falling apart for me I did not know what to do” this vivid detail makes the reader think that only bad things can come, this is because of the emotion used here “the world was falling apart for me” the author here used the craft move of tone to stir empathy and raise the stakes of the reader, that phrase make the reader feel for Valentino and infer that things can only go badly from here as Valentino is just a kid. However as readers progress through the book they notice things starting to change as Valentino finds a group of boys who are facing the same situation as him - torn away from their families- once Valentino joins these boys they start to bond unlike the boys in “Lord of the Flies” we notice they first start to bond after Dut introduces them to each other, the kids most bond at night, an example of this is “hey do you miss being home? Yes but we will get there soon we just have to work together” this is a powerful conversation between Valentino and his friend, it starts raising the stakes for the both character and reader, it starts to give hope that the kids will bond and everything might just work and become better, and this is what we see, overtime these kids bond and work together they try to bring back order. Though it's not the easiest thing to do, many of Valentino's friends die in the process of restoring order but the fact that no one gives up and still worked together restored the order, if they had not worked to together they would have ended up just like the boys from “Lord of the Flies”
Golding used dialogue and description usefully throughout the book to help support the theme and raise the stakes. “You let the fire go out Ralph spoke in quiet tone” “We can start the fire again Jack replied with hope in his voice” over here as we can see the levels of communication completely falls from the previous example. Golding used this halfway through the book to start raising the stakes so the reader starts thinking about the theme. The reason this dialogue was raising the stakes here was because the readers felt like this scene was going to be when the group broke up and chaos started as we had never seen this part of Ralph, but Golding waited for dialogues too get more intense before starting the real chaos and this is noticed the last parts of the book. “Ok who's with me? No one? Well you will regret staying with Jack and if you do want to join me I’ll be north of the island, I am not playing Ralph’s game anymore spoke Jack” This is one of the climaxes of the book, this shows the reader how someone speaks when they go all out savage, there is no way to stop them at this point, and we can see this because after Jack made the decision he stuck with it, teaching us that once someone's brain goes savage it's very hard to turn it around. Another point this quote is portraying is kids not bonding together, it's because Jack could not bond with Ralph or the others that he had to leave, and break one large group into two groups and this created chaos.
Nonetheless, dialogue was not the only craft move that Golding used to raise the stakes and support the theme another craft move as mentioned before Golding also used description effectively.
This was the move he used to throughout the book to make the theme more and more apparent as the reader progresses through the book. Reader’s notice that at the beginning of the book Golding describes the island as “beautiful, faraway land, away from adults, leaves bright green filled with energy” which is very strange and starts to get the reader thinking why the author is using such language in a time when the children are away from home, shouldn’t it be darker? Golding does this too give us some false sense of temporary security to raise the stakes of the boys surviving life on this island, he does this by using words to describe the forests, examples of this include “beautiful, bright green leaves filled with energy” Nonetheless we notice the descriptions of the forests get darker throughout the book and one of the darkest climaxes is when Simon is murder. “Now out of the terror rose another desire, thick, urgent, blind as they chanted Kill the Beast Cut his throat Spill the blood!” William Golding uses such fresh and vivid detail to really bring out the theme of order vs savagery, this is the turning point for the boys where we know they are completely savage and can't come back. We understand this because of the choice of words used by Golding particularly “desire, thick, and blind” these words imply that their lust for blood is going thicker, blinding them from order. Another way William Golding uses description to support the theme and raise the stakes is showing how Jack starts painting his face “dazzle paint. Like things trying to look like something else,” this is a major scene because this scene implicitly tells the reader that Jack and the other have gone completely savage and there’s no more turning back. Readers understand this because of the phrase William Golding uses “Like things trying to look like someone else” and another reason we know Jack and the others can't come back now is because at the beginning of the book Golding described them as a “prefects, wearing clothes” but now he described them as “shirtless, face-painted savages” making it extremely clearing there was no more turning back.
Similarly in “What is the What” Dave Eggers used the same craft move as effectively to support the similar theme. Though he used both dialogue and description, the more powerful craft move used was dialogue. This is because the communication between Valentino and his friends really stirred the reader's emotion as well as helping to support the theme. An example of this is at night time when all the boys have to sleep Valentino is always helping the boys feel secure so they have a good relationship in order to bond, an example of this is “Valentino I don't feel well, I want to see my mom, we will soon just sleep tonight okay?” This is a prime example of the communication that a leader should have, and this is why the other kids bonded with Valentino because he was nice caring and understanding, he stayed up with kids when they felt bad he did everything.
All in all as well as having similar themes both authors also used similar craft moves, however “What is the What” relied heavily on the use of dialogue to expose theme and stir emotions instead of “Lord of the Flies” which relied heavily on the use of dialogue and description to highlight the theme.
At the end of the day, both Dave Eggers and William Golding wants us the readers to learn the same message. That we the kids, the next generation have to bond so that our world does not crumble and lose civilization so that our kids can have a better tomorrow, a secure tomorrow. William Golding shows a prime example of what is going to happen if we don't bond and work together, and Dave Eggers shows us the opposite, what happens if we do bond and work together. This is not just relevant for the world, but something everyone should remember while doing everyday things, may it be working on a debate, a science project, in your basketball team anything. In order to have a successful end project or product, we need to work together. So next time you have to work in a group learn the skills leaders need, skills Ralph was lacking and Valentino had because teamwork and cooperation are the only thing that will let you achieve your goal. Cooperation between humanity that's our only hope.
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