Lord of the Flies & Macbeth

There were many similarities between Macbeth and Lord of the Flies. The themes in both the literature pieces were the same; survival, leadership, power, and etc. But both obviously didn't follow the same plot lines.

 

Power/leadership

• Macbeth learns about a prophecy which declares that he can be king
• Lady Macbeth persuades Macbeth to kill Duncan in his sleep
• Macbeth commits the murder and is soon crowned King
• Macbeth makes all the rules in the kingdom now

• Ralph declares in front of the group that they should have a leader
• They have a vote, and to Jack's dismay Ralph is chosen
• Ralph tells the boys what to do, and is in total power
• Later on in the book, Jack starts to disobey his commands
• Jack leaves the group to start his own group and be becomes the leader with power

Survival

• Macbeth kills Banquo and tries to kill Banquo's son 
• Banquo's son escapes and fleds the scene
• Macbeth kills Macduffs family because Macduff has fled to England and he is worried that Malcolm and Macduff might try to bring an end to his reign

• The boys start a signal fire in hopes of being rescued
• They hunt for pig so they can have some food to eat
• They build shelters to protect themselves
• When Jack tries to kill Ralph, he runs into the woods in hopes of trying to survive 

These are some of the similarities between the two pieces but they are obviously very different in ways also. Lord of the Flies is centered around the theme survival because the boys are stuck on an island with no adults, no ways of communicating with the outside world. All they can do is work together and try to survive this journey. Macbeth is mostly about being in power and leadership. The whole play is about how Macbeth kills Duncan so that he can be king but then is killed himself by Macduff because Macduff realizes that Macbeth is not fit to be king and puts an end to the tyrant. 

I enjoyed reading Macbeth more because even though it was Shakespearean language, once I got it translated so I could understand, it was actually interesting. Macbeth longed to be king and that is all Lady Macbeth wanted too but their life went on a downward spiral the minute the crown was put on his head. Lord of the Flies was not something that I enjoyed as much because the chapters were too long. Some of the words that they used, I had no idea what they even meant. Mostly the chapters were spent on describing the environment around them and the appearances, rather then actually talking about the situation that was occurring. But all in all, it wasn't so bad. Both literature pieces were interesting in their own way.