Self-Discovery In Lord Of The Flies

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“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” This powerful and meaningful quote was said by the knowledgeable philosopher Aristotle. What the quote is attempting to depict is that it is important to know one’s own self before attempting to understand something else. It intelligibly provides an understanding of the idea to conquer one’s own self before trying to conquer the world. This can be defined as self-discovery, which is the true understanding of one’s own self. Self-discovery is a prominent theme in a number of literary works such as, The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, as well as the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare. In the Lord of the Flies, William Golding presents how the characters Simon and Ralph develop a course…show more content…
The thrilling novel Lord of the Flies displayed self-discovery as a protruding subject. A character that was exposed to the idea of understanding one’s own self, was the spiritual and understanding Simon. Simon is the odd one out of the group and is usually displayed as being “The other one” by the boys. Throughout the novel, Simon hesitates to speak his mind about the mythical “Beast” as he is too timid and is usually avoided by others. He is portrayed by Golding as being a christ figure who defends the weak and is the only one who understands the true nature of the beast. The Beast was a protuberant threat towards the boys and was believed to being an actual creature throughout the novel by them, although the reader understands that it is just their imagination. Sam and Eric, when tending the fire discovered a shadow that they believed to be the Beast. This invoked a lot of fear within the group of boys and this often led them to conduct violence, but…show more content…
William Shakespeare identified him as being a cunning and deceiving man that was only in it for himself. Macbeth had chosen a path of crime and blind ambition, to achieve his desires and wants of being King of Scotland. Macbeth was told a prophecy by the Three Witches, that stated he would take the throne after King Duncan. Eager to achieve this position early than when it was intended to, led Macbeth to killing King Duncan. This as a result made him king, but his unlawful crimes led to guilt throughout the play for him. After killing Macduff’s family, Macduff wanted revenge for what he had done, as he wanted to avenge his family. The prophecy stating that Macbeth would die by a man not born of women came true as Macduff had to go through c-section when he was born. Macbeth was understanding of the situation he got himself into and had an epiphany of all the wrong he has done right before the battle between the two. Macbeth discovers himself as a person as he realizes that the Witches were just a way to break him down and that they were not true. Furthermore, he understands that the prophecies could have been prevented if he had just not held the blind ambition towards becoming king and had just accepted it when it did come around. He accepts his death with open arms during the battle, as he came into realization of how he essentially led his life to tragedy. Shakespeare presents Macbeth as a
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