Royal Crown Academic School

ENGLISH

Compare Essay

Submitted to: Teacher Anahit Etezadi

Submitted by: Khoi Ngo (Alex)

Date: November 18, 2023

 The movie and the book LOTF seem to have some differences in the story, but the

characters between the book and movie have few differences. At first, Jack follows the lead of

Ralph like the book, there is a difference. Jack does not feel greedy with the power of the

leading like he is in the opening of the book. He plays with Ralph along the beach, but there is a

thing that does not change which is Jack does not like Piggy due to his appearance and in the

movie. In the movie, Jack is not really obsessed with hunting the pig, from the movie, it shows

that he just wants meat. Ralph has no different from the novel, he is a true leader. While Roger

is a person who has brutality like the novel has described. He throws the stone at the littluns for

no reason. Simon from the beginning is a person that separates from other boys, in the movie,

he explores the island by himself and finds a river with fresh water. Which is the same as the

novel, he usually does everything by himself. In the movie, Jack turns into savage, which is likely

the same as the novel.

In “Cast Away”, Chuck and the boys suffer the same situation, they both land at the

island by an aircraft accident. Chuck and the boys both have civilization but in LOTF, Jack’s group

begins to turn into savagery as the story happens. While Chuck maintains his order which is

building a shelter, finding food and hunting for food to survive which is not like Jack’s tribe.

When Chuck tries to remove his teeth, it seems to be a savagery action but he has no other way,

he has to do that because it is a necessary thing. But in the novel, Jack and his tribe find it

interesting with the hunting and they want meat. Although they excuse that the act of hunting is

for survival. At the end of the story, Chuck maintains his own civilization, he draws the image of

his wife and his friend “ Wilson” to help him have more effort to live. He remains morality, his

imagination and the willingness to live. While (However) in LOTF, Jack does not think so

optimistically, he assumes that no one will know they are living at that island and he becomes

savage. Jack’s tribe cannot maintain their morality, instead of using their ability to follow Ralph’s
orders. They start to fight against (each other) and cause the death of Simon and Piggy, which

was an act of savagery. The rescue symbol in the novel is the fire and the conch, although the

fire symbolizes the connection of the boys at the beginning of the story and turns into a symbol

of destruction at the very end. The conch which symbolizes as a civilization but it has been

broken at the end- a sign of a destruction of a civilization. In “ Cast Away”, the angel wings are

the symbol and his friend “ Wilson”. The ball that Chuck has opened and it turns out to be his

best friend during the time he lives on the isolated island, which helps him to not feel lonely.

When Chuck is unboxing the package of FedEx that he collects from the beach, he hesitates to

open the package with the wings. After 4 years living on the island by himself, he does not open

that package. He also paints the angel wings on the plastic doors sail. It gives him hope and

power to return. At the end of the movie, he sees the rescue symbol on the back of a girl’s car

who has shown him the direction. There are 3 recurring themes in the movie and the novel

which is survival, human behavior and living on an island. They both show the surviving life and

the plot of crashing into a wild island where there is no human as well as the change of human

in a different living condition

The LOTF movie and “Cast Away”, they both have the same developing the characters,

recurring themes and rescue symbols. In LOTF, the main conflicts usually happen between Jack

and Ralph, they begin with a same vision and purpose but ending with two different

perspectives. Which leads to loss of civilization, Chuck and Ralph seem to have the same

personality. They maintain their morality, an optimistic thought that someone will rescue them

one day. They are both lonely, Chuck has to suffer that feeling from the beginning of the movie

while Ralph suffers it at the very end of the story. When all his friends died under Jack’s tribe

hand, and he is being hunted by his old friend. The savagery of the tribe is out of control, they

are brutal and kill someone because they don't follow the orders. At the beginning of “Cast
Away” and LOTF, they both have the same order which is to be rescued and survived. While

Chuck has maintained it perfectly until the end of the movie. The boys in LOTF cannot do it, they

break down after a short time and fall into savagery. The “Cast Away” movie, LOTF movie and

novel share a main recurring theme, which has been described before in the second paragraph.

“ Wilson” the ball that Chuck has made it into a friend to share the life and the story on the

island. Which is a recurring symbols, it gives Chuck hope to go back to his daily life. He has

thought of suicide but “ Wilson” in someway saves him. While the conch symbolizes for orders

and authority. In the movie, the conch is not destroyed but it has been despised, which is a

symbol of a broken civilization.

Work cited

From the novel Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding, afterword by Lois Lowry.

The Lord of the Flies movie, directed by Harry Hook.

The Cast Away movie, directed by Robert Zemeckis