Thursday, August 1, 2013

What does the phrase, "a stick sharpened at both ends," mean? (Lord of the Flies, chapter 12)

as mentioned before... the stick sharpened at both ends is a reference to when jack's tribe killed the sow.. but if you want to go to a more interpretive level... some say the stick sharpened at both ends represents death and inanimate representation of the depths to which savagery will lead, again, death, murder and sadism. You can also say that the stick shows a no-win situation, kill or be killed, where the fight for survival reaches a desperation where all the intelligence we humans pride ourselves on disappears into primal instincts.


The stick sharpened at both ends isn't much referred to in the novel until nearer the end, as the boys complete their descent into savagery, however, if writing an essay you can say that as the boys get more savage, the spears they use become sharper and used with more muderous intent, until they reach a pinnacle point where it is not only sharpened at one end, but two.


hope that helps :) obviously there will be somewho disagree with me, but that is my interpretation.. (sorry about spelling mistakes)

No comments:

Post a Comment

In Act III, scene 2, why may the establishment of Claudius's guilt be considered the crisis of the revenge plot?

The crisis of a drama usually proceeds and leads to the climax.  In Shakespeare's Hamlet , the proof that Claudius is guilty...