ENGLISH ESSAY - Adventure stories always teach us something.
Over the years there have been many wonderful adventure tales written by various talented authors. The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne, Coral Island by R.M. Ballantyne and later on, Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome are only a few. These particular adventure texts have one thing in common; islands. The books tell of how humans cope when forced to survive away from civilization. .
The following piece will look into another three texts that fit this brief. Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson and the feature film Cast Away directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks.
Each of these three texts will be analysed in agreement with the following statement: "That all adventure stories teach us something".
The focus will be upon the techniques used to teach lessons and morals. Six techniques have been chosen. Firstly the use of characters and symbolism in Lord of the Flies, secondly camera work and dialogue in Cast Away, and finally plot and first-person narration in Treasure Island.
Lord of the Flies, written in the early 1950s by William Golding, has long been a heavily studied text, partly for the perfection and purpose with which Golding writes and partly for its unconventional and somewhat abrupt style and story line.
Golding set out with the intent of telling it how he thought it really would be. Tired of reading light-hearted and falsely happy adventure stories he decided to write about humans being stranded on an island in a much more realistic fashion. .
Golding's writing experience and power over language are well illustrated throughout the book, which tells the story of a group of young schoolboys who are in a plane crash and end up alone on a deserted island. Their actions, while beginning with good intent, become dangerous, cruel and brutal. This is the shock factor.
The book was not accepted with ease when it was first launched because it did not fit societies expectations and instead broke the unofficial protocol of the typical adventure story.
