Microcosm and Macrocosm

Mrs. King—Fall 2010

Microcosm and Macrocosm

Ancient Greek schema of seeing the same patterns reproduced in all levels of reality

Pythagoras—golden ratio Golden mean—a pattern that was reproduced

throughout reality Greeks saw reality as a whole and noticed

patterns that were repeated throughout all the levels of reality.

Microcosm and Macrocosm

Macro- (large) Micro- (small) Cosom- (Order, world, or ordered world) “Cosom” also comes from the idea of the

cosmos or the universe

Microcosm and Macrocosm

Simply put, it is the recognition that the same traits appear in entities of many different sizes, from one man to the entire human population.

Applied to Lord of the Flies

Macrocosm—the entire world at turmoil during the 1940’s (World War II)

Microcosm—the small island where the boys are stranded.

The behaviors of the boys and their “society” begin to take on, or mimic, the behaviors of the larger society (the world as a whole).

Critics of Lord of the Flies

Dramatizes the history of civilization Explores issues such as original sin and

the nature of good and evil Criticism of the political and social

institutions of the West Explores the problems and questions

universal to the human experience