Imperialism In Lord Of The Flies

The Lord of the Flies was written by William Golding and is about a group of english boys who crash on an island during a period of war. The boys discover the island is uninhabited and try to create their own government as they wait for rescue. However as time passes things get out of hand and the boys struggle with keeping their humanity because there really is no set structure of government. Within everyone there is a beast seeking to devour whom it pleases and take control of what it pleases; only within one’s mind can someone determine whether to fall at the iron will of the beast or remain civil. In William Golding’s The Lord of the Flies two main characters, Jack and Ralph, struggle to survive with a group of

As it’s stated in the book “ ‘you’re talking too much’ said Jack Merridew ‘shut up fatty’...’He’s not fatty’ cried Ralph ‘his real name is Piggy’ ” (Golding 21). The boys at the beginning of the book think of the smaller picture and think of being trapped on an island as a game. Ralph shows this through his actions at the start of the novel when he realizes he is on an island. He laughs about being stuck on the island and has no worries. This can be seen in Jack when he goes of to hunt the pig alone instead of building shelters. At the start of the book Ralph is an easy going leader, and Jack is a strict and overbearing leader. This can be seen when Ralph is voted leader, and he shows almost little to no emotion about it. Jack makes it a bigger deal than Ralph does, and when the reader first meets Jack he is making his choir boys march through the forest. At the start of the novel the boys are seeking two different goals; Ralph ensures the survival of the group while Jack wants to hunt the pigs for personal gain. This is most represented when Ralph goes to build shelters with Piggy while Jack goes off alone to hunt the pig. The two main characters progress tremendously throughout the novel. many of these actions represent how savageness and one’s inner beast are exploited when there

The message is told through the characters and their actions. Not only the main characters, but the other characters as well show a drastic change in personality. The characters show what takes place within one’s mind when there are no boundaries or civilization to hold it in place. William Golding supports his belief that one must consciously make the decision to be good instead of letting true nature take over them. He supports this when he shows the reader Ralph and Jack, two characters who were innocent at the beginning of the book, slipping from reality and losing the concepts of right and wrong. As the novel states it “you’re no good at a job like this’ ‘all the same-’ ‘We don’t want you’ said Jack, flatly ‘three’s enough.’ ”(Golding 274-276) we can relate what William Golding wrote about to our daily lives, and see that no one is truly good but one’s own nature or inner beast is truly evil; therefore boundaries must be set in order to stay sane. When there is no government or boundaries one’s inner beast is free to prowl. In conclusion William Golding wrote the Lord of the Flies as a symbol of what may happen when government is no longer present in our daily lives. This is shown throughout the novel in various places one of which being the two main characters Ralph and Jack. The book follows Ralph through his eye opening journey into the heart of savageness, and it follows Jack’s plummeting fall