Ralph picked up his wedding photo and smiled peacefully. It had been two years since he met his wife, and one year since he married her. She had been a blessing to his life. Ralph thought no one would accept him as a regular citizen when he got back from the island ten years ago. Sure his mom and dad welcomed him back with open arms but when he came back to school everyone treated him as an outcast. No one wanted to talk or play with, a savage, or a member of the beast cult. The newspapers always liked to twist the truth to gain readers. Although Ralph still kept in touch with Samn’eric, he started to believe no one would accept him for who he truly is. Until his 20th birthday. Ralph stayed in his bookstore even after closing time. It was …show more content…
The clock read 7:50 PM, he was going to be late if he doesn’t get going soon. Ralph promised to meet him at exactly 8:00 PM and he doesn’t want to be late. Ralph quickly grabbed his coat and headed out the door. Ralph walked into the small cafe shop down the street and sniffed the espresso-filled air. He was five minutes early. Ralph ordered a small cup of hot chocolate and seated himself near the window. The weather looked depressing. Fat pellets of rain dropped from the sky hitting every exposed object in its way. The bell chimed indicating that the someone came into the cafe. Ralph looked up and gulped. He looked the same, but slightly maturer and older. Dark circles surrounded his eyes and his face seemed more chiseled in. He walked up to Ralph’s table without ordering anything. Ralph stood up and put on a strained smiled. “Hullo Jack.” Jack also put on a strained smiled and seated himself. “Hullo Ralph. Long time no see.” An uncomfortable silence filled the air until Ralph cleared his throat and said, “So why’d you want to meet me here?” Jack looked down. “It’s been ten years since we got off the island.” “I'm aware.” “And I just wanted to apologize for what I
do that if we want to, anyone can be a hunter. It’s so pointless, he
First off, Ralph has changed from a logical thinker on the island to a confused and dazed young man, unable to understand the why factor in his actions over the last 25 years.
When Ralph is confronted with adversity his character develops. He loses his sense of civilization and the savagery within him grows after killing his friend Simon. Ralph faces the inevitable loss of innocence on the island when discovering what was humanity is capable of. This novel will forever remain popular as it shows human nature in its truest form.
As Ralph is trying to hide from them overnight, he wonders, “Might it not be possible to walk boldly into the fort… pretend they were still boys, schoolboys who had said, ‘Sir, yes, sir’- and worn caps? Daylight might have answered yes; but darkness and the horrors of death said no” (186). No matter how hard Ralph tries, he cannot discard his new knowledge of Jack and his tribe’s potential for evil and corruption. For a long time Ralph seems to be in denial; like many others, he seems to want to stay true to his belief in the overall goodness of the human heart. Ralph’s expectations for human kindness are finally challenged to the point of irreversibility when Jack attacks him and tries to pursue him on a vicious manhunt. When Ralph collapses on the beach and a naval officer arrives, “With filthy body, matted hair, and unwiped nose, Ralph wept for the end of innocence, [and] the darkness of man’s heart...” (202). One might think it strange that rather than rejoicing over rescue, Ralph and the rest of the boys cry out in grief. The young schoolboys come to understand the enormity of human greed and evil, and unfortunately it is a lesson that they will not be able to ignore or forget. They witness and play a role in their own loss of innocence, and the time they spend on the island teaches them what
His voice rose under the black smoke before the burning wreckage of the island; and infected by that emotion, the other little boys began to shake and sob too. And in the middle of them, with filthy body, matted hair, and unwiped nose, Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy (Golding, 290).
How are the characters of Ralph, Jack and Piggy established in the opening chapters of the novel Lord of the Flies At the start of the novel we learn that during a nuclear war, there was an atomic explosion. Many boys were evacuated on an aircraft with a detachable passenger tube. They were flying over tropical seas via Gibraltar and Addis Ababa when the tube was released and crashed-landed in the jungle of an island. The aircraft flew off in flames and overnight the remains of the tube were swept out to sea in a storm.
“With a convulsion of the mind, Ralph discovered dirt and decay. (p.82)” At home, the boys were raised with and became habituated to proper European mannerisms and dress passed down to them from parent and other adult mentors. To act upon these mannerisms and proper dress became second nature when around adults, though on the island, they had lost that adult influence. Suddenly, “Ralph was struck with this new mood of comprehension (p.82)” that he had lost that visible image of being proper that he had been raised with for so long.
In the novel, Lord of the Flies By William Golding on pg 119-120 Ralph misses feeling like he did at home. Being on the island Ralph has restarted unhealthy habits like biting his nails to cope with the lack tools like scissors. Ralph describes his nails as “ Bitten Down to the quick through” (Goulding 119) biting nails is not only unhealthy but also symbolizes nerves. Ralph is nervous about not being rescued and therefore becoming increasingly savage like. Naturally, the boys are now very filthy but this has become the new normal. In the beginning of chapter seven Ralph, “Pulled distastefully at his grey shirt” by using words such as “distastefully” the author appeals to the sense of touch by implying the shirt is so far past a point of filth
The main character is Ralph, a boy of "twelve years and a few months," is the first character the reader meets in the novel (Golding 10). The narrator is direct when describing Ralph's physical characteristics: "You could see now that he might make a boxer, as far as width and heaviness of shoulders went, but there was a mildness about his mouth and eyes that proclaimed no devil," (Golding 10). The narrator's first description of Ralph is his fair hair. Within direct characterization and straightforward statements, the narrator includes indirect comments on Ralph's nature. For example, the narrator implies that Ralph has a kind nature by saying his eyes and mouth bear no evil when talking about Ralph's build. Ralph is implied to be the largest and oldest boy on the island when the narrator notes, "The decrease in size, from Ralph down, was gradual," (Golding 59).
In literature, as in life, people struggle with the principles and beliefs they hold. In the novel, Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, Ralph represents order, civilization, and leadership. On the island, Ralph is conflicted with his principles and beliefs that he has acquired over the years of living in a civilized and humane world and is caught between holding on to them or submitting to the barbarism that seems to have taken over the other boys.
People are privileged to live in an advanced stage of development known as civilization. In a civilization, one’s life is bound by rules that are meant to tame its savage natures. A humans possesses better qualities because the laws that we must follow instill order and stability within society. This observation, made by William Golding, dictates itself as one of the most important themes of Lord of the Flies. The novel demonstrates the great need for civilization ion in life because without it, people revert back to animalistic natures.
He was faced with difficulties. Ralph forgot to renew his visa, the only proof of his identity and had to live without a legal identity for months. Although he stayed in America with Theresa and Helen, he began to show “typical american” qualities such as lying and cheating his way through life. Ralph once said, “Money. In this country, you have money, you can do anything. You have no money, you are nobody. You are Chinaman. Is that simple” (Jen 199), this quote is only the beginning of Ralph’s detrimental
Much of history’s most renown literature have real-world connections hidden in them, although they may be taxing uncover. William Golding’s classic, Lord of the Flies, is no exception. In this work of art, Golding uses the three main characters, Piggy, Jack, and Ralph, to symbolize various aspects of human nature through their behaviors, actions, and responses.
Before Ralph ended up on this island, he thought everyone was good, and bad was just a foreign concept. But now he sees that there is evil even within himself. While him and the re...