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the role of government in society
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Without government, society degenerates and people lose their capacity for moral behaviour. Survivors in Haiti say that if other countries had not provided aid and restored order, there would be much more violence and everyone would only serve themselves. In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the author uses the events on the island to demonstrate that people require government to restrain their impulses. The creation of a democratic government with Ralph as chief allows the inhabitants of the island to make decisions together and take everyone’s viewpoint into consideration. Soon, however, the democracy begins to be disregarded. When Jack creates a dictatorship, he fails to restrain the impulsive behaviour of the boys, which demonstrates the superiority of Ralph’s government.
The island’s first government is a democratic one, created at the beginning of the novel. When the boys arrive on the island, two characters named Ralph and Piggy meet as they begin to look around the site where their plane has crashed. When they find a conch shell, they decide to use it to make a noise and call the other boys to a meeting. William Golding uses the conch shell throughout the book as a symbol of democratic government. Those assembled—except for Jack’s choir—vote that Ralph should be chief, and he sets up a democratic system where anyone is allowed to talk. This system involves using the shell like a talking stick: anyone who wants to talk holds the shell and everyone else must listen to what they have to say. As a goal for the group, Ralph says they should try to be rescued. Most of the boys respect Ralph and look up to him, so they support this goal. Rescue is a long-term goal, and this shows that Ralph thinks about the future....
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...ing him advice. However, they are tortured into revealing Ralph’s escape plan. Things like this show that Jack’s tribe have little respect for others. They do things that they wouldn’t do alone, because the rest of the group takes the blame. By this William Golding demonstrates what happens to society if order is not imposed by a government.
At the beginning of Lord of the Flies, the boys create a democratic government. As the story progresses, the initial democracy on the island is ignored, and a dictatorship rises in its place. This dictatorship fails to keep the boys in order. The author, William Golding, shows that without the institution of a strong government and set of rules people will become impulsive and seek instant gratification. In the absence of order, people tend not to become disciplined of their own accord, but rather dissolve into destructive chaos.
Jack disagrees with Ralph’s priorities and proposes: “ ‘ I’m going off by myself. He can catch his own pigs. Anyone who wants to hunt when I do can come too’ ” (Golding 183). Later on after Ralph has lost all his authority, and is betrayed by his own people. Golding writes “ These painted savages [Jack and his tribe] would go further and further.Then there was that indefinable connection between himself [Ralph] and Jack; who therefore would never let him alone…” (265). Although there was only one rebellion against the power, it was very successful. Jack’s rebellion gave him absolute power, and took everything away from Ralph. However, even though the rebellion worked, there was still chaos. The leadership taught people to be violent, and as Golding said “savage”. This revolution bears resemblance to the Russian Revolution. When the poltretatiots finally gained power, the government was very weak, and there was still uprisings against the government. The communists didn’t expect how much war would cost, nor did they expect how it would backfire on the people. Jack’s rebellion and the Russian Revolution both worked, but still let the things that matter, like the people,
The Lord of the Flies is one big allegory, the way the boys are formed on the island is similar to different governments our world has had before, and currently have. The type of government that the island has, changed throughout the book. In the beginning the government is a democracy, but towards the end it changes to a dictatorship. This dictatorship is run by Jack who gathers followers when he promises pig meat, and fun. This idea is shown throughout the book, in many places, through objects, and actions.
After this incident we can see continual conflict between Ralph and Jack. We can see this when Jack proclaims that Ralph, “Isn’t a proper chief.” Golding is trying to show us that this conflict is very similar to the conflict between humanities inner barbarism and the living influence of reason. We can see other evidence of this conflict within ourselves, with the masks that Jack and his hunters put on. We are informed that Jack, “ rubbed the charcoal stick between the patches of red and white on his face” The mask represents the dark line (charcoal) between good (white) and evil (red) within ourselves. These masks also let the boys hide f...
Lord of the Flies is an intriguing novel about a group of English boys who are stranded on a remote island during World War II after their plane was shot down. The schoolboys quickly use the resources they find and create a temporary form of order. As they continue to stay on the island, their proper English ways quickly turn into savage like instincts. In William Golding’s, Lord of the Flies, Golding uses the conch, the Beast, leadership, murder, and fire to show that without rules there is chaos.
“The Lord of the Flies” is a skillfully crafted novel about the struggle for power when there is a lack of authority. Author William Golding weaves an elaborate story about a group of children struggling to survive on a remote island with no adults. As the characters are developed and the plot is progressed, the manners and customs from society that the boys had grown up with slowly fades from their lifestyle. As the time the boys spend on the island increases, their decline towards savagery becomes increasingly evident. As a direct result of the lack of adult supervision on the island, the children decline into savagery and the customs of civilization are slowly eroded.
Golding establishes the power and potential of government and its vulnerability to outside affairs. In “Lord of the Flies,” each of the older boys strive for power and authority. Their views and beliefs are all dissimilar, resulting in each boys to possess different elucidation on how the island should function. These representations of government are apparent in Ralph, Jack, and Piggy, and prompt the social unrest and inability to compensate for their own needs. The way in which a leader governs determines the path that he/she sets upon his
William Golding wrote the novel, Lord of the Flies, to express the concept that a society is a representation of the individuals within the society. A society does not cause the members to become corrupted instead, it is corrupted because of the unethical nature of the citizens. Golding portrayed this in Lord of the Flies by making a microcosm in which many boys were stranded without help from any adults. This caused the kids to take control of the government and make their own rules. Golding represents the corruption of society by having the boy’s leave a huge impact on the island. Before the kids crash landed on the island, it is shown being very peaceful, but by the time the boys leave the island, it is trashed, “but the island was scorched
One of the main characters, Ralph, was very likeable to everyone and was almost immediately elected as the leader of the tribe, with the only competition being the leader of the choir boys, Jack. Even though Ralph just wants to get home, he remains to look strong and tough to the other boys, to try and keep things as civilized as possible. So, Ralph decides that; "We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages. We're English, and the English are best a...
One of the main themes in William Golding's 1954 novel Lord of the Flies is that without civilization, there is no law and order. The expression of Golding's unorthodox and complex views are embodied in the many varied characters in the novel. One of Golding's unorthodox views is that only one aspect of the modern world keeps people from reverting back to savagery and that is society. Golding shows the extreme situations of what could possibly happen in a society composed of people taken from a structured society then put into a structureless society in the blink of an eye. First there is a need for order until the people on the island realize that there are no rules to dictate their lives and take Daveers into their own hands. Golding is also a master of contrasting characterization. This can be seen in the conflicts between the characters of Jack, the savage; Simon, the savior; and Piggy, the one with all the ideas.
For centuries, nations and philosophers have attempted to devise a government beneficial to all. Famous enlightenment thinkers Thomas Hobbes and Voltaire aimed to conceive such government. Unfortunately, the characters in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies do not implement the ideas of these enlightenment philosophers. In the aforementioned novel a group of English schoolboys ranging from the age of six to twelve crash land of on a desert island and attempt to govern themselves until their rescue. Ultimately, The boys on the island fall into chaos because they do not have strong government or establish a government that respects the freedom of speech of each person. The consequences of their failure to set up these governing components
A government is not the foundation of a successful society. It consists of a group of individuals who work together to achieve a common goal: serving its people based on majority consent. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, the characters were exposed to an environment where a government was not implemented correctly. Initially, a democracy was approached, but the focus was later shifted onto dictatorship and gaining power. Due to this, the society began to deteriorate and the boys met their inevitable fate. It has been argued that government is ineffective as it is corrupt and money-driven; however, this is not always true. Firstly, government discourages crime, in addition, government controls people’s natural tendency to go savage.
The existence of social order is a symbol of the desire for self control of men. Together, over the course of thousands of years, we slowly recognized the importance of order, so we gave up our freedom, learnt to control our instincts, in exchange of a social contract which brought a civilization and prosperity. In the novel Lord of The Flies, William Golding uses the defects of society to reflect the defects of human nature. The novel demonstrates a group of young boys, who have yet to learn to control the “defects” within their nature, trying to comprehend the meaning of their lives and recreate a complex civilization on their own. The lack of educational experience results in the boys failing to work together; they have been taught the
Throughout the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, many different conflicting societies develop. These groups of young English schoolboys have conflicts between them for many different reasons. Some of them are so spread apart in age that their beliefs and actions are very different. Other groups are conflicting because they have different opinions about who the leader of the entire group should be. The groups also argue about what their priorities should be while trapped on the island. These conflicts continue to grow until the very end, when one group finally gains supremacy.
In the beginning of the story the airplane that is going to take the boys to a safe place gets shot down and landed in an island. Ralph represents democracy, when he and Piggy find the conch, Piggy suggested “We can use this to call the others. We have a meeting. They’ll come if they hear us” (16). Ralph is being democratic because he is giving them a choice if they want to go or not. He is also fair because he is going to have a meeting to decide what they are going to do. When they get together they decide that they need to have a chief. Roger says “Let’s have a vote” “Him with the conch” “Ralph, Ralph, Ralph” (22). They started to notice that Ralph would be a good leader. They see in him what a chief needs to have, and the conch in his hands means power and authority. They all start talking at the same time and discussing about who has to be chief, the choir boys think that Jack should be the chief but the rest want Ralph to be the chief. “I got the conch” said piggy indignantly “you let me speak” (42). Piggy gets the conch because represents power so the rest of the boys had to let him talk and show respect, Piggy was really intelligent so that helped Ralph be a better leader because he would listen to Piggy and choose what was right.
The Lord of the Flies is an ultimately pessimistic novel. In the midst of the cold war and communism scares, this disquieting aura acts as a backdrop to the island. The Lord of the Flies addresses questions like how do dictators come to power, do democracies always work, and what is the natural state and fate of humanity and society, getting at the heart of human nature in a very male-dominated, conflict-driven way. The war, the plane shot down, and the boys' concern that the "Reds" will find them before the British, shows Golding's intention of treating the boys' isolated existence as a microcosm of the adult military world.