The Lord of the Flies, in its’ most basic form, is the struggle between two sides of humanity. We have Ralph, who is the epitome of civilization, democracy, and rationality. And yet there is a flip-side to the coin of society. Jack Merridew is everything that Ralph is not. He is savagery, he is dictatorship, and he is irrationality. Jack spotlights Ralph’s strengths, through his own errors and weaknesses. And yet he also shows Ralph’s naiveté at times. Ralph and Jack complement each other throughout the novel, and indeed they thoroughly illuminate the meaning of the work. They are civilization versus savagery. They are democracy versus dictatorship. They are rationality versus irrationality. And it is just a matter of time before one of them overwhelms the other.
Throughout the novel, Ralph tries to maintain a semblance of order and civilization, like the life they left behind when they crashed. He tries to create rules and order, because as he puts it “After all, we’re not savages.” Meanwhile, Jack completely shakes off the shadows of civilization, and gives himself over to savagery. When Jack starts getting more and more obsessed over “the hunt” and killing a pig, he starts painting his face. The first time he puts on his war paint he had a strange reaction. “He looked in astonishment, no longer at himself but at an awesome stranger. He split the water and leapt to his feet, laughing excitedly. Beside the pool his sinewy body held up a mask that drew their eyes and appalled them.” His war paint had freed him from constraints, and that was when he truly began to turn savage. Later on in the novel, when Jack creates his own group, he is described as “The chief… sitting there, naked to the waist, his face blocked out in white an...
... middle of paper ...
...entlessly pursues his fantasy of killing a pig. He even shows this when he says “Rescue?...I’d like to catch a pig first.” Ralph also decides that they should build shelters, in case of bad weather. However, Jack still doesn’t listen to any of these rational arguments, and remains fixated on the pigs. While Ralph tries to give the boys the best possible chance of survival, Jack couldn’t care less about work, he just wants to hunt.
In the end though, Jack manages to assert his control over the group, through their fear of the beast. Ralph even asks Jack, “Which is better—to have laws and agree, or to hunt and kill.” Jack convinces the boys to hunt down Ralph, and try to kill him. So in the end, savagery, irrationality, and dictatorship, do overcome the restraints of society. The boys give in to their base instincts, and essentially lose what it means to be human.
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,
Jack’s authoritarian power over Ralph’s democratic power makes Jack the most powerful character in the novel. The power also causes Jack to become and greedy and selfish to point where he thinks he thinks he is the best at everything including hunting and leading the boys. He makes himself invincible and confident by using his own tool of power, paint. Once weak by the way he looked, Jack starts to use paint to cover his weak and shameful face that lacked power. This paint hid Jack’s true identity and “liberated [him] from shame and self-consciousness”(64).With all of the confidence through the paint and support of the boys, Jack finds himself invincible and blinded from the reality and civilization they once had. This behavior from Jack influences other boys on the island to become his followers and turn into savages himself. In this transformation to becoming savages, the characters are introduced to a fear which is an illusion that is created by one of the littluns on the island. The illusion is a beast who is able to impact the lives of the boys because the boys become really dependent on the beast. In order to solve the fear that is created in the minds of the young boys, the two powerful characters take two different views
What is human nature? How does William Golding use it in such a simple story of English boys to precisely illustrate how truly destructive humans can be? Golding was in World War Two, he saw how destructive humans can be, and how a normal person can go from a civilized human beign into savages. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses the theme of human nature to show how easily society can collapse, and how self-destructive human nature is. Throughout the story Golding conveys a theme of how twisted and sick human nature can lead us to be. Many different parts of human nature can all lead to the collapse of society. Some of the aspects of human nature Golding plugged into the book are; destruction, demoralization, hysteria and panic. These emotions all attribute to the collapse of society. Golding includes character, conflict, and as well as symbolism to portray that men are inherently evil.
One thousand people were brutally murdered by German U-Boats during World War 2. The causes of D-day and the U-Boat peril were all stemmed from fear. Throughout World War Two, The Axis and Allied Powers were afraid that if they lost, their way of life and government would be taken away. William Golding represents these causes and actions in his novel, Lord of the Flies, with subtle visualizations that are conceptually similar to the actual causes of the two events of war. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding looks at how D-day and the U-Boat Peril triggered a sense of fear, which prompted the leaders of both sides to take drastic measures, and he implements these concepts into his book. The actions that the characters take in Golding's Lord of the Flies serve as an allegory to the D-day Invasion and the U-Boat Peril in World War Two.
The irony of the plane crashing to start the story, the environment of an unknown island and many other cruel acts function into the work as a whole because it really does set up the major plot in the story. Cruelty will bring out the worst in people and this phrase proves to be true when it comes to Jack. The killing of the pig and the obsession of blood lust drives Jack into savagery and reveals that he is not morally strong. The violence also shows that Jack is manipulative as he uses the fear of the beast to gain power. While cruelty transforms Jack, Ralph stays morally strong and represents civilization throughout the novel. Cruelty proves to shows that Ralph’s character is very intelligent as he is able to think deeply. Cruelty also reveals how strong morally he is and how he will not succumb to savagery like the majority of the boys do. Lord of the Flies by William Golding, just proves to show that the cruelness of our savage, beast like instincts will take over without the order, rule, and conduct that civilized societies have to
This shows he wanted to start a group of his own and become a leader and therefore, inviting people to join him. He also tries to be more convincing by saying “hunt”. Food is very important for survival in an island. Moreover, when all the boys were together, Jack and his group were the ones who brought food to everyone. Therefore if the boys were to join Jack’s group, they could be more assured of getting food than staying with Ralph. This shows how much Jack’s wants to be a respected leader. Their enmity led to even Jack planning to kill Ralph. he turning point in their relationship was when Ralph insults Jack and his group of hunters by saying “boys armed with sticks”. Jack was confident in his hunters and believed that they could kill the beast. Therefore, Ralph’s insult made Jack angry. This can be seen from “his face was red” as red symbolises anger and hatred. Jack also accused of Ralph being a “coward himself”. However Ralph did not think the hunters were capable of killing the beast. This causes Jack’s friendly behaviour with Ralph to turn to one with enmity, and eventually Jack’s separation with Ralph. Their separation also led to the other boys’ separation as they followed who they
Jack’s remarks to Piggy plus his followed actions exhibited a dictator attitude, meaning he enforces the rules but will bend them to his advantage. In the next chapter, Jack shows an attitude change living on this island, a savage change. The hunters had left for their first hunt to find and kill a pig. Unsuccessful, they were relieved them from the hunt; however, Jack kept pushing, displaying an obsession with the hunt. “’I went on. I thought by myself –‘ The madness came into his eyes again. ‘I thought I might kill.’” (51) When he starts to paint his face, the obsession with the hunt grows, “He made one cheek and one eye socket white, then he rubbed red over the other half of his face and slashed a black bar of charcoal across from right ear to left jaw.” (63). He did this so animals could not recognize him. In the same time period, Jack’s job was to keep the fire going for a signal, but he let the fire die out because of a hunt, ruining a chance to be recused. When confronted, all Jack could think about was his first kill, “The fire’s only been out an hour or two. We can light up again-“ (70). Even though Jack had not questioned Ralph’s authority
Piggy had an appetite to be needed and accepted as a person in the boys' society. Jack had to kill a pig; he saw no other way.
When Ralph blows the conch, Jack is introduced to the reader for the first time. He is represented as an audacious and selfish boy who likes to order others around when he says "I ought to be chief, because I'm chapter chorister and head boy"(Goldberg p.22). It also confirms his hunger for power and wanting control over everything. His choleric and petulant personality can be seen when he says "Shut up, Fatty."(p.23), also revealing that he is rude and inconsiderate of others. Despite his obnoxious personality, his conscious of civilization keeps him from killing the first pig they see. He even recommends that the boys should have rules to keep things in order.
Ralph is one of the few boys who realize that the only way to survive is through peace and order. Because he summons the boys at the beginning of the novel with the conch he and Piggy find, they look upon him as the most responsible of the boys and elect him as a chief over the humiliated Jack. Ralph creates a stable and peaceful society for the children to live; this significantly bothers Jack because he wants to have fun and do things that he never did back in the civilized society. Jack is eventually successful of pulling nearly all of the children out of Ralph’s control to form savages. Ralph represents the civilization, and Jack represents the primitive society.
In Chapter 8 Jack says “He’s like Piggy. He says things like Piggy. He isn’t a proper chief.” He says this because Jack thinks his point of view is the right one, and it can only be the right one. This is similar to dictatorships in the past when people believe their right and anyone who doesn’t agree is the enemy. Later in the book Jack tries to get more followers by promising them psychological needs. Jack states “We’ve killed a pig and we’ve got meat. You can come and eat with us if you like.” Jack is trying to take away any of Ralph’s remaining supporters, so that Ralph is forced to follow him when all he has left is Piggy, Samneric, and a few clueless littluns. Later in this book Ralph is on his own a few hours after Piggy dies, he is considering joining Jack’s tribe because he will have food and protection. In the forest he thinks about the thought of eating fruit, and then remembering the feast and that maybe they would let him back. After that he realizes that the hunters killed Piggy and Simon, so they would kill him
As Golding mentions in his quote, “the shape of a society must depend on the ethical nature of the individual”. That is why Jack’s defects of savage like immaturity are the reasons for the barbaric way of life of the boys at the end of the story (because he is the main leader at that point). For Instance when Jack is supposed to keep a signal fire going (which he did not) and a ship passed by, Ralph angrily told Jack that he “let the fire out”. However Jack is too happy about killing his first pig that he is “vaguely irritated by this irrelevance but too happy to let it worry him”. Then he goes on “proudly” saying “I cut the Pig’s throat…You should have seen it!”(73). As a result, it can be observed that one of Jack’s defects is his disregard for important matters such as creating shelters and (in this case) being rescued. Rather he is too selfish, and is more concerned with things that he finds of relevance, such as having fun by killing animals. This lust for hunting and killing later becomes a defect of society when Jack becomes the main leader. This is so because in Jack’s rule hunting and killing is something common and normal, to the extent that the boys killed a farrowing sow without any sympathetic concern for their dreadful action. Moreover this lead to the pretend killing of Robert in which even Ralph joined in because “The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering” (104), and this eventually lead to the death of Simon (the most innocent boy on the island) where they “struck, bit, [and] tore” (169) him apart. The fact that Jack’s primitive nature and lust for hunting and killing pigs, ended up killing the most innocent character, and causing his enemy leader to partly join in his savage lifestyle, shows that the defects of society really do depend on the defects of the
His concern for the individuals in the group is pertinent from the beginning: he conveys to Jack the necessity of shelters “as a sort of [home]”, upon noticing the distress of the younger children (pg. 58). It is seen that Ralph’s problems are not his own; he assumes the role of leader to bring orderly forces of civilization to all. By approaching circumstances with logistics rather than emotion, Ralph does not lose sight of himself in the face of adversity. Despite this, he is later forced to act irrationally in order to preserve his status. When confronted with the evidence of the beast, Ralph is hesitant to hunt it; he is only manipulated into doing so when Jack “[sneers]” and questions him if he is “frightened” (pg. 100). However, Ralph does not respond out of his spite or self-pride as he understands that he must retain his status among the boys. If he does not remain chief, Jack will secure the position, bearing the notion that there will always be individuals working against altruism for their own benefit. Ralph sacrifices his morals by becoming subservient to Jack’s ego, yet does so in order to preserve civility within the group. On the day of the boys’ rescue, Ralph understands that his efforts to preserve peace and order are all for naught. Man’s destructive forces overwhelm him as “[he weeps] for … the darkness of man’s
There once was a powerful king who ruled over a mighty kingdom. He was adored by all of his subjects. The king had three sons whom he loved very much. All four lived in a beautiful palace with fountains and gardens on the grounds. The gardens were full of glorious, colorful flowers and plants.
but himself and how he can benefit. Jack simply wants to hunt and have a good time. He makes fun of Piggy, humiliating him, making him feel small and unworthy. "You would, would you? Fatty and Jack smacked Piggy's head" (Golding 78). Jack is a lost boy who begins to discover the evil within him. When he proposes to the group that he should be the new chief, they do not respond in his favor, and Jack runs away, hurt and rejected. He swallows his hurt ego and throws all of his energy into the only thing he seems to know how to do - hunting. He puts on face paint and hides his conscience. This changes him into a savage, evil, The colorful mask allows Jack to forget everything he was taught back in England. "The mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness" (Golding 69). As the plot progresses he becomes less and less attached to any societal norms. Near the end of the novel, he feels no shame about the deaths of Simon and Piggy, or his attempt to kill Ralph. & nbsp; Another difference found is that Ralph symbolizes innocence, whereas Jack symbolizes experience and the inner shadow that Golding believes Ralph, Piggy and Simon represent the good side of the boys. Simon is pure, and the only one who realizes what the beast really is. Piggy is the voice of reason and stands for the world the boys once knew- adults, discipline, rules and civilization. As chief, Ralph knows right from wrong. When everyone followed Jack except for Piggy, Samneric and himself, he did not just give up and follow what he knew was wrong, he tried to reason with the rest of the boys and tried to talk some sense into them. At the end of the novel though, he too realizes that man is not a kind creature by nature. "Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man' followed, regardless of reason or morals. "