Chelmecki 1 Natalia Chelmecki Mrs. Leone ENG1D1 March 2nd, 2015 Lord of the Flies Analytical Essay The novel ‘Lord of the Flies’ by William Golding is about a group of boys that are stranded on an island after their plane crashes. Two boys – Piggy and Ralph – find a conch shell and use it to summon the other boys to them so they can have a meeting. While not much is immediately solved, Ralph is quickly voted as the chief of the boys. Throughout the novel, Ralph can be judged on his ability to lead the group. However, the group is soon split: Ralph’s boys, and Jack with his hunters. Jack’s group is focused hunting for pigs and finding the ‘beast’ of the island, which the little ‘uns claim to see. Ralph is only focused on being rescued. Soon, …show more content…
Ralph says to Jack that “[As] long as your hunters remember the fire” (Golding 53) then they may do what they please. This lack of leadership is why Jack left the fire alone initially. When all the boys were playing or eating, Ralph and Simon were building shelters. Instead of making the boys help with the shelters, he lets them continue to loaf around on the island. He hoped that if he did work others would follow his example and help him, but without the presence of adults on the island, this is not what happened. He was very forgiving, which led to the boys not doing any work. Ironically, the burning of the island at the end of the novel is how they are seen by a ship and are rescued. If Ralph had taken more responsibility as a leader, the boys could have been rescued much sooner and the deaths of Piggy and Simon could have been …show more content…
Piggy was a detrimental role in Ralph’s short time as leader. Giving Jack the important position of leader of the hunters was a poor idea because it left Jack hungry for more power, and it gave him a way to force the boys into giving it to him. It was also a poor idea to leave him in charge of the fire, because they would not be able to pay attention to it and the most important jobs should be left for the leader to do. In the beginning of the novel, Piggy found the conch which Ralph used to summon all the boys to the beach and call meetings. Ralph discarded its usefulness until Piggy taught him how to blow into it. Ralph always treated Piggy poorly, though Ralph most likely would not stayed leader of the group for as long as he did if Piggy had not been helping him. “‘I said we could all do without a certain person. Now I say we got to decide on what can be done. And I think I could tell you what Ralph’s going to say next. The most important thing on the island is the smoke and you can’t have no smoke without a fire.’… Only Piggy could have the intellectual daring to suggest moving the fire from the mountain.” (Golding
Piggy is upset with Ralph before they leave the island because Ralph thinks it is ok to make their choir boy group into hunters to kill animals. For example in the story in chapter 1 it says “Ralph talked the group into becoming hunters and killing a pig stuck in rope. Another example is when they left to go to walk and look around the lagoon Ralph saw a pig and chased it but stopped himself and said “ next time I will show no mercy.” Piggy didn't want to be a killer nor wanted his friends to
My Essay is about Ralph and and his Motivation’s and did he contribute to the tragedy in any way. Also about if he prevented any of the deaths and what would I have done differently in his situation. I defend Ralph’s actions as leader, He had tried his best but everyone fell apart. Did Ralph contribute to the tragedies? Ralph had tried his best but he was struggling at handling the problems on the island, He was unaware of the boy’s and what was going on. He had tried to contribute to all of the tragedies but there was too much going on around him it was just hard. What was wrong with Ralph too was that jack ignores everything and try’s to do his own thing the whole time instead of working together with everyone. All Jack wants is his way or his way to him there is no other way. So yes Ralph had try to contribute to the tragedies but Jack and other boys had just did what they wanted to do instead of doing what they should have done. So Ralph had really struggled dealing with everybody. In my opinion Ralph was doing a good job, Yes he kind of gave up for a little b...
Once this happened Piggy started to care less and less about the boys and more about his own safety and getting himself off the island with or without the boys. Jack had taken Piggy’s glasses to start his own fire and Piggy was very upset and he took Ralph and the twins over to Jack’s tribe and demanded his glasses back, but Ralph got a little sidetracked so Piggy brought him back. “‘Ralph remember what we came for. The fire. My specs’”(177)
From 1947 to 1991, the United States and the Soviet Union battled without a war. This conflict, the Cold War, was also notorious for the rivalry between the two countries. In literature, these rivalries also occur but are between characters or groups. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, two clans of boys, led by dueling protagonists Ralph and Jack, have their own battle on a desert island about how to survive. However, the title, Lord of the Flies, is not a complete representation of the themes. Although a “Lord of the Flies” would bite heavily due to being noble, the conflict is not basic and the title Lord of the Flies does not convey the plot effectively. The title Tribes of Fate is a culmination of all of the aspects of the story because the title incorporates the three-sided conflict of person versus person, person versus nature, and person versus fate.
Lord of the Flies is a novel written by William Golding in 1954 about a group of young British boys who have been stranded alone together on an island with no adults. During the novel the diverse group of boys struggle to create structure within a society that they constructed by themselves. Golding uses many unique literary devices including characterization, imagery, symbolism and many more. The three main characters, Ralph, Piggy, and Jack are each representative of the three main literary devices, ethos, logos, and pathos. Beyond the characterization the novel stands out because of Golding’s dramatic use of objective symbolism, throughout the novel he uses symbols like the conch, fire, and Piggy’s glasses to represent how power has evolved and to show how civilized or uncivilized the boys are acting. It is almost inarguable that the entire novel is one big allegory in itself, the way that Golding portrays the development of savagery among the boys is a clear representation of how society was changing during the time the novel was published. Golding is writing during
Lord of the Flies: Final Essay Exam. Are the defects of society traced back to the defects of human nature? The defects of society, and how it relates to the defects of human nature, can be explained with the savagery that drives the defects of society and the same savagery that drives the defects of human nature. In this story, Lord of the Flies, Golding shows the id, ego, and superego within the characters in the book. Golding represents the id with Jack, whereas the id says “I want, and I want it now,” and Jack constantly wants and needs power, and wants his way in every situation.
The plot is evidently a conflict between survival of the fittest and character struggle. The young kids often are conflicted between hunting a pig for food or setting a fire that will allow smoke to be seen in the air. Hunting and gathering versus being rescued becomes a focal point to Ralph, the chief leader. Ralph uses one major technique to start a fire. An example of this is with Piggy’s glasses being directed into the sunlight. Although survival is the number one premise on the island, commotion among each character quickly arises because of the lack of parental guidance. This was observed when the young kids killed a littlun’ named Robert, jeering chants and comparing the little boy to a pig. “They got his arms and legs. Ralph, carried away by a sudden thick excitement, grabbed Eric’s spear and jabbed at Robert with it...Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig. Bash him in!” (Golding 164). The plot of this novel is for the young kids to be saved, but the only thing that is occurring is chaos and destruction. These young kids are quickly losing a sense of who they are while being on this island and Golding does a great job demonstrating this to the
“Then there was a vicious snarling in the mouth of the shelter and the plunge and thump of living things… They’ve got our fire… They stole it!” (167) Jack and two of his hunters made a plan to steal Ralph’s things, especially the fire that Ralph treasures most. “I’m going to him with this conch in my hands. I’m going to hold it out. Look, i’m goin’ to say , you’re stronger than I am and you haven’t got asthma. You can see, i’m goin’ to say, not because you’re stronger, but because what right’s right.” (173) After the stealing of Ralph and Piggy’s things, Ralph made a plan to give up his position as chief, but the plan never ended up
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.
Ralph shows that he has a better understanding of the boys than Jack. He knows that the boys need some sort of order on the island in order for them to survive. He starts a simple form of government and sets a few rules for them. Even though they don’t last very long, the fact that he tried to help the group is what makes him a better leader. Ralph’s wisdom and ability to look toward the future also has an advantage over Jack. He has a sense to keep his focus on getting off the island. When the fire goes out, Ralph gets upset because the chance to be rescued was gone as well. Ralph enforces his role of leadership as he gives the boys a sense of stability of an authority figure. He keeps the boys in pretty good order at the meeting by making a rule that they can only speak if they have the conch. Ralph knows that the littleuns are afraid and they need shelter to feel more secure. They work together for a while, but as the time goes on the smaller boys want to go play. They slowly lose all their help until Simon and Ralph are the only ones left to work on them. Ralph knows that this is a necessity and keeps bringing it up at the meetings. Jack, on the other hand, is doing nothing but causing chaos.
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a peculiar story about boys stranded on an island, and the plot and characters relate to many prevailing events and problems. A specific problem that is currently occurring is the mutual hatred and enmity between North Korea and South Korea. This is a current event, but the North and South’s hostility has been ongoing since 1945, when Korea was split into North and South, Communist and Capitalist. When the 38th parallel(Border between North and South Korea) was created, Kim Il-Sung ruled the North, and Syngman Rhee ruled the South. As of now, a power hungry dictator, Kim Jong-un rules the north, and an optimistic president who wants to see change was recently elected in the South, named Moon Jae-in. In Golding’s book, Ralph is a character who aimed to keep everyone alive and to stay together. Jack on the other hand, wanted to have fun and hunt, and although he also wanted to be rescued, he made no effort to help. In this sense, North Korea is a clear representation of the character Jack and his quest for power, and opposingly, South Korea is a representation of Ralph and his strive for order, democracy, and civilization.
Starting with the main characters, Ralph, quickly becomes the chief of the group, not by any harsh, overt, or physical action, but by being elected. Ralph is described as having "the directness of genuine leadership", therefore he suggests that a fire be lit as a signal. However, he seems to forget the initial reason for maintaining the fire. This is representative of the debilitating effects corruption has on even the most benevolent of men. Ralph may seem to mean well, but often his obsession with being popular overcomes him and he resorts to bullying Piggy to regain his power. Therefore, Ralph can be understood to symbolize mankind's optimistic ambition to self-govern despite its historical record of failure and abuse of
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.
Ralph first takes on the position as leader at the beginning of the story, when the rest of the boys vote him in as chief. He carries this position until Jack and his fellow hunters break away from the group. Ralph makes it his job to set out the rules to organize a society. Ralph always thinks of what is best for everyone and how they will all benefit from his decisions. Rules and standards are set when Ralph is the chief. He orders the group to build the basic necessities of civilization, shelters, and most importantly to keep the fire going, in hope that they will be rescued and return to humanity. "But I tell you that smoke is more important than the pig, however often you kill one" (Golding 75). Jack, on the other hand, takes on the idea of every man for himself. He does not care about making homes, only about hunting. When Jack is the leader, evil takes over and all good is destroyed. Under Jack's power both Simon and Piggy are killed.
This is illustrated when he says "There was a ship… you said you'd keep the smoke going". Ralph's leadership is what keeps the order among the boys on the island. Ralph's desire for home is what drives him to lead the group of boys and to keep an orderly society on the island. Creating the signal fire was Ralph's only way to get home and it is clear he knows this when he tells Jack "No fire, no smoke, no rescue.