Following What You Fear The world has seen many civilizations with corrupt leaders. Fear has led many people to obey such leaders, and the fear of consequences is too great to not do so. In William Golding's Lord of the Flies, Jack drives other boys to follow him by manipulating their fear. Fear drives these boys to follow a corrupt leader because they have their own self-interest in mind. When Jack gains power, he promises the boys what they desire. At first no one joins for fear of being an outcast, but the promise of desire, most of the boys being drawn to the meat Jack offers, soon draws the boys to join Jack. Once Jack is in power, he has a feast to show boys who haven't joined him that what they want is with Jack's tribe. Even Ralph and Piggy give into this …show more content…
His corrupt nature causes the boys to fear disobeying him and shows them that disobedience is answered with physical pain. Robert tells Roger of what Jack will do when he's angry: "'He [Jack] is going to beat Wilfred'" (159), and when Roger asks Robert why Jack will beat Wilfred, Robert says, "'I don't know...He got angry and made us tie Wilfred up'" (159). This shows that if someone manages to anger Jack he will not take to it kindly, and will use force to show that he is in control. Disobeying Jack makes him angry as well, shown when he tries to kill Ralph who is not with the idea of him leading during the entire time they are on the island. Anyone with Ralph is also disobedient including Piggy and Samneric. When Piggy dies, Jack says "See? See? That's what you'll get! I meant that" (181), showing that the punishment for not being with Jack is death. After Jack says that he meant Piggy's death, he throws a spear at Ralph with the intent of harming him, showing the tribe he isn't to be messed with. Though Jack is corrupt with power, the boys are fearful of what he will do to those who oppose him and his
Similarly, in Lord of the Flies, Piggy dies while opposing Jack’s leadership. While Ralph and Piggy argue with Jack about what is necessary for survival (i.e. hunting and chaos or law and rescue), Roger, acting in accordance with Jack’s desires, pushes a rock on Piggy and kills him (Golding). Like Macbeth and Banquo, Jack saw Piggy and Ralph as direct opposition and thus obstacles to his rule and sought to eliminate it. Throughout the novel, Piggy and Ralph consistently have ideological conflicts with Jack
Jack seems to be really obsessed with killing Piggy. For example, Simon is horrifically killed by the kids on the island who had mistaken him for the beast. They killed Simon in their sacrifice dance. They anally penetrated and raped him It’s stated that Ralph, Piggy, Sam and Eric contributed in the death that was lead by Jack.
A leader can have a negative, or a positive effect on people. A savage leader produces a savage society. Followers will follow what a leader does. People who are scared will follow someone who has a good presence about them. For, example on page 22 “But there was a stillness about Ralph as he sat that marked him out : there was his size, and attractive appearance; and most obscurely, yet most powerfully, there was the conch.
With this conveyance of fear at the animalistic side of himself, Jack proves that he still has some humanity that he will later lose. After Jack says this, he gets in a fight with Ralph over what should be done for the betterment of the tribe.
He had to hide from the other who trying to kill him. The last aspect is Domination. Domination plays one of the main aspects of this book. The School boys try to find domination, nominating a leader and making a group. Jack wants the be the most dominate of all the boys on the island trying to kill Ralph so he would be the leader all of them.
Another way the corruption of power is exemplified, is in books. In William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies”, the character Jack is proven to show corruption of power. In the beginning of the story, Jack is innocent young boy who gradually becomes power hungry. When Ralph was elected as chief and it was clear that Jack wasn’t happy because he thought he was a better leader. Jack said, “I ought to be chief, because I’m chapter chorister and head boy.
Near the end of their time on the island, Piggy, Sam, and Eric are the only ones left with Ralph, and Jack, who appears as “a chief now in truth; and he made stabbing motions with his spear” (Golding 168). Jack starts to get violent, and what was fun when they first got to the island become attempts to kill. At this point, Jack has fully taken over, and the only thing left for him to do is kill Ralph. Lord of the Flies exemplifies how when one person has all of the power, there is always somebody else that wants it more than that person. Ralph is not against Jack, nor does he want to fight with him for the chief position, but ambition and violence overtakes Jack, and he turns into a dangerous savage.
Jack was angry and started fighting Ralph. When Piggy tries to talk about starting a fire using his glasses, Roger, one of Jack’s members, uses a lever to roll a massive rock down a hill and smash Piggy. The conch broke into millions of pieces. Knowing that there is not a conch anymore, Ralph and Jack fight again, “Viciously, with full intention, he hurled his spear at Ralph. The point tore the skin and flesh over Ralph’s ribs, then sheared off and fell in the water” (Golding 181).
How Absolutely does Absolute Power Corrupt? Stranded, alone, no adults in sight. The boys in Lord of the Flies by William Golding were being evacuated from their school during the war, when their plane crashed on a small, uninhabited island. All adults were lost in the crash, only boys of various ages between twelve and six survived. Someone needs to be in charge, right?
I meant that! There isn’t a tribe for [Ralph] anymore!’” (163). Instead of coming to his senses, Jack uses Piggy’s death as inspiration to gain total control of the island and its inhabitants and justifies it by claiming that Piggy and Ralph should never have questioned his
Jack has finally started his own tribe, he retaliates against jack this piece of evidence says “ He began to pound the mouth below him, using his clenchedfist as a hammer ; he hit with more and more passionate hysteria as the face became slippery.” (167). This shows that even though Ralph knows that the boys are the only ones on the island he still hits the person very hard until they start to bleed. This means that the boys are trying to fight and raid each other for some fire and Piggy’s glasses, when they said they’d give them fire if they would’ve just asked for it. Throughout the story you can see the boys transform from kids to savages, this piece of evidence shows how savage kids twelve and under can get when they want to survive.
This paper explores corruption within society and how that corruption leads to the loss of innocence. In the novel The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, order is an allegory to innocence. When corruption is introduced, order is lost, leading to the loss of innocence. I will support this idea by explaining what represented this innocence and how it was lost, what influenced this loss of innocence from the start, and what ultimately restored innocence within the children. “‘It was like that at first,’ said Ralph, ‘before things-’
Jack’s influence among the boys has been gradually growing, and calling his own meeting grants him with more immediate power than he has ever had before. Jack instantly abuses this power by unjustly criticizing Ralph and challenging his authority, demonstrating that no one on the island can hold a position of power without quickly abusing it. Shortly after, Jack forms his own band of hunters, giving him even more power to toy around with, and it doesn’t take long for him to begin to abuse it. For what appears to be no reason, Jack decides that he’s “Going to beat Wilfred…. He got angry and made [the other boys] tie Wilfred up.”
By the time that Ralph and Piggy confront Jack’s tribe, Jack had assumed total control over his boys. He gave the boys meat and talked about killing the beast, so the boys felt like they wanted to be part of the tribe. He told the boys a complete lie as an attempt to make them dislike Ralph; “Ralph thinks you’re cowards, running away from the beast and the boar.” (Golding 143). However, Jack also scared the boys into staying in the tribe by beating Wilfred, showing his aggression and intent to hurt people who didn’t do what he wanted.
Corruption’s Rise to Power Combined Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler killed 54 million people. This begs the question, why do people who are clearly corrupted and even murderous followed by many? William Golding in his novel The Lord of the Flies attempts to answer that question through his portrayal of the character, Jack. In the novel, a group of boys get stranded on an island and attempt to create a proper government.