the injustice and cruelty that runs rampant in the world, it is unsurprising to become determined to make things better for tomorrow. A moral grey area is the only thing separating those making positive changes and playing judge, jury, and executioner. Commendable yet unreasonable, leaders’ whose sole purpose in life is to fix what they see as wrong with the world fall prey to thinking there is only ally or enemy. They harm those they are trying to liberate in the long run. This is the downfall of leaders in many works of literature, including Harrison Bergeron and The Lord of the Flies. If given power, individuals obsessed with achieving their glorified ideals will revert to an aggressive and uncompromising leadership style, ultimately …show more content…
He becomes one of the prominent leadership figures and his interest in establishing a society aligns with Ralph’s, the first elected leader, but he shows a propensity for aggressive behavior by yelling that it would "serve [them] right if something did get [them], you useless lot of cry-babies!" (Golding 64). Choosing to attack the young boys for their fears plays into Jack’s fanaticism about his nearly-embraced island life. Becoming defensive about what he is doing for the group, he attacks the same people he attempts to govern. Later, the ideological differences between Jack and Ralph prove too great, and Jack sets fire to the island in his bid to kill him, “smoke...seeping through the branches in white and yellow wisps, the patch of blue sky overhead turned to the color of a storm cloud” (152). The moment that Ralph opposed Jack, he became an enemy, no matter that he and Jack had worked together before. Jack’s own bloodlust also sabotaged his goal of never returning to their past lives since it alerted a passing ship to their presence. In essence, Jack wasn’t a destructive character, but rather a leader who compromised his morals to a point where he had almost
Since the beginning of the book Ralph and Jack were having some tension over who became leader, but later Jack took it way too far. While Jack was busy going insane Ralph was still holding on to sanity. Ralph’s motivations at first were his ideas of getting rescued by his dad. Later he realized no one knew that they were
Jack uses fear to get the other boys on the island to do what he tells them to do. Jack gave the boys on the island harsh orders, because he wanted everyone living on the island to be under his control. Since Ralph and Piggy wouldn’t join Jack’s tribe, Jack ordered the boys in his tribe to kill piggy and they also tried to kill Ralph. Ralph expresses, “Seems to me we ought to have a chief to decide things” (Golding 22). Ralph wants the island to be run like a democracy.
This is the downfall of leaders in many works of literature, including Harrison Bergeron and The Lord of the Flies. If given power, individuals obsessed with achieving their ideals will revert to an aggressive and uncompromising leadership style unless there is some form of a rival to keep them in check. Harrison Bergeron’s titular character experienced oppression first-hand and sought to exert complete power over a society that tried to make him powerless. Determined for change, Harrison stormed a TV station, the “ballerinas, technicians, musicians, and announcers [inside] cowered on their knees before him, expecting to die” (Vonnegut 4). A fear of individual recognition kept his society running, yet in his desire to remove this fear Harrison establishes his own and becomes a veritable enemy to peace.
Jack says that he is unwilling to be a part of Ralph’s group any longer. This goes to show that he has left the civilized part of him behind in favor of his savage side. If Jack had stayed with the civilized boys, then the two groups would still be as one and the conflict between the Jack and Ralph would not have reached the high peaking point of which it
After calling a meeting, Ralph begins to list the changes that need to take place on the island. While the chief creates new rules, Jack grows angry and starts to question Ralph's authority; this leads to an argument over power. Disrespectfully, Jack Merridew calls out Ralph’s flaws, carelessly shouting for him to “‘shut up! Who [was he], anyway? Sitting there telling people what to do.
By “set[ting] the island on fire” Jack destroyed all the firewood, shelter, plants and animals. Jack was desperate enough to destroy everything just so he could kill Ralph. Jack and Ralph are in competition for the role of leader. Killing Ralph would give him complete dominance which he craves. Just like Japan wanted dominance over the United States.
Ralph is one of the oldest boys on the islands, he was elected as leader at the beginning of the book. Ralph treats all the boys with respect throughout the book even when he begins to lose sanity himself. Ralph organizes all the boys in hope to keep them alive until they get saved, he makes them build shelters, keep the fire burning, and keep them all fed. Constantly throughout the book Ralph tries to keep the boys civilized whereas Jack does the opposite.
As he staggers to his feet, he looks around and comes to his senses: “the island was scorched up like dead wood-Simon was dead-and Jack had… The tears began to flow... Ralph wept for the end of innocence and the darkness of man’s heart” (202). In their pursuit of Ralph, the boys abandon their sense of morality and individual responsibility, instead becoming part of a mob that only desires to kill one of their own. Their loss and
Jack Merridew, inclined to leadership, decides to go against his orders of keeping up a signal fire built using the glasses of a fat boy derisively named Piggy. This causes a ship to pass by oblivious to the boys captive on the island. As more conflicts arise between Jack (savagery) and Ralph (civilization), Jack establishes his own “tribe”, using the boy's fear of the beast to his advantage, leading to tumult and the death of a wise, good-natured boy named Simon. Eventually, Roger, a malicious human-being involved in numerous nefarious activities, kills Piggy and trucently torture the twins, Sam and Eric, into joining Jack’s tribe, leaving Ralph all alone. When Jack lights the whole island on fire in an attempt to kill Ralph, the smoke from the fire ironically leads
Over the course of the book, Ralph wants to create a positive society for the boys in which they will get rescued, while Jack as a Machiavellian, manipulates and twists the boys into a problematic society. In the quote, "The fire is the most important thing on the island. How can we ever be rescued except by luck, if we don 't keep a fire going?” (80), we see Ralph fighting hard to focus the boys on the bigger picture of getting rescued. Despite Ralph’s valiant efforts, we see in the quote, “Ralph was on his feet too, shouting for quiet, but no one heard him.
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’s unwillingness to abide by Ralph’s rules creates chaos and strips morality from the group. This leads to death and a dark realization that war can only result in mutual loss. Jack resents Ralph’s power and the rules while also disregarding what is asked of him, creating tension between themselves. Jack constantly tries to turn the others against Ralph and undermine his opinion. When Jack does not do what is asked of him, it sparks conflict as shown in this quote:
After Jack and his choir agree to tend to the signal fire, Ralph spots a potential rescue ship but finds that Jack’s group let the fire go out as they went on a pig hunt, making Ralph extremely enraged and disappointed. Whereas previously there were only minor arguments that resolved quickly and easily that did not damage their relationship much, this marks the official beginning of the conflict of Ralph against Jack. After this incident was yet another turning point. What started off as an assembly “to put things straight” resulted in Jack disputing Ralph’s authority and leading everyone away in a show of clear mutiny. This shows that Jack is distancing himself and the group away from Jack.
Jack lost his sanity and civility and this changed him in more ways than imaginable. Jack was a natural leader when the boys first came onto the island, but as time continued he became a horrible dictator. On the first day on the island, Ralph and Jack competed for chief of the island. Ralph won. Jack was unhappy with this result, but it didn’t yet throw him into a spiral of craze and anger.
Aryaman Gulati December 16, 2014 World Studies Final Exam Argumentative Essay “Power Tends To Corrupt; Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely.” Ruthless Tyrants. Fictional Characters. Normal People. Power is seen everywhere and witnessed by everyone.