Ability or Willingness to Survive? Sometimes what you want, isn’t what you need. In Lord of the Flies, Ralph, a boy stranded on the Island, soon understands this concept. At first arrival on the island, Ralph is overjoyed to be carefree with no adults. But, as his time on the island increases, Ralph is quick to realise that being the authority figure over a multitude of boys, mostly younger than him, is not all it is cracked up to be. This novel starts off with a bang, literally, there was a plane crash with-holding several survivors, but only young boys. Under the circumstances, the boys do not realise what the extremity of their situation is. They do however, select a leader, Ralph. Ralph was the first character introduced and to recognize the absence of adults, “No Grownups!” he exclaims to Piggy, the second boy talked about in the novel (2). The talk of having fun on the island continues, “This is our island. It’s a good island. Until the grownups come to fetch us we’ll have fun,” (34). Most twelve-year-olds do not have to worry about anything more than the assigned homework in school and chores around the house. So, not having to worry about adults bossing them around seems ideal, except for when they have to undergo …show more content…
As the leader, Ralph is in charge of providing those things for the other boys, particularly the ‘littluns,” which are the younger boys who physically can not take care of themselves. Whereas, Piggy, Jack and Simon are a bit older and do not rely as much on Ralph. “But this is a good island. We- Jack, Simon and me-we climbed the mountain. It’s wizard. There’s food and drink and-” Ralph does recognize what they will need but takes it, at first, with a grain of salt (34). He later will know that in order to get the basic necessities of life, he needs to put in work and it is going to be harder than it