This novel falls into a category that unfortunately cannot be described as a feel good novel, meaning that the story presented does show very dark themes. Despite the detail and message of this book many people tend to be uncomfortable with William Golding’s lack of a faith in humanity. This idea he presents in The Lord of the Flies can easily coincide with Jack, one of the main ‘antagonists’ of the story. Jack can be compared to a cruel tyrant or as an evil factor in Golding’s story. He is one of the characters, like Roger, meant to show that their is at least a little bit of evil in everybody, some people more than others.
In Lord of the Flies, William Golding shows the progression of absolute power, and how ambition can take over one's mind. Stranded on an island after their plane crashed, the boys create their own democracy with one absolute ruler, just like many other governments throughout history. The boys voted Ralph as their ruler, but Jack slowly starts to take some of Ralph’s power, and eventually usurps him as their chief. Lord of the Flies suggests that absolute power is corrupt, and that humans are overly ambitious in wanting to take power from the person who has the most of it. Just like any large group of people, the boys decide that they “ought to have a chief to decide things” (Golding 22).
To demonstrate, If you were not on Jack's team he would terrorize you. For example, Jack would say things like, “Shut up”(Golding 37) to Piggy because Piggy did not support him. Additionally, Jack assures the boys “a feast and have fun”(Golding 176) using fear of starvation to gain power. Jack used fear to control the boys which lead to the separation of the tribe. Likewise, Jack and his companions feared that Ralph was abusing his power.
(Golding, 99). Jack values killing and hunting more than civilization, showing his evil dominance and desire to kill while everyone complies, spreading even more hatred. Painfully, Jack succeeds in taking over the island as he "[raids] them and [takes] fire" (Golding, 136). Jack's tribe helps him steal Piggy's glasses, allowing Jack to start fires and continue the support of life while completely disestablishing the other leader, Ralph. Ultimately, Jack's possession of power allows him to murder and steal whatever he chooses.
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?
In the beginning of Lord of the Flies everything was going off a dictatorship but throughout the book it turned into a democracy. When the boys had first crashed on the island they immediately elected a leader, they chose Ralph as the leader of the group. There were rules set right away for example, there was a designated place for bathroom purposes, and the fire must be kept going in order to get saved off the island. Although the rules were just getting thrown into the garbage and the some of boys were persuaded by Jack to not follow Ralph as their leader and so they divided into multiple tribes. That had ended up badly when they killed Simon and Piggy was making excuses making seem that it was no big deal.
Everyone may seem innocent at the moment of birth, but there is an entity hiding beneath the pure heart, corruption. Babies are the embodiment of innocence yet they grow with corruption. The novel by William Golding, Lord of the Flies, portrays a society run by naïve kids, but the island’s influence takes a toll on the boys’ sanity. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding depicts a group of innocent young boys’ corruption without civilization through a progression of aggressive diction and unsettling imagery to reveal people’s capacity for evil. Golding utilizes diction of madness in order to describe the boys’ jump into Jack’s society of savagery and manipulation.
“Absolute power corrupts”, quoted from the musical, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, shows that if someone, a ruler or dictator, has too much or all the power and control over people, corruption or civil disorder is inevitable. In the novel by William Golding, Lord of the Flies, a group of boys establish a monarchy that becomes ephemeral and slowly falls apart. Similarly, in the poem “To A Mouse”, by Robert Burns, a superior farmer’s power causes great despair and loss for an inferior mouse. Comparably, three eighteenth-century philosophers: Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau have similar ideas about power. Both stories and the ideas/beliefs of the philosophers share the theme of power and control, and both stories convey the message that absolute
Lord Of The Flies Man is born evil and needs society to keep him in check. This book demonstrates this claim in numerous ways. The boys personalities went from being organized and calm, to wild and more so out of control. Upon first arival to the island the boys were more at peace and willing to work together, but after spending time there their actions quickly changed. When the boys got to the island there was no adult or law inforcemnt to govern them so they took it upon them selves to attempt to do that.
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.
“Lord of The Flies”. Is this story about us or the demons around us? Everyone you know has some kind of demon that haunts them. It turns them to the darkness and makes the light hurt. Makes one hunger to be in charge and rule everything.
He does this by successfully retrieving a source of protein for the boys. While Ralph did provide various fruits in his venture to advocate against the slaughter of the pigs on the island, Jack was apt to feed the boys and make sure they were all able to get food. This is shown in the line, “Has everyone eaten as much as they want?” (Golding 165). He constructed his tribe and corroborated that each person had a role and was capable of providing for the group.
“Power is dangerous. It attracts the worst and corrupts the best.” When the young boys first gathered after the crash, they were civil, mostly well behaved boys until the need for power took advantage of them. Two crucial symbols from the novel are the sow’s head and the conch shell. Each of these symbols represent power however, their powers have different meanings.
Throughout the 1900’s, corrupt leaders plagued the Earth. Because of their actions, like genocide and cruel treatment of people, war was more common than peace. Because of the cruelty and threats of war, paranoia and chaos caused a multitude of effects, and changes, on people all over the world, but more to those subjected to the cruelty. In the novel, Lord of the Flies, author William Golding uses multiple forms of cruelty in setting and characters actions to show the effects of cruelty on a person and to criticize autocratic leadership forms like dictatorships.
After they eat, he stands up and promises them that the hunters will protect them from the beast if the other boys join him. Jack uses the beast to great effect, taking advantage of their fear to gain power and maintain control by promising to keep them safe from the dreadful
