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.
Golding uses the cruelty of the setting in Lord of the Flies to progress the story and show the effects it can have on actions of people. Golding opens this novel by having the main
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Jack, one of the main characters who is revealed to be the villain, is the leader of the choir boys that are stuck on this island. Early on in the book when there is a power void, Jack tries to assume this role, but is overruled in a democratic election where Ralph wins. This causes Jack to be angry and not listen to Ralph's orders. When the boys finally get a signal fire going, Jack, not wanting to follow Ralph's rules because he assumes he’s in charge, leads a group of boys that were intended on watching the fire on an expedition for food. This causes the fire to go out and a big divide happens between the boys. By having this event take place, Golding is showing the early foundations of an autocratic leader being built inside Jack's character. Later this divide causes Jack to form his own group and succeed from the original group of the all the boys. He does this, and steals the only means of fire in a show of power. This leads to the original group to be left on their own without some necessary things to survive. Golding is showing how autocratic leaders will take whatever they want from the people that sometimes even help them to get something for their own gain, even if it means the others could die. After this, the original group of boys, led by Ralph, track down Jack to try and gain peace. In this exchange, Jack has one of his people kidnap two young twins named Sam and Eric. Jack does this to try and gain more forces on his side, and to gain some insiders on Ralph. This confrontation also leads to the death of some characters like Piggy. Jack also has such a hatred for Ralph, that he stages a full manhunt in an attempt to kill Ralph, and in doing so sets the island on fire. Although this eventually leads to their escape by alerting a passing naval ship, Golding is showing his hatred and problems with autocratic