“The lord of the flies” a famous, or rather infamous, novel written by the English author William Golding. Published in 1954 not too long after the horrors of the second world war, this particular novel imagines a dystopian future of absolute nuclear war. It follows the views of a group of young war refugee boys stranded on a deserted island, away from the war, away from civilization, away from law, yet away from peace as well. It is said that the leaders of worlds have the power to shape their very people… what can leaders of naive children do then. What would Ralph and Jack do? “Stillness descended on them, Ralph looking with more understanding at Piggy. Saw that he was hurt and crushed. He hovered between the two courses of apology or further …show more content…
They’ve had a mutual respect for each other. A type of camaraderie between leaders existed between the two. They were so close alike that they even treated Piggy in the same horrible way, by making fun of his given name and taking advantage of his trust. “There was a brilliant world of hunting, tactics, fierce exhilaration, skill; and there was the world of longing and common sense.” Yet things started to change shortly afterwards. You see, while Jack and Ralph were both leaders, one was a president, and the other a tyrant. One wanted rescue and salvation of civilization, while the other wanted- no… “lusted” for the joy of killing and …show more content…
Both of the boys understood the symbolism that came with those pieces, and understood that the ones in control of the flames and the conch, controlled the power of leadership. Yet, their interest with these “objects of power” were polar opposites. For Ralph, the fire was their salvation, their only way of escaping from what he believes to be an ever growing hell, and the conch was the glue that held what ever remained of their humanity and communal spirit together. To Jack, the fire was their fuel for war, it gave them a reason or rather… a lie to hunt, to endorse in the matters of flesh. When it came to it to the conch, it was an obstacle… a thorn in his side that he would happily remove. In the end, jack was successful in removing the conch, much like he was successful in removing the life and brain matter from poor piggy’s skull. The destruction of the conch signaled a turning point in the social order of the island. Jack, had finally removed the justly order and intellectual properties of his people… reminiscent of Mao Zedong’s Cultural