Being Chief In Lord Of The Flies Quote Analysis

Imagine being stranded on an island with nothing but little boys and pigs and no real sense of leadership and responsibility. That’s exactly what Lord of the Flies is. The hunger for power over other beings is a great way to destroy civilization and order as seen in Lord of the Flies. The struggle for being chief has torn two of the oldest and strongest characters apart. Their appearance, personality, and beliefs put them on opposite ends of the spectrum adding to the chaos enriched feud between Jack and Ralph. Throughout the book, Golding uses specific parts of Ralph and Jack’s appearance to explain the downfall of their attempt at being a civilized

To start, during the assembly they assign a chief and Ralph pretty much wins by a landslide proved by. “Every hand outside the choir except piggy’s was raised immediately”(23) even after this win he doesn’t rub it in he gives Jack some control by letting his group be hunters. In chapter 6 Ralph confronts Jack about messing around and not focusing on what needs to be done, explained by “We want smoke. And you go wasting your time. You roll rocks”(108). At the end of the book we can still see him thinking like he needs to be civilized and be presentable in front of people by saying “We better eat and then get ready” and “we’ll be like we were. We’ll wash”(172). On the other hand Jack just wants to have fun and explore as seen by in chapter 1 he says “this is real exploring, I bet nobody’s been here before.”(27) in the middle of the book Jack responds to Ralph exploring question with “the tail end part, where the rocks are all piled up. I’ve been near there.”(103) at the end of the book in chapter eleven we read “I got this to say. You’re acting like a crowd of kids” this line perfectly representing what Jack wants to do and has created, a childish group doing whatever they want. Ralph wants to take everything seriously and wanting to provide with the necessaries like shelter and warmth and a way to get off the island while Jack wants to just let loose and have fun which consists of hunting, exploring, and playing games. These differentiating views lead to multiple arguments between the two that weren’t settled maturely, they screamed at each other, and they never got over their problems. Their constant yelling and jack’s constant attempts at taking over made them in the end despise each