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Comparing Ralph And Jack In William Golding's Lord Of The Flies

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Neve Ahrend Lord of the Flies essay Ralph and Jacks differences stem from wanting the same thing, to be leader. Ralph uses his time as leader to build a democracy, while Jack becomes that of a dictator. The morals both boys have start out the same, but while Ralph maintains the same values and morals, Jacks start to twist. Finally, in both of their situations, Ralph and Jack face many descision making situations where they could choose to benefit themselves, or they could benefit everyone, in most cases Jack chooses himself and Ralph chooses everybody. Using these points, Ralph is the better leader. Under Ralph's ruling, the island starts out as …show more content…

Jack supports and agrees to the rules at first, but towards the end it becomes Ralph constantly reminding Jack about the rules while Jack blows them off. After simon's death, Ralph realizes that what happened was murder. (pg.172) In addition, Ralph feels guilty right up to the end of the book for Simons death. Jack however denies Simon's death, he plays it off as if Simon actually was the beast, just in disguise (pg. 177) and then completely forgets about it. Jack slowly loses his morals as a civilised human being as he adopts the mindset of a savage. Ralphs greatest conflict is keeping the fire going so they have a chance at being rescued, or letting the others do what they want and staying as a well liked chief. Ralph chooses the fire over himself because he understands that in the long run, its better to be hated and rescued than to be slowly go insane stranded on an island. Jack focuses his descisions on his wants over other needs. He lets the fire go out to hunt because hunting quells his want to feel important. Jack doesnt take their situation seriously. He is so focused on being better than Ralph and showing him one up that he spends no time thinking about how theyre going to get off the island. As

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By “set[ting] the island on fire” Jack destroyed all the firewood, shelter, plants and animals. Jack was desperate enough to destroy everything just so he could kill Ralph. Jack and Ralph are in competition for the role of leader. Killing Ralph would give him complete dominance which he craves. Just like Japan wanted dominance over the United States.

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“The Word, that understandable and lawful Word, was slipping away.” (Golding 82). Ralph, the original leader of the boys in the Lord of The Flies, is initially a great leader and person. Ralph soon becomes pulled by his desires, a recurring theme of human nature seen frequently. Ralph experiences a man vs. societal conflict due to Jack’s influence but is resolved through the arrival of the long-awaited Naval officer.

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I think that one of the most important ideas of this chapter is how Jack was wearing the mask when he was hunting the pig. I think that this is important because I think that it symbolizes that Jack was not himself when he was hunting the pigs. This can be shown by this quote: “He [Jack] capered toward Bill, and the mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness.” Another important idea of this chapter is the fire going out again.

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In the novel The Lord of The Flies by William Golding there are two characters. Both 12 years old, Ralph the son of a naval officer and Jack a redhead with freckles and the head of the choir. Both with leadership characteristics but one siding with reason and the other with Power. First, after the boys landed on the island and found each other, Both boys had a craving for power so they nominated themselves to be leader, Jack saying “I ought to be chief”, “because I'm chapter chorister and head boy”.

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Jack’s unwillingness to abide by Ralph’s rules creates chaos and strips morality from the group. This leads to death and a dark realization that war can only result in mutual loss. Jack resents Ralph’s power and the rules while also disregarding what is asked of him, creating tension between themselves. Jack constantly tries to turn the others against Ralph and undermine his opinion. When Jack does not do what is asked of him, it sparks conflict as shown in this quote:

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When Simon died, Ralph seemed to be the only one that seemed to realize that he took a part in it, and that Simon did not deserve to die. "That was murder." (Golding 191) Piggy and other boys claimed that they did not have a role in Simon’s death, or that they didn’t know what happened because of the darkness, but Ralph knew what really happened. He led the group to Jack’s area of the island to get Piggy’s glasses back, and to try and end the quarrel between them. When Jack sent people out to kill Ralph, he ran and hid well enough to survive, until he ran into the sailor at the end of the island.

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The Island of Hell Lord of the Flies by William. Golding shows us how quickly humans can turn to evil when they are isolated from society. On the island, the boys thought they were in a paradise all alone on an island without rules and adults to control them, but soon later realized that they were trapped in hell. as the quest for power had driven the boys to become Savage and toss aside the ways of society. The author introduces Jack and Ralph as two conflicting characters that fight for control over the island going at it and opposite ways, one good and one evil.

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Democratic power can be used to control a society, as well as establish a closeness as civilians. To lose sight of this can mean the corruption of a civilization caused by the lack of order. One’s choice of independence in order to better the chances of their survival requires complete dedication and willingness to risk. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Ralph loses his democratic power due to his failure to ensure survival and protect the boys as a leader. Ralph’s failure to lead the group is due to his initial and chronic independence and inability to compete with Jack’s followers, accounted for mainly by fear.

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Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, is a novel that revolves around the concept of civilization versus savagery. The boys argue about points that eventually split the boys amongst themselves. These disputes come up multiple times over the course of the novel. One of which being the fight over the leader of the boys. Some believed the leader should be Jack while others believed it should be Ralph.

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Jack has turned completely savage and wants to kill Ralph. Ralph has no choice but to hind from them and try and stay safe. He also has become savage because the only thing on his mind is not dying, instead of being rescued. There is one last scene of savagery at the end of the book. Ralph was hiding in the jungle, trying to keep from being caught by the savages.

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After Jack and his choir agree to tend to the signal fire, Ralph spots a potential rescue ship but finds that Jack’s group let the fire go out as they went on a pig hunt, making Ralph extremely enraged and disappointed. Whereas previously there were only minor arguments that resolved quickly and easily that did not damage their relationship much, this marks the official beginning of the conflict of Ralph against Jack.    After this incident was yet another turning point. What started off as an assembly “to put things straight” resulted in Jack disputing Ralph’s authority and leading everyone away in a show of clear mutiny. This shows that Jack is distancing himself and the group away from Jack.

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Isolationism weakened the League of Nations by refusing to sign the League of Covenant and the Treaty of Versailles. Due to the feud between Wilson and Lodge, isolationism will start to grow. Isolationism and the fear of communism will influence the U.S. after World War 1. Americans have moved on and were getting tired of Progressivism and war. They feared unrest labor such as communist, labor unions, and immigrants.

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Then the fact that Jack was leading a dictatorship. Also that Ralph’s style of leadership is better then Jack’s. There are various types of leaderships evident in Lord of the Flies, Ralph’s being a democratic leadership. Ralph felt that getting rescued was the most important thing on the island. We can see this with his persistence in always keeping

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Near the end of their time on the island, Piggy, Sam, and Eric are the only ones left with Ralph, and Jack, who appears as “a chief now in truth; and he made stabbing motions with his spear” (Golding 168). Jack starts to get violent, and what was fun when they first got to the island become attempts to kill. At this point, Jack has fully taken over, and the only thing left for him to do is kill Ralph. Lord of the Flies exemplifies how when one person has all of the power, there is always somebody else that wants it more than that person. Ralph is not against Jack, nor does he want to fight with him for the chief position, but ambition and violence overtakes Jack, and he turns into a dangerous savage.

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The first difference between Ralph and Jack is that they have different ways of organizing things on the island. Ralph wants to lead everyone to work together to get off the island in a civilized order. Jack also wants to lead everyone but not in the same, properly ordered way as Ralph. When they first meet on the island, everyone who was stranded on the island wanted to be organized into some type of governing body so that they were ordered.

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