Consequences In Lord Of The Flies

Consequences are key to keeping people in control (alliteration). Without enforced rules or consequences for one’s actions, conditioning from civilization will inexorably dissipate and intrinsic evil and savage desires will recrudesce. In Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, a plane flying after WWII smashes into an uncharted island, stranding a young group of schoolboys. The boys must govern and fend for themselves, which inevitably leads to the collapse of civilization and order. The group of boys, with Ralph voted as “chief”, establish a few rules. Jack Merridew, inclined to leadership, decides to go against his orders of keeping up a signal fire built using the glasses of a fat boy derisively named Piggy. This causes a ship to pass by oblivious to the boys captive on the island. As more conflicts arise between Jack (savagery) and Ralph (civilization), Jack establishes his own “tribe”, using the boy's fear of the beast to his advantage, leading to tumult and the death of a wise, good-natured boy named Simon. Eventually, Roger, a malicious human-being involved in numerous nefarious activities, kills Piggy and trucently torture the twins, Sam and Eric, into joining Jack’s tribe, leaving Ralph all alone. When Jack lights the whole island on fire in an attempt to kill Ralph, the smoke from the fire ironically leads

A gust of rage shook Ralph. His voice cracked … ‘Look at that! Call that a signal fire? That’s a cooking fire. Now you’ll eat and there’ll be no smoke. Don’t you understand? There may be a ship out there—’ He paused, defeated by the silence and the painted anonymity of the group guarding the entry” (Golding