How Is Power Shown In Lord Of The Flies

Michael Kuchar
Mrs. Hollmier
English II Honors Pre-AP
17 May 2023

A quote on power, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely” (Dalberg). In society, there is a great struggle to gain power and keep power. In the book, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, there are characters in the book who are granted the ability to have power. When these characters are granted power other characters grow jealous and think they deserve to lead. There is also a boy in the book who struggles against the boys with power. In the novel, the characters that display having power are Jack and Ralph, but the character that struggles against these boys is Piggy. Undoubtedly, in the novel, Lord of the Flies Ralph is the best at managing his

Jack is a great example of not having power to get to the top. Jack at the beginning of the novel has to fight from the bottom for everyone to respect him and give him that power. Jack never sees eye to eye with the leader and this leads him into wanting to be chief of the people. The first time where he undermines the leader is, “Ralph spoke again, hoarsely. He had not moved. "You let the fire go out." his repetition made Jack uneasy. He looked at the twins and then back at Ralph. We had to have them in the hunt," he said, "or there wouldn't have been enough for a ring. He flushed, conscious of a fault. The fire's only been out an hour or two. We can light up again” (70). At this very moment, he is showing that he does not care that Ralph wanted the fire, he wants to follow his own agenda and could care less if they get saved. Jack is not showing qualities that leaders should show at the moment because great leaders will look to do actions that will benefit the people in the future. This, however, does not play a factor in whether the boys follow him or if they do not. Jack in the book, once he achieves the feat of gaining power, starts to abuse it. One instance, when Jack does this is, “He's going to beat Wilfred. What for? Robert shook his head doubtfully. I don't know. He didn't say. He got angry and made us tie Wilfred up. He's been―he giggled excitedly―he's been tied for hours, waiting―But