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William Golding's Lord Of The Flies: A Character Analysis

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Everyone is taught from birth that you need money and power to be successful in this world. Except, power can make people do unjustifiable things to others or to themselves. Does this mean everyone is inherently evil? In the book Lord of the Flies, a group of young boys get stranded on an island and try to make a society in order to survive. This society though, slowly spirals into disorder and eventually chaos. The main characters, Ralph and Jack, constantly contradict each other and fight for the loyalty of the younger boys and power. The author, William Golding, created this book to portray the potential evil in every human. These boys in particular are not inherently wicked but most of them do get caught up in the fantasy of having ultimate …show more content…

In the beginning, Ralph tries to establish order by letting the boys vote on rules and on him being chief. As chief, Ralph constantly micromanages the group of boys in order to sustain his power. When things don’t exactly go his way he tries to belittle the boys by reminding them that “[He is] chief..” and of the fact that they voted for him(23). Also, when the littluns (younger boys) start the rumor of a possible terrifying creature, Ralph gets angered and tries to prove his dominance by asserting that “‘..there isn’t a beast!’”(37). These insignificant squabbles lead to Ralph creating strict rules that Jack in particular doesn’t agree with. Since jack disagrees, he decides to make his own tribe with his own rules that contradict Ralphs rules which initiates the split of the …show more content…

These reasons are what make humans unique and dangerous. We have the power to decide our future or our decisions and we shouldn 't let power or society influence our success. Since the boys on the island let power influence their decisions, we should learn from them, and try to change our society in order to worship our abilities and not our power. To conclude, the Lord of The Flies, is a great opportunity to see how power changes people, which can help change future perspectives of societies and

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People are bad they do so many bad things. They steal and kill other people so that they get what they want. I believe that humans are bad because they kill and steal. William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies shows that humans are bad through killing one another. In the Lord of the Flies Simon is calling out to everyone saying that the beast is not real.

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877 Words | 4 Pages

After ralph and piggy journey to the other tribe they are met by hostile savages who wouldn't listen to reason. “ Jack backed against the tribe and they were a solid mass of menace. ”(pg.180). The author shows how jack now has complete control of the boys and how they are backing him up and wont go with the side of reason. At this point in the book Jacks power is at its height and he has made all the boys sever their own ties to being civilized.”

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458 Words | 2 Pages

The boys divide into two major groups as the story goes on. the hunters, led by Jack, and the "civilized" group led by Ralph. Each group strengthens its commitment to its core motives as they come to agree on actions and choices. In the end this mob mentality and groupthink result in hostility and violence between the two groups.

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723 Words | 3 Pages

When Ralph and Jack first get to know each other their relationship appears to be strong and they believe they can run the island by themselves. However as the story progresses readers see that Jack wants more power over the people on the island causing conflict between him and Ralph. When Jack finally has enough of Ralph being chief he calls for a meeting and asks ‘‘Who thinks Ralph oughtn’t to be chief?” (Golding, 127) and also makes Ralph look bad by say negative things about him. This shows that Jack betrays Ralph and states false things about him to embarrass him in public.

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752 Words | 4 Pages

Ralph putting his foot down and being stricter, “because [he’s] chief,” just causes them to disagree with him more. Because Ralph’s attempt at forming a democracy fails, he tries to be more controlling, but this just further causes the boys to disobey him and forget about the goals that are the most important for them all. Because Ralph is not able to successfully establish a direct democracy or convince the boys to be interested in the common good, as Rousseau believes is necessary for a functional society, the result is that Jack seizes power to form his own tribe of savagery, the boys fall into corruption, and the general will is completely lost. Thomas Hobbes’ view on human nature is more pessimistic, arguing that humans are intrinsically evil and should allow strong governments to keep them from descending into violence (Robison), a view that seems to mirror Goulding’s. Because the boys eventually stop accepting Ralph as their leader, the power-hungry Jack takes over and the island falls into a state of chaos.

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1150 Words | 5 Pages

Name of student : Ethan Doeg Text Type - Title and Author : Lord of the Flies by William Golding In the novel “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding, a common theme shown throughout the text is the balance between good and evil inside of every human being. This story is more or less a tale of good vs evil, order vs chaos etc. This conflict is shown in the form of the two main character. Ralph, who is seen as a kind but assertive leader, who is orginally “voted in” as the leader of the pack of boys, and Jack, who is seen from the start as a very aggressive person who is only interested in hunting, forms his own tribe, who are very violent and malicious towards anything and everything.

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651 Words | 3 Pages

In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the boy's small conflicts with nature and each other constantly test one another on their ability to survive. Fear of the unknown, surviving the natural elements and rivals between groups constantly show throughout the story. The boys that died were missing something that the boys who survived had, the natural instinct to survive, a mental or physical advantage over everyone else. One of the little boys on the island confused fantasy with reality and claimed: “It came and went away again an’ came back and wanted to eat him” (Golding35). In this case, the boys were letting their imagination get in the way of what was really going on.

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1449 Words | 6 Pages

Since the biblical era, leading up to recent millennia, human impulses to evil have been an inevitable force impacting the existence of mankind, which has been countered by rule abiding bodies. In William Golding’s fiction novel, Lord of the Flies, a group of boys experience a catastrophic plane crash and consequently, are stranded on a deserted island. The recent killings of innocent African Americans by Caucasian police officers in the United States has brought about the historical atrocities of segregation and racial discrimination. As well, the corruption and scandals of government officials, particularly in China sparks the ironies of the responsibilities of the supposedly unequivocal lawful trailblazers. These current events exhibit humans’ erroneous and inappropriate actions, which link directly to the novel.

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990 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout the ages society has struggled to maintain a harmonious existence. Humanity, at times, has spiralled out of control, transcended the realms of depravity and descended into the depths of savagery without boundary. The segregation of African Americans by their white counter parts and the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany with Adolf Hitler at the helm are prime examples of just how ruthless civilisation can be. Mankind, priding itself on intelligence and morality, is constantly battling the inner struggle of good vs evil, and regrettably sails down the dark, depressing tunnel of the abhorrent, the inhumane and the unjustifiable. Power struggles, hostilities over territory and avarice have contributed to the fall of many civilisations, dating back to ancient times.

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967 Words | 4 Pages

At the beginning Jack is very agreeing with Ralph and tries to follow the rules to keep the boys civilized. One example is when he takes the takes the boys watching the fire hunting, and the fire goes out, he apologizes to Ralph for letting it go out. But as the story moves along he starts to move away from Ralph and his ideas. When Ralph and Jack are arguing and Ralph brings up the rules he seems appalled.

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481 Words | 2 Pages

This is a main reason Jack is hated among the boys and Ralph is a more effective leader because the boys actually listen. " His mouth was tight and pale. He put back his hair very slowly..... He forced his feet to move until they carried him out onto the neck of the land" (Golding, 130). The boys go looking for the beast exploring parts of the island they have never been too, trusting in Ralph’s command.

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1397 Words | 6 Pages

Ralph is first introduced as the fair boy who is a natural born leader. He applies Piggy’s intelligence to think of a way to summon the other survivors on the island. Ralph follows through with Piggy’s idea and uses the conch which emits a loud sound that can be hear through the island. The sound eventually lures the group of boys towards them. His leader instincts are best portrayed when he’s able to side with Jack after offering to share his power: “The suffusion drained away from Jack’s face.

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1148 Words | 5 Pages

Certain characters were added to further prove the point that Golding tried to convey throughout the book. Many of the characters showed treacherous behavior that is visible in the majority of mankind’s nature. The shared thirst for power was well documented as it led to the downfall of the boys and is a burden in real life. In spite of all the evil that is shown in the nature of man in Lord of the Flies and in life, there is some good that exists. At the end of it all the message that William Golding want expose to the reader was that the nature of mankind can be calamitous and power hungry, but it has an

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496 Words | 2 Pages

In Lord of the Flies, William Golding shows the progression of absolute power, and how ambition can take over one's mind. Stranded on an island after their plane crashed, the boys create their own democracy with one absolute ruler, just like many other governments throughout history. The boys voted Ralph as their ruler, but Jack slowly starts to take some of Ralph’s power, and eventually usurps him as their chief. Lord of the Flies suggests that absolute power is corrupt, and that humans are overly ambitious in wanting to take power from the person who has the most of it. Just like any large group of people, the boys decide that they “ought to have a chief to decide things” (Golding 22).

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658 Words | 3 Pages

When Jack finally voices his abhor for the rules, he starts a downward slope for the rest of the boys to follow. “'Bollocks to the rules! … and beat and beat—!'” (Golding 91). Jack's disregard for the rules here foreshadows him abandoning Ralph's rules altogether and forming his own tribe. When Jack's new tribe finally establishes itself, he abandons many of the morals Ralph had.

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