Lord Of The Flies Passage Analysis

In the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Ralph and Jack clash constantly over maintaining a mimicry of a proper English societal structure or discarding it in favor of a more wild and chaotic way of life. Golding uses Ralph to represent the civilization the boys left behind; for all intents and purposes, Ralph represents nurture. Throughout the book he is swayed by the call of the wild, but remains tethered to the idea of rescue and upholding the societal standards previously taught to him. ‘Ralph too was fighting to get near, to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh. The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering.’ (Golding 114) Ralph’s savage side is awakened in this passage, dampening his sense of humanity. After the

The other boys, tempted away from civility by the more natural urges the island and Jack present, abandon Ralph, thus abandoning the ways they’d been taught to act in a British society. ‘He capered toward Bill, and the mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness.’ (Golding 64) Jack teaches them how to hunt the pigs and displays aggressive behaviors they then partake in, exposing a dark side inside of not only the boys, but all of us. This shows a kind of nurture, but a sinister one developed in nature. ‘In his famous Bobo doll experiment, (Albert) Bandura demonstrated that children could learn aggressive behaviors simply by observing another person acting aggressively.’ (Cherry 13) Jack remains at the forefront of his band of savages as their leader after being previously rejected from Ralph’s society. ‘Even the choir applauded; and the freckles on Jack’s face disappeared under a blush of mortification.’(Golding 23) Jack is the obvious choice for leader in the way he conducts himself and how he had the arrogance of one who leads,