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Power In Lord Of The Flies Essay

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It is a human tendency to crave power. Written in 1954 by William Golding, Lord of the Flies is a classic novel about a group of stranded boys and their adventures on an island. Based off of Golding realizations of humans during World War ll, the story also follows the boys from being civilized to being comparable to animals. The main characters, Ralph and Jack, are constantly competing for the highest ranking in the group. After seeing World War ll, Golding conveys the fact that evil is present in every human and its is human tendency to crave power. Ralph’s role of power is determined by the status of the conch shell which reveals how the role of power, symbolized by the shell, shifts as civilized mindsets change. In the Lord of the Flies, the first assembly meeting was called using the conch shell which designated Ralph as leader. One of the first actions Ralph did to acquire the role of leader was calling the first assembly of all the boys. Still civilized, the young boys automatically assumed Ralph was leader …show more content…

Towards the end of the book, many of the boys shift their main focus from being rescued and following Ralph, to hunting, having fun and following Jack. After Jack leaves the group because he doesn’t initially win power, lots of the boys follow him because he promises food, which they aren’t promised with Ralph. Although Jack’s group guarantees food, he says to his group, “But now I’m going to get more of the biguns away from the conch and all that. We’ll kill a pig and give a feast,” (Golding, pg 136), his group is focused on hunting and has a skewed mentality. This quote displays Jack’s focus on power. As time advances, they loose their sense off civilization, which creates an environment with violence and fear of the powerful. The purpose of the conch shell remains the same throughout the story, as does the focus on power remains the

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The conch shell is used and obtained as a method to maintain order on the island despite the other boy’s rejection and retrogression into a savage-like behavior. Discovered by Piggy on the beach when he first meets Ralph, the boys use the shell to call all of the boys on the island to the beach and with it establish rules that they expect the boys to follow until the time of their rescue. Ralph is the one who cherishes the conch the most and the idea of orderly control that is held behind it. He automatically takes upon the leadership role given to him by the other boys in the group. Along by his side he takes upon Piggy, his righthand man,who becomes the moral compass and rational thought for all the boys on the island.

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Even though it is very well taken care of, the conch begins to decrease in value as the lack of civilization is shown. Among useful objects such as the conch, “They didn’t come for the conch. They came for something else” (168). This leads the reader to believe that Piggy’s specs are much more important than the conch, just as well as a survival is more essential than authority and

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Ralph is proud of himself for killing the pig, and wants everyone to know. However, this causes problems later as now he is pulled to do so with Jack again. When Jack leaves the boys he takes away their physiological needs, “We hunt and feast and have fun. If you want to join my tribe come and see us…” (Golding 140).

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In the Lord of the Flies, Ralph and Piggy discover a conch shell on the beach. The Conch is used to summon the boys altogether after the crash that separates them. The conch shell becomes a powerful symbol of civilization and order in the novel. I think the Conch symbolizes as the last reminder of civilization or the holder of conch is powerful because the Conch is a difficult tool to use/ activate. The reason that Ralph was the leader of the group was because he could activate the conch and that conch is seen as power and authority towards the boys.

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The Lord of the Flies written by William Golding is filled with evil and unholy actions fulfilled out by young boys who are stuck on a isolated island. Many of the boys throw their past civilized lives away, and transform into complete savages. After some disagreeing between the young boys on who the tribe leader was. A war breaks out. And within hours surviving cruel mother nature turns into to their second concern, surviving each other turns into there first.

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This shows how the power roles have changed throughout the novel, where at first the conch held the symbol of democracy, but now that the faith in it has dissolved, the conch is just a shell thrown around in the monarchy holding Jack as ruler. Throughout the novel, many items and people change as power rolls in between their hands. Consequently there comes a time when an object loses power completely, yet even in destruction it may

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Lord of the Flies dates back to 1954 when a famous novelist, William Golding decided to write a book which could show an unusual version of the human beings. Born into an environment where his mother was a suffragette and later experiencing World War II where human ruthlessness was at its peak, made him better inclined in to writing a piece where he could explain his readers how human beings react in different situations. The setting of the novel depicts a situation where the human behavior is rational. The novel hence persuades the readers to realize the importance of ethics and civilization and how their absence can disrupt the society .Furthermore, the novel shows a negative aspect of the mankind and explains the reason it develops savagery

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The desire for power is one of the strongest human drives. In Lord of The Flies by William Golding there is a constant struggle for power between the main characters, Ralph, Jack, and Piggy. Ralph has power because he was voted chief and uses his power in an ugly way. Jack is struggling to get out of Ralph's power and gain his own power. The boys’ struggle for power is an ugly struggle and the author uses this to demonstrate the ugly struggle for power that is human nature.

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