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Power In Lord Of The Flies Essay

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William Golding illustrates the struggle for power in society and the causes of so in the novel The Lord of the Flies. This novel takes place on an island where a group of boys gets stranded with no adults so they are left to fend for themselves. The protagonist Ralph steps up to take control over island rules to maintain peace and order on the island. The boys agree to vote for Ralph with one of the main reasons being he found the conch that symbolizes power in itself. One of the hunters on the island, Jack, does not approve of Ralph and wants to do whatever he wants, so he tries to start his side of the island where he is the tyrant. The power created on the island negatively impacts all the boys and drives them to act in violence and hatred. …show more content…

The boys believe that Ralph should be the leader due to his possession of the conch. The conch represents civilization and democracy on the island. No matter someone’s social profile, if they are holding the conch, they are the person everyone has to listen to. Holding the conch, Piggy says, “I got the conch, you let me speak!” (Golding 42) after losing his temper. Piggy just wants to be listened to. He is sure that he will be respected and listened to because he has the conch in his hand. Even though it took a while, the rest of the boys eventually listened. Ralph even takes some of his ideas into consideration. Without the conch, Piggy would’ve never been heard. This resembles why power is so important to …show more content…

Once Jack has boys in his tribe, he starts to order them around. Unlike Ralph, Jack screams at the boys and forces them to do things they don’t want to and doesn’t let them have a say. He is still opposed to Ralph and decides the only way to have complete control is to take the conch from Ralph. Jack orders the boys to attack Ralph to obtain the conch. But just having the conch isn’t enough. Ralph goes to talk to Sam and Eric to which they tell him, “Listen, Ralph. Never mind what’s sense. That’s gone- The chief and Roger- They hate you, Ralph. They’re going to do you” (Golding 188). Jack’s power has affected Sam and Eric to become sick and tired of Jack’s ways. They disobey to warn Ralph that Jack wants to kill him to achieve all power. The boys at this point have lost their sanity due to their desperation for order. Power has affected Jack negatively which causes all the boys to also be negatively

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Ralph represents order within society. He decides to use the conch as an object to hold meetings and attempt to maintain order. Ralph is athletic and organized. He makes most of the calls in terms of what to do next. Although Piggy is intelligent, Ralph’s looks surpass his intelligence when the group of boys voted for a leader.

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Piggy also has an important relationship with the conch, as, throughout the story, Piggy stands for sanity and brains. Before Piggy’s death, he holds onto the conch as tightly as he can, as he doesn’t want to lose the last little bit of

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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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" Lord of the Flies" is a novel about a group of young boys who find themselves alone on a barren island. They build norms and organizational systems, but in the absence of adults to serve as a civilizing impetus, the children inevitably become violent and vicious. Through the emblem of the conch shell, William Golding shows how the loss of order/civilization and law leads to the emergence of barbaric behavior triumphing over society.

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At the beginning of the novel, the conch held a substantial amount of power and portrayed their ambition for a democracy. At one point, Piggy tries to get the rest of the boy’s attention by saying,“The conch. I got a right to speak” (p.45). Seen in this quote, the conch symbolizes the impulse for equality of listening to each other while giving each other peace while their voices are heard. Throughout the novel the conch loses the intent of order comparatively of the boys losing a sense of civilization.

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The conch shell is first found by Piggy and Ralph who use it to call for survivors. The shell is then established as a symbol of democracy, as found in this quote, “... I’ll give the conch to the next person to speak. He can hold it when he’s speaking,” (33). Allowing each boy to speak when in possession of the conch shows that, although Ralph is chief, all boys can have a say in the rulings of the island. This democratic system is a beginning representation of our world in which everyone knows their place and there is overall peace.

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Ralph never acknowledges that Piggy was the first to point out the conch shell and explained to Ralph what it was. Ralph, instead of giving credit to Piggy for the idea of the conch shell, blows through the conch and then takes charge. Ralph begins giving orders and proceeds to take on the role of chief. Ralph’s authority was made possible because “there was a stillness about Ralph as he sat that marked him out: there was his size, and attractive appearance; and most obscurely, yet most powerfully, there was the conch.” (22).

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Ralph notices the discord but resolves it by enforcing, “I 'll give the conch to the next person to speak. He can hold it when he 's speaking” (Golding 33). The conch represents the discipline of the boys and their civilization. Since Ralph thought to use the conch as a speaking system, the conch represents his leadership and authority over the boys. It also represents his authority because he is the only boy that does not need the conch to speak.

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These power relations are everywhere on the island, and are shown at different levels throughout the novel. The fear of other people, anger and jealousy are a main part of the story as it progresses. From the beginning of the novel, the boys struggle with fear of the unknown. They fear what they cannot see, the parts

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In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, young boys get stranded on an island with no adults in the midst of a war. The boys were orderly and civilized in the beginning but then as they began killing pigs they slowly became savages and lost their civilization. The boys began turning on each other and the evil within them became present. Golding uses a variety of literary devices including personification, symbols, metaphors, and irony, to project the theme that pure and realistic people in the world can be unheard and destroyed by evil.

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It gives them a sense of security, because they can all speak their mind and all have opinions. The conch shows democracy, seeing that it gives all a chance to be heard. It shows Ralph's first move as a leader, and his problem solving skills and ability to make use of their limited resources on the island. Yet, the conch is destroyed by the boy's savage nature. The rocks represent savagery when they shatter the conch and kill Piggy, and ultimately get rid of the only sense of civilization that the boys had.

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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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Near the end of their time on the island, Piggy, Sam, and Eric are the only ones left with Ralph, and Jack, who appears as “a chief now in truth; and he made stabbing motions with his spear” (Golding 168). Jack starts to get violent, and what was fun when they first got to the island become attempts to kill. At this point, Jack has fully taken over, and the only thing left for him to do is kill Ralph. Lord of the Flies exemplifies how when one person has all of the power, there is always somebody else that wants it more than that person. Ralph is not against Jack, nor does he want to fight with him for the chief position, but ambition and violence overtakes Jack, and he turns into a dangerous savage.

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