In Lord of the Flies, a group of British boys ended up stranded on a deserted island after their plane crashed. After establishing Ralph as the leader of the boys, he attempts to establish order by assigning roles to everyone and a system in which the holder of the conch may speak during an assembly. However, Jack, the antithesis to Ralph, sets up a hunting culture and disregards the use of the conch, preferring to speak openly, and sets up an authoritarian rule. In both of these groups, both establish right or wrong based on what is deemed beneficial to either Ralph or Jack. While Ralph seeks to uphold democratic values, opting to minimize the amount of time on the island, Jack looks for a more permanent solution through brutality and total power. After the plane crash, the boys soon unite in a meeting to determine a leader of the boys, in which Ralph is elected through purely democratic means. His first steps as a leader were to ensure the least amount of time spent on the island, by sending fire signals in the hopes they might be rescued. By assigning roles to everyone, such as building huts or collecting food, …show more content…
Jack led a coup d’etat in the sense that he felt that strong, authoritarian rule would allow for the boys to eat pork every night. He slowly shifted from the democratic views, such as the conch giving power to people and enabling them to speak, to strong leadership of a demagogue, appealing to the boys’ desire to eat pork, as it "seem[ed] to [him] [they] ought to have a chief to decide things” (Golding 15). As the beast struck fear into the hearts of all of the boys, they slowly lost control over their rational thinking, and they transformed into irrational, impulsive beasts, doing anything to protect themselves and eat well, even if that meant murdering people. In Jack’s case, ethics were determined by doing whatever it took to maintain his power and protect