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Ralph Vs Piggy

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A crash of all sorts occurred on the island depicted in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies: a crash of humanity, a crash of innocence, and a crash of order and civilization. The young boys that were so forcefully shoved into a new and possibly permanent lifestyle of having to take responsibility in order to survive took several of the right steps to the proper way to handle the situation, but many of the steps taken brought a downfall to their humanity. The governing styles that the boys chose to follow could have been successful if properly maintained, but uncontrollable oppositions kept the boys from staying away from savagery. Golding contrasted the governing styles of Ralph and Jack to emphasize the replacement of morality when civilization …show more content…

Although he was only twelve years old, he believed that the boys had the ability to form a model utopia with happiness and harmony. Ralph was in need of constant words of advice from Piggy, the intellect of the island, because Ralph was more innocent than Piggy since he had not yet learned that people could be hurtful to one another. Piggy would have made the most effective leader on the island, but his asthma, overweightness, and insecurities restrained him from taking charge. Ralph and Piggy were the leaders that were aware of the isolation and possible outcomes if the measures to being rescued were not taken. Like Piggy, Simon was never specifically pointed out as a leader, but he represented the Christ-figure of the story. “As Simon thought this, he turned to the poor broken thing that sat stinking by his side. The beast was harmless and horrible; and the news must reach the others as soon as possible. He started down the mountain and his legs gave beneath …show more content…

The conch indicated the power of democratic order because it was in the hands of a leader who gave his followers the freedom of speech, and the boy holding the conch had the right to express his thoughts and feelings. Each boy had the opportunity to hold the conch, but it was meant to be passed around through orderly discussion. Until Jack stepped up to become leader, the boys recognized the conch’s call as a signal to gather together to form plans for survival on the island. When Jack gained control of the majority of the boys on the island, he always had his spear with him, and the spear symbolized killing and destruction. Once the conch was crushed by the giant boulder, all order was lost, and the spear symbolized the only form of government left on the island. The spear was used to brutally rape the sow, purposefully the only female mentioned in the novel, and then it was used to withhold the sow’s head as a sacrifice to the Lord of the Flies. The term Lord of the Flies translated to the Latin word Beelzebub which translated to Satan. “Simon realizes that the pig’s head represents an evil so strong that it has the power to make him faint” (Gale). The spear also symbolized that all pure substances could lose their innocence and be used for evil rather than good. “Viciously, with full intention,

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777 Words | 4 Pages

But some boys who would hold the conch did not get the authority to speak, and that symbolized how such a governed civilization can go downhill quickly. Throughout the novel, the conch symbolizes democracy but when it breaks it symbolizes destruction. The conch represented a democracy, and the boys were of order during the time it was in use. At the start of the story, Ralph and Piggy found the conch.

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589 Words | 3 Pages

maybe it's only us.’ " {Golding, 107} In this scene they are debating whether the beast is real or not and Simon says that it's not. Simon believes that there is no monster, but the fear that these boys are feeling is real. The beast continues to grow within their mind, but now they are taking action on what they believe to be the beast. In the text it states, “At once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt on to the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore.”

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781 Words | 4 Pages

At one point in the book Simon brings up an interesting point regarding the beast. He begins to realize that there really isn’t a physical, “beast”. The thought comes to him, which leads him to believe that they are the beasts; the beast is inside of human beings. When Simon says, “What I mean is… maybe it’s only us. ”(Golding, 158)

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676 Words | 3 Pages

In William Golding novel “Lord of the Flies” Golding juxtaposes Jack’s island and Simon’s to illustrate that when man is faced with a certain environment, he will chose to either make the best of what he has by staying positively calm or look at it in a negative aspect. Golding’s novel transpires when a bunch of kids plane was shot down. The boys all survive and land on an uninhabited island. The boys do not have an adult figure as their authority. The boys are split into two separate camps.

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841 Words | 4 Pages

In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, a group of stranded boys survive on an island with no adults, soon their sense of morality falls apart and violence takes place. The loss of morality causes the boys to break the rules and become violent. Eventually, the boys become uncivilized and stop caring about their actions. They get to a point where they disregard logical thought and resort to violence without reason. As the story progresses, the absence of morality causes violence to reign among the boys.

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1511 Words | 7 Pages

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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1951 Words | 8 Pages

In Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses items and people to symbolize many different things. These symbolic things include Piggy’s glasses, Simon’s epilepsy, the Lord of the Flies, and arguably the most important symbol, the conch shell. The conch shell was first found in the water by Piggy, who then comes up with the idea of using the conch as a blow horn to call for meetings. Throughout Lord of the Flies, the conch shell becomes not only associated with Ralph and his leadership, but with Piggy and his intuitive and wise ideas and Jack and his dictator-like, irresponsible authority. The conch shell, representing law and order, assisted in the election of Ralph as chief and ultimately determines the future of the island.

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775 Words | 4 Pages

In the novel, Lord of the Flies by author William Golding, a group of young boys crash from a plane onto an uninhabited island and begin to see new, more savage forms of themselves. After they crash, the boys decide to elect a leader for themselves. The majority vote for one of the older boys, Ralph. In the beginning, they all live in peace and follow the rules they have set for themselves. As the story progresses, some of the boys begin to lose their civic attitude.

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1041 Words | 5 Pages

In the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a group of civilized boys are stranded on an island with no parental authority and soon they become uncivilized. One of the first things the boys do is pick a leader. They pick a boy named Ralph because they thought he would do the best job keeping them civilized. Throughout Lord of the Flies Ralph is mentioning wanting to get rescued from the island. All of the boys on the island have become less and less civilized as time went on but Ralph seemed to be just the same as when they crashed.

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715 Words | 3 Pages

The Lord of the Flies is a book filled with symbols, and the sow’s head and the conch shell are the main ones. These items are powerful symbols, but they each represent different kinds of power that are used in entirely different ways. Jack, who uses the sow’s head to instill fear and suppression over the younger boys, wields the head for a controlling type of power. Ralph, who employs the conch shell to bring all of the boys together as a united group, uses it in an orderly, leadership type of power. The two items’ symbolic meaning all depends on the users.

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761 Words | 4 Pages

The characters in William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, illustrate a loss of morality that comes with the growth of tribalism. The book in question, Lord of the Flies, is about a group of boys who are the only survivors of a plane-crash on an uninhabited island, and how they survive on their own. The growth of tribalism was evident in the increasing separation between the boys and the eventual formation of two conflicting groups, and the loss of morality was illustrated by the boys’ lack of respect for human life. Instead of progressing through Kohlberg’s stages of moral development, we see the boys regress through the stages. The spark that created intense tribalism occurred at the start of the novel when Ralph was voted chief over

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244 Words | 1 Pages

Throughout the novel The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding Piggy’s ideas are pushed aside. Piggy is an intellectual character who has the potential to make life easier for the boys on the island. Yet, he is constantly pushed around due to his physical differences from the other boys. Piggy has poor eyesight, asthma, and weight problems. Piggy represents the rational world.

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1359 Words | 6 Pages

Adults and laws: these keep the human race and society running in an orderly fashion, but when these are lost chaos will ensue. In William Golding’s fiction novel, Lord Of The Flies it is quite clear that when adults and laws are lost, chaos and savagery are the result. The scene is World War II, and a group of British boys, including Ralph, Piggy, Jack, Simon, and many more, are on a passenger plane on their way to freedom from the bombings and war of Germany. But, on their flight out they are shot down and land on an island in the middle of the ocean. In the crash, the only adult, the pilot, dies, this is the first step towards the final level of savagery that will ensue by the end of the novel.

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1952 Words | 8 Pages

Another symbol that Golding uses is a pig 's head. The pig 's head is symbolic of the inner beasts of men. As they (the boys) become more enthralled in the hunt and its bloodlust, they even begin to worship this beast, leaving it sacrifices, such as the sow 's head on a pike, as if it were a tribal god (Neighbors). This event occurred in front of Simon without the hunters ' knowledge. Simon was left to think to himself about the event that had just occured.

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814 Words | 4 Pages

The sow’s head on the other hand, had a whole other meaning of power. It represented the power of evil and savagery. It symbolized all the evils and horrors of the world and frightened the boys a great deal. The conch gave them hope order and survival. The beast gave them anger, savagery, and death.

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