Reversal In Lord Of The Flies

LOTF ESSAY
“Lord of the Flies” by William Golding was set on an island in the mid-20th century, during a fictional nuclear war. The novel is focused on a group of boys whose plane crashed on a vacant island in the Pacific. The island has no adults and the boys have to figure out how to survive on their own. The boys develop a system and rules for civilization, but they later become savages and chaotic. Ralph's naivete caused chaos on the island. Ralph insisted on his dad saving them, he thought the boys would always prioritize rescue and the signal fire would always be burning, and he believed the boys would follow the rules and be civilized because he was elected leader. Ralph lets himself fall into the hoax of his dad saving them all. Right

The first reversal that we saw was the boy missing the ship, the rare chance they got of someone being able to rescue them, they missed. Ralph was upset with Jack and the others meant to watch the fire because this could have saved them if they cared enough they may have been saved, “There was a Ship. Out there. You said you’d keep the fire going and you let it out!...They might have seen us.”(Golding 70) This quote shows Ralph gets mad at the boys for not focusing on the fire, leading to the schism which brings much chaos and allows Jack to take charge and cause the death of many children. Ralph's belief in the boys is ignorant, innocent, and irrational, just because it is what he wants and what he says, does not mean they will listen. It actually makes it worse between the bos, it causes a divide and chaos

During a meeting later in the book, initially called for the matter of the Beast, the boys get into an argument about the Beast, what they should do, and leadership. The boys start getting heated, they insult each other and call each other out, “Ralph screams back that Jack's breaking the rules, "the only thing we've got!" But Jack says he doesn't care about the rules, gives a wild scream, and jumps off the platform. The participants disperse, screaming and laughing, and then chant in a revolving dancing mass.”(Bloom 1). This quote highlights how Ralph depends on the rules and is naive and thinks that the other boys do as well, but they do not. It also foreshadows teh life without civilization when they break out into chanting and dancing, unorganized and in mobs. The disagreements, Ralph’s naivete, and Jack's hunting mindset put the boys in a messy situation, where they later need to choose