Social Hierarchy In William Golding's Lord Of The Flies

In the book Lord of the Flies, there were two small societies. The main one, which will be the one focused on, was made in the beginning. It was established with rules from the beginning. That then built the social hierarchy that is the group. There are different jobs and positions, these are what separates everybody and made the social hierarchy in Lord of the Flies. There also many rules made throughout the course of the book. How this happened though, takes a lot of explaining. The conch was one of the few rules that were actually had. The group was actually founded on the conch. This statement is proven by the line that states, “We can use this to call the others. Have a meeting. They’ll come when they hear us-”(Chapter 1,Page 16). The

At the top is Raph since he is chief. In the book Ralph states, “I’m chief then.” (Chapter 1,Page 23) Chief is always the highest position in a group. The next highest position is the Hunters. The hunters are a group of powerful boys who, as the name states, hunt. They are the second highest because they are the most disciplined boys in the whole group. When the boys march up, it definitely shows a sign of order and maturity. In the story it says, “The creature was a party of boys, marching approximately in step in two parallel lines and dressed in strangely eccentric clothing.” (Chapter 1,Page 19) That line lets you know that they are very well disciplined. The next part of the social hierarchy is pretty much all of the older kids like Piggy. Finally, at the bottom are the littluns. They are very looked down on and it is obvious they are at the bottom. One key thing that lets you know this is the part where it says, “Roger led the way straight through the castles, kicking them over, burying the flowers, scattering the chosen stones. Maurice followed, laughing, and added to the destruction.” (Chapter 4, Page 60) This comes to show that they were looked down upon and were definitely at the bottom. This shows how they created their own society in the book Lord of the Flies. They had very few rules and didn’t really enforce them. For the most part the rules did work and the group was really good. Also, the social hierarchy was a major part in keeping the group in order. Without it there would be no specific positions, and Jack would be fighting with Ralph. Both of these helped make their society work up until the