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Unearned Power In Lord Of The Flies Quote Analysis

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In many stories someone can find that one villain. The one that is power hungry, the one that wants to rule. This is true for The Lord of the Flies as well. You have Jack, who from the very beginning, wanted power. As the story progresses it is easy to see that the unearned power that he did have, did not have positive impacts. This idea can also be true in reality. A person who suddenly finds themselves with a large amount of power that they did not earn might do the best with it. Utilizing characters and foreshadow, William Golding in The Lord of the Flies, demonstrates the theme that unearned power leads to catastrophe, which can be connected to real life events that occur with a lottery winner. Unearned and unchecked power can cause catastrophic …show more content…

Jack’s unearned power is used to not have responsibilities. “...a great log had been dragged into the center of the lawn and Jack, painted and garlanded, sat there like an idol” (Golding 149). Jack wants to be the one in power so that he wouldn’t have to do any real work, and can order the boys around. He wanted the power so he could do whatever he wanted. In Whittaker’s real life case he is foolish with the money and the power that came with it. “Whittaker carried around so much cash that he was constantly getting robbed. There was one widely-reported incident when he got drunk in a strip club with a brief case full of cash and it was stolen.” He made foolish decisions because of the power that the money gave him, and others used that to take what he had. Whittaker didn’t use common sense to keep his money locked away and instead let the power of having that much money in person cloud his judgement. Both Jack in the book and Whittaker in real life gain power that is not earned. Their power leads to destruction, whether that is of civilization, or Whittaker’s life as he knew

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