William Golding's Lord Of The Flies: Chapter Analysis

It’s hard to imagine what we would do if we were stranded on an island. Thankfully we don’t need to worry about being in that position. I don’t know the feeling that the boys in Lord of the Flies had but it’s interesting to think about their different reactions to being in a totally new environment trying to survive on their own. The human tendency to divide into groups and compete between each other caused chaos and death on the island in Lord of the Flies.
Our human tendency is to divide into groups. “People must have a tribe, it gives them a name, adding to their own meaning in this world.” (Edward O. Wilson). In this book there are 2 main groups formed, one by Jack and one by Ralph. The two boys disagree with each other. For example, Ralph

One of Jack’s main focuses is hunting instead of thinking about the group first and following the rules. For example, one of the rules that the boys made is you can only speak up when you have the conch shell. On page 92, Piggy is trying to talk and has the conch and Jack interrupts him. Ralph then continues to explain to Jack that rules are the only thing they can rely upon and tells Jack he is breaking the rules by speaking without the conch. Jack doesn’t care about the rules or what Ralph says and tells him, “who cares!”. Another example of the Ralph and Jack’s groups being different is that Ralph believes strongly in group work and Jack is mainly focused on doing what he wants instead of thinking about others. For example, Ralph believes it is best for them to start a fire so someone can possibly see the smoke. On page 25 there is a perfect example of where Ralph is thinking about the group as a whole, "There's another thing. We can help them to find us. If a ship comes near the island they may not notice us. So we must make smoke on top of the mountain. We must make a fire." Ralph takes initiative to start a fire and takes the role as a leader to get the boys off of the island. Meanwhile on page 35, Jack shows that

The main competition was who was the best leader. Jack or Ralph? The boys chose Ralph but obviously Jack thought he deserves it too. The boys chose Ralph because he represented a better leader to them, showing he cares about the boys working together. It’s his goal early on to not let the boys become savage. For example, Ralph says 'We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages. We're English, and the English are best at everything.” (Page 42). Jack acts like the savage one and Ralph acts like the more civilized one and creates rules for the boys. He tries to get them a place to live and other things to help the boys thrive as best as they can while stranded on an island. Jack is the one wants to hunt and do things his way, ignoring rules that Ralph believes are important. This is a good example of competition because the boys begin to stray away from Ralph’s view of survival and start to join Jack’s savage ways, like painting his whole body and focusing on