Lord Of The Flies By William Golding

A recurring theme among leaders in many societies today is that “absolute power corrupts absolutely” (John Acton, a 1700’s English Catholic historian, politician, and writer). In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, this idea of leadership, power, and corruption is put in the spotlight. Jack, one of the boys on the island, forces his way into the leadership position without actually earning it. It is clear that Jack has become corrupt as he turns into a person who is intimidating, egotistical, and selfish. Ralph, on the other hand, is a quality leader under most conditions as he appeals to the boys’ sophisticated side and has a

William Golding’s ‘Lord of the Flies’ is another text that shows how society and mob-mentality impact individuals. Set during a futuristic war; it's about a group of British boys who crash land on an uninhabited island, with no adults present they are left to fend for themselves. At first, they follow the rules of ordered society however as time passes on the island the boys become subject to mob mentality and drift into savagery. The author uses the novel as a microcosm of society and shows how mob mentality can cause humans to decent into savagery, he shows this through the boys in the novel, especially Jack who is first to decent into savagery and from him one by one the entire boys follow suit. Golding portrays society through the use of allegory in the text, with characters, setting, and objects as a symbol for an aspect of society in the wider world; hence the island they're stranded on is a miniature version of the world. Through the characters Golding represents different types of governments from today’s world; Ralph the protagonist of the novel represents democracy while the antagonist Jack represents dictatorship, which is established from the beginning. In the beginning of the text, the boys elect Ralph as chief, after having gathered all the boys with Piggy’s using a conch shell, “...we ought to have a chief to decide things.” Jack expects to be chief “I ought to be chief’, said Jack with simple arrogance, ‘because I’m chapter chorister and head boy. I can sing

In the novel, Lord of the Flies, Golding focuses on a variety of different concepts. More specifically, Lord of the Flies approaches the topic of political issues such as the desire for power and social chaos. There are two different political societies: democratic and authoritarian. This novel concentrates on a democratic environment versus authoritarian. Golding represents these political environments in the forms of Jack and Ralph.

“Democracy... while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide,” said John Adams, the first Vice President and second President of the United States of America, at the beginning of the modern world’s greatest democratic nation. According to Adams, democracy never possessed a long term future, and the boys on a tropical island in William Golding’s classic novel, Lord of the Flies, make a great example of a crumbling democracy. A democratic government works with the people to serve their best interests and requires participation from it members to function properly. Meanwhile, totalitarian

William Golding utilizes Lord of the Flies to prove that the inherent nature of man is truly savage and cannot be contained by any form of civil government. Characters, setting, atmosphere, and other elements are all used by Golding in the novel as metaphors and symbols to ultimately reveal the natural intention of man. In Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan, John Locke’s Concerning Civil Government , and Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s The Social Contract, they share their own personal interpretations on man’s inherent nature, with the closest to Golding being Hobbes. Although both Golding and Hobbes state that man’s true nature is evil and selfish, Hobbes advocates for an absolutist government as capable of controlling man through fear of punishment, as opposed to Golding’s belief that no form of government is sufficient to control man. Conversely, Rousseau argues that men are born with morality and inalienable freedom, and John Locke believes that man is free but is neither inherently reputable nor immoral but a blank slate. Both want the people to be in control to prevent corruption from changing man, although Rousseau insists that a direct democracy to completely give power to the people would be more effective rather than only a representative democracy where the people would have individuals represent them which Locke suggests.

Although humans beings are flawed and make mistakes, in order for a government to ever be civilized, just, and effective, there needs to be a structured system of democracy that maintains a system of checks and balances. Also within the society there needs to be people, whether they are leaders or not, that have moral stability, and the knowledge and understanding to play the role they play in a government. In the Lord of the Flies by William Golding, and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, it is clear that both Golding and Jackson do not agree with their stories’ government; rather Golding and Jackson express, through the failure of their stories’ government, that in order for a government to be civilized, just, and effective, there needs

In the novel the lord of the Flies, Golding uses Ralph’s responsibility and Jack’s persuasiveness and authority to argue that effective governments must be both fair and able to keep peace in a country.

     Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a novel that represents a microcosm of society in a tale about children stranded on an island. Of the group of young boys there are two who want to lead for the duration of their stay, Jack and Ralph.  Through the opposing characters of Jack and Ralph, Golding reveals the gradual process from democracy to dictatorship from Ralph's democratic election to his lack of law enforcement to Jack's strict rule and his violent law enforcement.

In William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, power is a notable theme that can be found very frequently throughout the novel. In the book, the theme of power is found in the form of items that revolve around the protagonist of the story, Ralph, and the antagonist, Jack (Burns 1). Ralph and Jack use these items in order to establish power in the group of boys for their own reasons (Burns 2). With Ralph, he uses items, which represent order in the story, to establish a democracy on the island, while Jack uses specific items that represent evil to create a monarchy out of Ralph’s democracy (Burns 1). The items used by Ralph and Jack in Golding’s novel will be later explained in the essay on how they represent power, what their meaning is, and their purpose in the story.

In the novel, Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, a group of boys has landed on an island and are left to govern and fend for themselves. Jack and Ralph, two of the main characters, rise above the others as leaders. They clash heads, but Jack becomes the stronger and more supported leader. Golding uses Jack to show that when people abuse power, it creates a corrupt society; he uses multiple examples to convey this, such as, social, political, and religious allegory, symbolism, and also the ideas of violence from Thomas Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor.

Lord of the Flies is an extraordinarily well-written novel that teaches one how to live life. When asked about the philosophy of the book, the author, William Golding, replied, "The theme is an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature. The moral is that the shape of a society must depend on the ethical nature of the individual and not on any political system however apparently logical or respectful." This completely exemplifies the theme of the novel. Lord of the Flies truly shows that it is not the government that determines survival, it is the sheer human nature in all of us that proves whether a society can function. A person's personality will always trump another person's because of difference

In William Golding’s novel The Lord of the Flies, power is something that everyone wants. Golding conveys one democracy with a single leader is more beneficial than having multiple commanders attempting to lead the group, but the boys all want power for themselves. Firstly, the boys assign the lead role to Ralph, but soon come to conflict and end up having Jack lead the savages while Ralph lead the civilization tribe. Secondly, Jack isn’t very happy with the group's choice because he feels that he would be the best choice. There is conflict between the boys because they see each other as a threat. Secondly, having one democracy would lead the boys to guaranteed success because it would require them to work as a team and strengthen their brotherhood. Thirdly, Piggy struggles to gain recognition and power to help the group and share his knowledge for the best. He has lots of knowledge, but doesn’t get a chance to show it. It might have also prevented the tragic deaths and experiences faced. The boys demonstrate how power will always be something everyone wants, but only will be given to the most worthy.

In order to have an effective Society, aspects the likes of, responsibility, respect and democracy are all important factors. In the Novel the Lord of Flies by William Golding, civilization versus savagery, fear of the unknown, leadership and control are very prominent themes. One way the author demonstrates these themes is through the character Jack, who is illustrated as evil throughout the novel. Without rules, democracy, leadership and respect, life on the island for the boys is troublesome and they experience numerous difficulties. The society is corrupt and the boys are descending into savagery, losing their innocence and over time, expanding their growth of fear and evil.

There will always will be a power or a government with a society. Whether it be as small as a group or as large as a country. According to multiple sources, government has been around since the first city-state was created. Just by this source alone we demonstrate how society has always needed an order and power: Government. Dystopian: An imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one. Lord of the Flies, a novel that is realistic is the fact that it parallels with the real world. The moral that Golding was taking example of was the evil inside all of us. He created this novel to express dystopia, which was how boys were stuck on an island and how they created their

“Which is better-- to be a pack of painted Indians like you are, or to be sensible like Ralph is?” (Golding 180). In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a plane was carrying a group of British schoolboys and is shot down over the Pacific during a time of war . The pilot is killed, but many of the boys survived the crash and find themselves deserted on an uninhabited island, where they are alone without adult supervision. In Lord of The Flies, the boys create a parliamentary democracy and socialist economic system. The outcome was not very positive so to correct that they need an oligarchy government and improvements in their socialist economic system.