Ralph Lord Of The Flies Quote Analysis

"'Which is better - to have laws and agree, or to hunt and kill?'". That is a very good question, one that presents itself in the beginning of this book. A plane crashes on a deserted island, a plane full of schoolboys from Britain. One of them, Ralph, is chosen as the leader later on in the book because he is fair, good looking, and older than most of the boys. These traits are his main qualifications, whether they are those of a good leader or not, we shall discuss his incumbency in this essay.

(Law and Order) "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. So we've got to do the right things." (Golding 42)

“When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice–you may know that your society is doomed”(Rand). This was stated by Russian-American novelist Ayn Rand; the extract relates to the novel William Golding wrote called Lord of the Flies. Golding wrote about a group of schoolboys trapped on an island from a plane crash. The boys had to figure out how to survive without grownups. Trying to survive was difficult because they had to have common sense and order. They lose those traits throughout the book which resulted in selfishness and corrupt behaviors.

Sometimes whats ideal in a situation is not what the truth of the situation and can cause your ideals to be lost. In William Golding’s novel, “Lord of the Flies”, he demonstrates a shift in some of the characters from the thought of idealism to the reality and truth of the world. Ralph is a good example of this shift, he starts out thinking the island will be a fun place and they’ll have fun waiting to be rescued, but soon he realizes that there is going to be more hardship and struggles to keep up the moral and hope of rescue. In the book Ralph wanted to keep everyone safe and get them off the island, but Jack wants to be a leader and messes up his plans, making it so that Ralph is alone in his plan to get rescued.

For example, following Ralph’s election as chief, he sought to distribute power, “Ralph looked at him [Jack], eager to offer something… ‘Jack’s in charge of the choir. They can be一 what do you want them to be?’” (Golding 23). As Ralph comes to power, he immediately delegates some of the power to his opposing candidate to create a literal democratic structured government on the island. This decision shows that a democratic government in the real world, contains structure and a distribution of power to seek the will of the majority. In addition, Samuel Hynes, in his Several Interpretations of “Lord of the Flies”, comments that, “He tries to establish and preserve an orderly, rational society; he takes as his totem the conch, making it the symbol of rational, orderly discussion,” (Hynes 59). Possessing an “orderly, rational society”, remains one of the key elements in any democratic governing body in the real world. The rational and orderliness allows for equality among voices and presents everyone the opportunity to speak, one of the fundamental qualities of democracy, as seen with the conch. In a like manner, Ralph establishes the freedom of speech in assembly on the island early in his, “I’ll give the conch to the next person to speak. He can hold it when he’s speaking,” (Golding 53). Wisely, Ralph establishes a system that allows anyone to speak their mind, they only need the conch and everybody else must listen. Although different from a conventional free speech policy, Ralph’s method still works, giving everybody the chance to voice themselves, regardless of whether Ralph or anyone else agrees or disagrees with them. Much like a real democracy, any can voice their opinion, indirectly with large populations, creating the defining principle of successful

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.

The conch keeps the meetings and even simple conversations in orderly terms. When its purpose begins to get ignored, more conflict arises. Ralph keeps hold of the conch even in times full of fear. In the text, it is stated, "He could see the whiteness in the gloom near him so he grabbed it from Maurice and blew as loudly as he could," (Golding, 88). While all of the boys are filled with fear about the talk of the beast, Ralph wants to keep them calm and keep matters controlled. The conch does help him to easily call meetings for the group, and it helps to keep society present amongst the boys. However, when the fear overcomes the peace that the boys have so far, the orderliness begins to deteriorate. Ralph tries his best to control the situation, but losing touch of a truly experienced society has made the boys struggle with staying calm and rational. The boys let of any sense of morals and obligations that they had gathered so far in their childhoods slip right out of their hands, and most of the boys let hunting and savagery become their top

An item used by Ralph in Lord of the Flies is the conch. In the first chapter, the conch is discovered by Piggy, Ralph’s right-hand man, “who gives it more purpose other than being a sound machine” (Burns 1). Piggy tells Ralph that the conch can be used like a trumpet to call all other boys, over the island they’ve crashed on, to discuss their whereabouts (Golding 16). To Piggy, the conch is an indispensable tool as well as a symbol of authority on the island that can establish democratic order on the island (Burns 1). Piggy then tells Ralph, who immediately begins to use the conch in order to unite the boys under his flag. After the gathering of boys, Ralph begins to instate democratic ideas as well as

The conch embodies the best qualities of representative government and therefore aligns with the harmonizing force. The conch is what they use to call meetings and the person with the conch is only allowed to talk. Piggy and Ralph were the ones to find the conch and use it for meetings. The conch symbolizes law, order, and power. "The being that had blown that, had sat waiting for them on the platform with the delicate thing balanced on his knees, was set

     When everyone is more settled down, Ralph suggests that they elect a leader and chief. All the kids elect Ralph as the leader, mainly because he is the one who found the conch and the one who is holding it. We at once see how Jack greatly disapproves of the decision taken by the kids. He

For a few days the boys run wild over the island. Ralph steps up and tries to set up things to try and bring civilization back into the group. “If we have a signal going, they’ll come and take us off. And another thing we thought to have more rules. Where the conch is, that’s where we're meeting. The same up here as down here”(Golding 42). Ralph know that there a lot of chaos going on right now and he needs to make rules faster before it gets out of hand. One of the first one’s was the conch. Ralph made this item important to the whole group, giving it significant value. Where the conch is at, that’s where the meeting will be held because he will blow the shell really loud so everyone can hear it. To add on to this idea, I have another quote that is similar to the lasts idea about the conch. “Whoever holds the conch gets to speak”(Golding ). This shows that Ralph wants others to have their opinion too, but not all at the same time screaming at each other. This alouds everyone to have it say because if you have the conch everyone must listen and wait to say everything until they get the conch. Ralph is trying his best to try and get the boy’s civilized again by setting up rules that everyone must

A democratic society requires order to function smoothly as a whole. This point of view is shown in The Lord of the Flies, where Ralph symbolizes a democracy and Jack symbolizes a dictatorship. After exploring the island, as chief, Ralph calls for a meeting to share his discoveries with the rest of the boys. In a democratic fashion, Ralph gives everyone the freedom of speech and an equal voice by suggesting, “We can’t have everybody talking at once [...] I’ll give him the conch [...] He can hold it when he’s speaking and won’t be interrupted. Except by me.”(33). To ensure everyone’s opinion is heard and to avoid chaos within the group, Ralph decides to use a conch shell as a “talking stick”. Whoever has the conch shell in his hands has the

He proceeds to the platform and simply blows the conch. As the conch is probably the central symbol of the civilised world, Ralph's action of blowing upon it in an attempt to restore order shows us that unlike Jack, he is intent on grasping on to civilisation along with the peace and order in all of their lives previously. Golding explains the two individual sides;

As the text says, “ Every hand outside the choir except for Piggy’s was raised… Ralph counted… I’m chief then” (p23). Ralph had the schoolboys vote for either him or Jack as chief of the schoolboys. This was the end of democracy and rise to monarchy. However Democracy was still used in assemblies and meetings.

At the daily assemblies Ralph uses the conch to enforce his leadership on to the other boys. He begins to enforce new rules to keep the boys safe and that help get them off of the island, as well as rules to maintain peace and order on the island. At one of the meetings, Ralph states a new rule that is, the one who holds the conch is the only one that is allowed to speak. “I’ll give the conch to the next person to speak.” (Golding 33) said Jack in agreeance with