Comparative essay: Leadership in Lord of the Flies and Animal Farm
Essay question: You are required to write a comparative essay. You should compare one aspect of the texts such as theme, conflict, character or relationship. The texts are ‘Lord of the Flies’ and ‘Animal Farm’.
The two books, Lord of the Flies and Animal Farm circle around the themes of power, leadership, law, disorder, good and evil. On a personal level, these themes come up in the way people relate to each other: How they interact, who becomes a follower, a manipulator, who takes responsibility, who becomes a victim and who a perpetrator. In the two books both Jack and Napoleon stick out as having so called leadership qualities.
Leadership, as shown in
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Signaling that he is tough enough to survive on his own, he presents himself to the others as a strong personality. This makes Jack attractive to the other boys, who want to join the self confident, courageous and enthusiastic boy. Jack has taken Ralph’s role as a leader and seems to have made it more exiting and enjoyable for the boys, by going hunting and wearing face paint. “Some of you will stay here to improve the cave and defend the gate. I shall take a few hunters with me and bring back meat. “(pg. 177) Jack gives clear instructions and tries to build up cooperation within the tribe.
Napoleon, in Animal Farm, is a large, rather fierce looking Berkshire boar. He rises to power in two stages: As a pig, he belongs to a privileged class and uses this position to strengthen his influence on the animals. He has only one rival: Snowball, who acts as the chief of Animal Farm. Gradually, Napoleon starts resisting to Snowballs plans for various projects and instigates the animals against Snowball. “Comrades, do you know who is responsible for this? Do you know the enemy who has come in the night and overthrown our windmill? SNOWBALL! He suddenly roared in a voice of thunder, Snowball has done this thing! In sheer malignity, thinking to set back our plans and avenge himself for his ignominious expulsion.” (pg. 47) Eventually he convinces the dogs to dispose of Snowball from Animal Farm. By using the
William Golding's Lord of the Flies is a novel about a group of boys who are lost on a deserted island and must do what they can to survive. At the beginning of the novel, two of the boys, Ralph and Jack, become leaders. These differences will form the main conflict in the story. The differences will cause them to hate each other and the anger that results is a recurring part of the plot throughout the novel. These two boys can be compared by the way they change, the reason for their actions, and the way they use or abuse power.
Shortly after the Revolution, Snowball comes up with the plan to construct a windmill to make the lives of the inhabitants of Animal Farm easier. Napoleon hides in the shadows per se until the puppies that he has taken and trained are old enough to act as a police force. Once they are old enough, Napoleon has the dogs drive Snowball off the farm. He then takes credit for the idea of the windmill and proceeds to claim that he, not Snowball, won the award at the Battle of Cowshed. Napoleon then informs the animals that Snowball was an enemy and was a threat to Animal Farm. The animals are swayed by his propaganda and are fearful of his police dogs; this is what keeps him in power.
Napoleon used force to gain control of Animal Farm, and used fear to keep it. When he and Snowball both led the other animals, they had many disagreements. Napoleon saw that Snowball was better at communicating with the animals, so he used the dogs which he had secretly trained to drive Snowball away – permanently. Napoleon used these dogs to keep all the animals ‘in line’ and quash any thought of rebellion with fear.
William Golding's Lord of the Flies is a novel about a group of boys who are lost on a deserted island and must do what they can to survive. At the beginning of the novel, two of the boys, Ralph and Jack, become leaders. These differences will form the main conflict in the story. The differences will cause them to hate each other and the anger that results is a recurring part of the plot throughout the novel. These two boys can be compared by the way they change, the reason for their actions, and the way they use or abuse power.
Thesis Statement: The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding portrays the theme that regardless of each person’s different background and characteristics, every individual has the ability to commit brutal acts. While this book depicts Ralph and Piggy as the most civilized characters, and Jack and his hunters as young English choir boys, their actions reveal that they all have the capability to act violently.
Ralph however holds his position of leadership and Jack forms his own tribe with his hunting party. When this happens, Ralph's tribe hits a low point and is struggling to keep their society stable. It is now when Jack seizes the opportunity, feeds all of Ralph’s people, exclaims “‘ I gave you food...my hunters will protect you from the beast. Who will join my tribe?’” (Golding 150). This is the turning point for many of the boys because the loyalty to Ralph is not as strong as the comfort provided by Jack to their fear of the beast. Jack offers them everything that they want at the time and is very easy. After this decision however, they will be unable to overcome this fear and in fact, it will only become
In the famous novel named “Lord of the flies”, there are four main characters that William Golding built up to represent the typical personalities in human nature. While Jack stands for the powerfully instinct savagery, Simon represents the natural kindness and Piggy with his glasses is the symbol of wisdom, Ralph has the best conducts of a real leader as he was initially voted for chief. There are three main characteristics that mark him out as a felicitous leader: rational, moral and unflinching.
After the dirty deed of murder was done Napoleon accused Snowball of being a traitor working with Mr. Jones trying to have him Mr. Jones reacquire the farm. The great ideas of Snowball were taken by Napoleon and claimed to have made his own like the Snowballs design of the windmill. The work on the farm increased and since it is a democracy where everyone agrees to make decisions, Napoleon tells the people he will do what is best for them. It starts to create a divide among the working animals and the pigs who were the brains of the operation.
As one can see from the start, Jack's tribe changes their lifestyles to a primitive state, while Ralph's seeks the future in life. Ralph thus thinks on a more matured level by learning from past mistakes, while Jack only seeks the fun out of life. This is the main reason why Ralph's group, even though lonesome, still prevails. Ralph and Jack indeed set different rules under each other's turf. The two leaders follow different beliefs, and thus have different lives to live, and groups to lead.
Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a book set during World War 2 about a group of young boys having to fend for themselves on an island with no signs of civilization. Within the novel, there are many different themes, most conveying the ingrained evil within all human beings and the malevolent complexions of humanity. As the story advances, Golding manifests the continuous conversion of the boys from being civilized and methodical people to ferocious savages. The book can be expounded in terms of political and social allegory. Golding covers a myriad of details that evince two contrasting political factions. By analyzing the allegory of Jack and the beast it is
There are two young boys, Ralph and Jack who want to be the leader of a group of young boys that landed on an island when they were forced to leave their homes from war. Based on the content of Lord of the Flies, I believe that Ralph would be the best choice for being leader because he listens to what others have to say, he likes to plan ahead, and he cares about the safety of others.
There were many imperative themes in the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding, but the one that stood out the most was the idea of the difference between a good leader and a bad leader. Jack and Ralph were both critical leaders in the book but had very different ideas of leadership. Ralph for example cared more about escaping the island and making sure everything was on track on the island, while Jack on the other hand was a hunter and wanted to be a complete monarch. Although Jack and Ralph were leaders of their tribes, they both had different point of views which helped shape the theme of leadership that is revealed throughout the story.
the book The Lord of The Flies. They had many problems with each other because
Secondly, secondary characters in both novels play the role of followers who help their leader in obtaining more power. In Animal Farm, Boxer represents the hard working and loyal people. Boxer is a inspiration to all the other animals because of his strength, loyalty, “and his never-failing cry of 'I will work harder'” (Orwell 49). Plus, Boxer's faith and trust in Napoleon inspires the other animals to do so as well. In contrast, in Lord of the Flies, the Savages are the followers of Jack. They are all loyal to Jack but only because they want the food and protection that the hunters provide. Since Piggy does not have this knowledge of the truth, he is not able to explain that they only have themselves to fear, (comma splice) therefore the rest of the boys would have no other need to join the savages. The boys follow Jack because they fear the beast and Jack promises them that “ [his] hunters will protect [them] from the beast” (Golding 166). To summarize, both secondary characters who play the role of the followers, are loyal to their leaders, but for different reasons yet, still bolster the leaders' power.
Although the boys would prefer to have fun and play games, they follow Ralph’s rules at first. This order is maintained until Ralph loses his leadership role to Jack. After providing, or bribing, the boys with juicy pig meat, Jack asks “’Who’ll join my tribe and have fun?’” (211). This lure of enjoyment along with the promise of more food sways the boys to follow Jack. With the demise of Ralph’s leadership and under the leadership of Jack, the boys begin to turn towards savagery.