Power In Lord Of The Flies Essay

William Golding’s Lord of the Flies presents a story of a group of boys who become stranded on an island together, and in their struggle to survive; some begin to fight for power. Having power makes them feel in control of their situation; however, this power struggle quickly begins to consume them. Golding uses the power struggle between Ralph and Jack, the two main characters, to illustrate the power struggle between good and evil.

The Lord of the Flies is a gruesome story about young boys stranded on an island, who underwent a transformation from polite British choir boys to savage hooligans. One of the main difficulties the boys face during their adventures upon the island, is their method of government, they either follow the path of Ralph, the democratic leader whose main focus is to escape the despairing island; or Jack a power-hungry monarchical leader who won't ever take no for an answer. The two boys are constantly bickering and arguing over who deserves the leader-position. We all understand Ralph wants to be leader so that he can ensure that the boys will return back home, but in Jack's case, it is a constant mystery to us about why he

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.

The book Lord of the Flies by William Golding is about how a group of school boys get traped on A island. When power,fear and violence indulge them. The book shows that power can be controlled but can lost in an instant.

Throughout history, humans have relentlessly fought for control over others. This desire for power is well depicted in a novel by William Golding, Lord of the Flies. The story revolves around a group of boys stranded on an island. Two of the main characters, Ralph and Jack, both want to be the leader of the boys, and their struggle for power clearly demonstrates the human desire for control.

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.

Ralph calls for an assembly to discuss what the boys have to do on the island. Jack then gets into an argument with Ralph over how Ralph isn’t a proper chief. Jack rebels Ralph’s order and decided that he’s “not going to be apart of ” (Golding 127) Ralph’s group. Jack leaving the others is the start of his rise to his dictatorial rule over the boys. Jack uses him leaving to gain followers to have authority, which leads to his misuse of power. Jack has the boys think he is a better chief than Ralph by saying he can do different things as a chief than what Ralph has done as chief. Before Jack’s rise in power, Jack further rejects order to become a dictatorial chief by breaking the rules of the island. The boys decide that they need a way to signal passing ships and go to the mountain to make a signal fire and Jack decides that. Jack rebels order by going against current rules in place through manipulating the order of the conch and says that the conch “doesn’t count on top of the mountain” (Golding 42). Jack breaking the rule of the person holding the conch further adds to his motivation to be a dictatorial chief, because he is not following rules which leads to him to be a dictatorial chief. Jack would then misuse his power and not enstate rules as a chief. Jack aspires to be a dictatorial chief through rejecting the order of the island and he also does so through the promises he gives to his

There is something in all of us that is the strongest desire we have, to have power. You see it everywhere, in our nation’s leaders, in our sport’s programs, even in something as basic as a middle school class. In Lord of the Flies, you witness multiple characters striving to be leaders, even though they only focus on one thing at a time. Once they have that power, it’s often taken too far or not even represented at all. William Golding used the desire for power in his book to fuel it with a very life-like feeling.

In Lord of the flies the fight for survival has kicked in with the boys who have survived a plane crash. The struggle for order and power is now between Jack and Ralph the two main leaders of the boys. The struggle comes down to 3 main issues between the boys. The main issues being different ways of power and personalities, different mindsets, and order within the group.

How did you see power being used and/or abused in this book? How would you feel if you were the main Character?

Imagine your plane crashing leaving you alone on a deserted island without any adults or anyone to make rules. You have to create your own form of civilization in order to keep everyone from turning into complete savages. This is a reality for everyone in the book Lord of the Flies by WIlliam Golding. In the book, a group of civilized boys crash onto an island with no structure of leadership. In the absence of a social structure they were forced to create their own. The book explores the characters motives as they develop their social structure and the need for the power. Golding uses symbols of power such as the conch, Jack, and the fire throughout the text to illustrate that power and the need for it is overwhelming in a society.

In the Lord Of The flies a group of British boys' plane crashed on a deserted island and they were all stranded, and needed to figure out how to receive help. During the time the boys had to hunt, feed the little ones, and build shelter. While hunting the boys found a conch shell that led to the "birth of society" ( Golding, 16) The leader Ralph showed his leadership/power through a small conch shell. The Lord Of The Flies illustrates power through symbolism.

Lord of the Flies is about a group of schoolboys who are trapped in an island without any adults and no communication to the outside world. In the very beginning, a character named Jack wanted power to rule over the other boys. However, with democracy someone else is chosen as leader. Overtime, Jack starts gaining power over the people and soon he becomes dictator. He starts to disrespect his own followers and abuse them. As William Golding wrote, “‘ He’s going to beat Wilfred… He got angry and made us tie Wilfred up…” (Golding page 159). Jack does not make the right choices and starts to become more and more inhumane. Jack, previously named Merridew is corrupted with power and he uses this power to bring despair and pain through people who don’t follow him, as well as those who do. In some situations, dictatorship brings happiness to the ruler, but not the majority of the population. This leads to a less productive team and contributes to an unappealing

In Lord of the Flies, the two characters that abuse power the most on the island are Jack and Ralph. In Chapter 10 of Lord of the Flies, Jack has taken all but three of the biguns and Ralph into his group of hunters. Jack has total control over the boys, and abuses this power by beating the boys for infractions. In this chapter, Jack has had Wilfred hog-tied, awaiting his beating. Robert tells Roger that Wilfred has been tied up all day. The boys do not question Jack's decision, and Jack uses the boys' fear against them. By this time, the boys are simply referred to as savages and Jack as the chief by the narrator: "A savage raised his hand and the chief turned a bleak, painted face toward him."(Golding 160) These words suggest that

Symbolism can represent a person, object, place, situation and action that gain more depth of meaning in the context. This technique gives insight to the reader, symbolism is used in literature as a device that not is to be taken literally. Lord of the flies is one of the most engaging works of William Golding, the important theme of the novel is the social power. These power relations are introduced in the novel in a form of symbols, sometimes the symbols are introduced or used so efficiently, that most of the times are easy to recognise them. Those power relations are introduced everywhere on the island and shown at different levels through the novel.