Rules And Order In William Golding's Lord Of The Flies

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

wrote this after publishing Lord of the Flies. It is our world, in the form of a story. The two leaders in the story are Ralph and Jack. Ralph starts off a comfortable leader of the boys, but by the end of the book, Ralph and his companion Piggy are alone facing Jack and the rest of the boys. As the novel progresses and the society on the island starts to change, so does Ralph. He begins thinking he has all the answers, but comes to realize that without Piggy he would have never gotten this far. By the end of the book, Ralph and Jack are complete opposites. Jack is about savagery and fun while Ralph is holding on to society, rules, and civilization. Appearing to be a weak leader due to defection of his followers, Ralph is actually dedicated and insightful, only loosing his followers because he could not compete with one category that attracts nearly everyone in the world: fun.

Francis B. Sayre once stated, “Unless man has the wit and the grit to build his civilization on something better than material power, it is surely idle to talk of plans for a stable peace.” People control society because people set the rules and inform others what is right and what is wrong in which the rest follow through their actions. On the other hand, one may believe society controls the people because they view society as the one who is in charge and supposes that society advises people what to do and how to do it. People assemble the choices of what is justifiable in society, therefore controlling how society is perceived., In Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies, a society is controlled by a select few: allowing the boys to develop their own society through their rules and decisions, and entitling their society to transform into savagery

There is always a leader to lead you in the right direction, but that is up to you and who you think is a good leader as in this book. Commanders show people the right direction and prove themselves as good role models. Through the revolt of two boys, Golding demonstrate that civilization can be either destroyed or made better by the right leader.

It may have taken millions of years for humans to evolve enough to create the sprawling civilizations known today, but it only takes a few months for a group of civil, educated boys to regress back into savagery. In his novel Lord of the Flies, author William Golding depicts a group of young British boys getting stranded on a deserted island sans adults. The boys must look out for themselves, forming a basic governing system and trying to survive. But the challenge soon proves too much to handle, and order deteriorates. William Golding conveys the universal theme of civilization vs. savagery in his novel Lord of the Flies using the literary elements of plot, setting, and characterization.

Over time there have been many leaders of countries, groups and societies that are believed to be the “best” or what someone could only dream of. However what if a perfect leader doesn’t exist? In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies Ralph’s sense of leadership declines throughout the novel. So what if he doesn’t actually possess the skills the boys had hoped he for.

After the boys were marooned on the island, each was alone and unaware of the presence of the other boys. Ralph discovered the conch shell along with his new companion, Piggy. They identified the conch and blew it to bring forth any boys surviving the crash. He continued to blow the conch until, “The sand...concealed many figures in its miles of length” (Golding 18). As the newly discovered children gathered together, order was established throughout the tribe due to the effectiveness of the conch, and the leadership of Ralph. At this point, people obeyed the conch and followed the rule that allows the holder to speak freely. Grudgingly, the people listened to the chief to keep themselves alive, because he was a person of confidence and leadership. However, over time, this motivation slowly started to decrease and the rules were less obeyed. Therefore, the discovery of the conch symbolizes the discovery of order on the island. This is shown because once society starts to fall apart, so does the obedience to the conch.

Humans develop in societies with rules, order and government, but humans are not perfect, they have many deficiencies so do the societies they live in. When a group of schoolboys land on a tropical island, Ralph takes on the role of leader by bringing all of the boys together and organizing them. He first explains “There aren’t any grownups. We shall have to look after ourselves.”(p.33), this brings up the question if the boys will have prosperity or will they succumb to the evil on the island. At first the young boys start being successful and civilized, but chaos soon overruns them and evil starts to lurk over the island.The fictional story of the group of British schoolboys stranded on an island and the decisions they make, relates back

To be a good leader, one must be willing to listen to suggestions, make tough decisions for the betterment of the group, and know boundaries. Ralph had good intentions in the beginning but soon begins to think only his way is right. But even when something can bring a whole group together, it can tear that same group apart. As soon as the power moves to Jack, the conch’s power over the boys disappears. Jack, Piggy, and Ralph start to fight and in the middle of the tousle, a boulder falls, killing Piggy and shattering the conch. Golding writes, “The conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist” (Golding 181). As the conch disappears, the dictorial system vanishes also, leaving the boys with no structure. The broken conch represents all civilization and ideas that pertain to it. The conch was the glue that held everyone together. By blowing on it, all the boys met in the same spot and came together as a group, but by fawning over the thing, it eventually drove a stake in between them with jealousy and aggravation and hunger. With no structure, people begin to change. They allow themselves to change, but not by their

Later on as Ralph begins to realize that they need some sort of order between the group of boys and Piggy sets the rule of having to hold the conch in their hand before speaking the boys realize that they don't need to set any rules because they are free of adults. They want to run around and do what boys do. When Jack turns on Ralph because he thinks logically, and Jack thinks that in order to be the leader strength is necessary he lures the other younger kids into leaving as well by telling them that he knows how to protect them from the "beast" on the island. Jack is more impatient and wants to do things his way making the set of rules and order something impossible for him to follow. The fact of there being no adults set the bestial side of the boys on

The boys use it to get everyone on the island together after the crash separates them. The conch shell becomes a symbol of civilization, power and order. The shell is the biggest part of the boys meetings, whoever holds the shell has the right to speak. They agree that only the boy holding the conch may speak at meetings to and voice their opinion. The conch also brings the boys together for an assembly when blown. Ralph becomes the leader of the conch and the boys on the island when he is elected by the other boys. The boys deciding on a leader shows their humanity. However, Jack starts to challenge Ralph for the power which leads their society to fall apart. When the boys start to lose their humanity, they begin to act like savages. As the islands civilization is being destroyed, the boys begin to

The conch had called all the boys into an assembly. The conch was also used to allow a boy to speak in one of these assemblies. The use of the conch is to establish order on the island between the group of boys. When the boys are creating the foundation of their society they are using the intellect that they had learned from their home country. The relation to the theme is how with intelligence came the knowledge that people are not perfect and that rules are needed to keep people organized in society. “‘We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we’re not savages.’” (42) At this time the boys realize that they need to respect the rules, just like what was done in their home place. The significance of Jack’s statement is how after saying this, he disregards the rules when they apply to one other than himself. When Piggy wishes to speak atop the mountain, while creating a signal fire, Jack states that since it is the mountain that the rules made upon the beach do not apply. Jack believes he is above the rules, another example is when he disregards the building of shelter, to hunt down a pig and meat. HOwever unlike before

Ralph, who is the protagonist and plays the role as chief over the boys, represents order and leadership. Throughout the novel, Ralph attempts to keep the boys civil with each other by getting them to work with one another. From building a fire and shelter tents to making efficient rules to obey, Ralph gets the boys to all get along for a while, until they start to go stir crazy and break rules due to being deserted on an island for a long period of time. “We ought to have more rules” (Golding). As Ralph says this, he is referring back to when the boys just previously let the fire go out because of their carelessness as well as the fact that the boys were breaking rules and starting to act like savages. The character of Ralph plays an important role within the time period of all of the boys crash landing on the island to the point where Jack

The boys, in an attempt to keep isolation at bay, strive to re-establish society and keep order in the world, just like how iit was before they experienced the plane crash. One fairly efficient way the boys tried to re-establish society was when Ralph made the rule about the conch that stated “give the conch to the next person to speak. He can hold it when he’s speaking.” (Golding 27) This demonstrates the

Lord of the Flies begins with a young boy about twelve, in the middle of a dense jungle, regaining consciousness after a plane crash. The boy wanders around smoking mechanical parts and large twisted pieces of metal. It seems as though he is either the only person there or the only one to survive. As he walks along he comes across another boy, who happens to be quite over weight. He asks our main character and we are first introduced to Ralph. When Ralph returns the question the larger boy says he doesn't care what he calls him as long as it's not the name kids called him at school. When Ralph first asks what the name was the boy refuses. However, with persistence the boy gives in and tells him. The nickname the boy hates so much is, fittingly, “Piggy”. The boys continue searching for others with no luck. The boy, hearing waves begin to walk towards the beach.