William Golding's Lord Of The Flies: Character Analysis

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

“Listen, everybody. I’ve got to have time to think things out. I can’t decide what to do straight off. If this isn’t an island we might be rescued straight away. So we’ve got to decide if this is an island. Everybody must stay round here and wait and not go away. Three of us-if we take more we’d get all mixed, and lose each other-three of us will go on an expedition and find out. I’ll go, and Jack, and Simon.” (Golding, 24) The boys find that they are indeed on an island using Ralph’s intuition. “There’s no village smoke, and no boats,” said Ralph wisely. “We’ll make sure later; but I think it’s uninhabited.” (Golding, 30) Ralph concludes that they are alone on the island. Again we see Ralph using his leadership qualities to help the group

In the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a group of British boys crash on an island. There are no adults on the island, only kids and pre-teens. The book starts off with two boys, Ralph and Piggy. They blow into a conch to reveal another large batch of boys, including Jack and his choir group. Ralph gets chosen leader of the group and things go well until the boys become frightened of a “monster”. Later on, Jack is only focused on hunting while Ralph is only focused on getting rescued. Unfortunately, Ralph splits up with Jack and most of the boys go with Jack. However, all of them kill Simon, a wandering yet pessimistic kid. In the end, Jack’s group kills Piggy and hunts down Ralph, only to chase him down to an adult.

      In the novel, Lord of the Flies, William Golding tells the story of a group of boys on an island left out to self survive. The time was World War II when the plane the boys were in was shot down leaving young survivals on a deserted island without any adults. The whole story is about what happens during their stay on the island representing metaphoric ideas of humanity in each incident as Golding describes. Golding has reportedly said that he wrote the novel in response to his personal war experiences. “ (The war)… taught us not fighting, politics or the follies of nationalism, but about the given nature of man.” (Golding) By looking at Lord of the Flies, it is clear that Golding’s view of

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.

People change. People change depending on who they associate themselves with, what they enjoy doing, how they want to be viewed, and also and most relative in this situation, people change depending on the situation that they find themselves in and how the situations effects on them. In one of the greatest works of literature ever presented, Lord of the Flies written by William Golding, this change in people particularly through aggressive and violent behavior is ever-present throughout the text. The causes of aggression and or violent behavior in this case are a subject that is widely debated with different theories of causation supporting each side. Two of these sides presented can be seen in the articles ”A Bully’s Future, From Hard Life to Hard Time” written by Jane Brody, and “To Study Aggression, a Fight Club for Flies” written by James Gorman. The side most relative to the aggression and violence seen throughout Lord of the Flies is supported by the idea that aggression is mainly caused by personal and outside decisions and events, not by conditions predisposed for. Aggression and violence are not things that are forced upon oneself; they are quite simply determined by the factors of a persons life and how they are handled.

“The boys looked at each other fearfully, unbelieving. ‘ ——-where is he now?’ ” (Golding 48). They all wish to deal with their fears in different ways. Jack is trying to deal with the beast by hunting it. He also wants to find food, make the boys a home on the island, and hopefully adapt to the horrors there. Ralph is coping by simply trying to help get the boys off of this dreary island as quickly as possible. Both of the views in this situation are clashing together, so that the boys could never agree. Neither of the boys can see past their own dreams and desires, which leads to anger.

To begin, the boys on the island in the Lord of the Flies, have no role model to help them mature. This makes them vulnerable and weak. In the classic novel, the boys crash land onto a stranded island, and tensions are high from the beginning. They are immensely afraid of the “Beast,” which turns out to be the savagery that is inside all of them. All of the boys wanted to be the leader of the group, especially the protagonist Ralph, and his new enemy Jack.

The theme of Lord of the Flies is a vicious being can be made of anyone. One example of this is the murder of Simon. Another example is when Jack and his tribe raid Ralph, Piggy, and Samneric. This is an overnight attack planned to steal fire from them. A third example of this is the burning of the entire jungle to just scare out Ralph. It was the fire that got them rescued at the end of the book. And a final example is the laziness of the hunters. They realized that their ignorance and laziness was going to get them killed at the end of the book.

William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies examines the moral, cognitive, and behavioral characteristics of a group of boys as they are stranded on a desolate island in the heat of war. Through a series of situations and escalating conflicts, each character’s true inner identities are brought to the surface. Each identity signifies a universal truth about human nature, and, though each chapter, messages are hinted through each character’s words, beliefs, and behaviors. A significant number of the novel’s key themes and messages can be traced to one of four boys. Each boy experiences significant development and change, which supports the novel’s overarching ideas.

By leaving a group of civilized English boys in island, he creates a space where the readers examine the results when the constraints of civilization vanish and raw human nature takes over. In Lord of The Flies, Golding contrasts the constraints of society in an ever changing world and how it draws people away from reason toward savagery. After being hunt down like an animal by Jack and his tribe, Ralph and the others boys are rescued by a British naval officer whose attention is caught by a island in flames. The officer mocks the boys as he sees them acting like savages. However, Ralph can only cry about it as he understands and sees the contrast and changes in personality of the boys after being restrained in the island. After finding out about the two casualties that occurred in the island, the officer shows his disappointment to find English boys acting like savages. It is ironic that the officer finds himself so superior to the boys as he is rescuing them from a “war” in a war ship. Throughout the story Ralph and Piggy believe that life in the island would be different if any adults were around; however, the adults are not living differently outside the island. It is in our human nature to want power like Jack and to change due to ambition or to find ourselves superior to others while making the same mistakes. Afterall, the boys’ behavior in the

Imagine being stranded on an island with a handful of strangers with no way to communicate with the outside world. In Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, Jack, Ralph, Simon, Piggy, and others get beached on an unknown island that they believe has a beast on it. The boys, especially Jack, are captivated by the idea of killing a pig for its meat. After a serious turn of events, several boys begin to go savage because of their desire to kill. They frequently chant, “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” (Golding 152). In the midst of it all, Simon is killed. Eventually, Jack puts together a group of savages who kill Piggy as well. The same group hunts Ralph because of his controlling ways when they were under his leadership. It is apparent that the reason the group disintegrated and collapsed was a combination of fear and mob mentality.

In William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies” a group of British boys that go to different boarding schools face many challenges on an island. Their country was at war so they were flying the boys away to safety when it got shot down and they were left stranded on the island. At first the boys take advantage of being alone without any adults but they quickly learn that they are going to have a lot of responsibility if they want to survive. “Lord of the Flies” has been analyzed and criticized by many people in many different ways. One way to explain how the boys reacted is the Freudian Trio. In Sheryl St. Germain’s “In the Garden of Eden” it explains how their were Turkey vultures in Eden but they were vegetarian and happy. Using Freud's theory,

“Which is better--to have laws and agree, or to hunt and kill?” (Golding 180). This quote, uttered by Piggy during a last ditch effort to heal severed ties among the boys of the island, is the epitome of the struggle that humans have had to face for perpetuity while attempting to find the ideal system in which to regulate a body of people. British novelist William Golding, author of Lord of the Flies, beautifully chronicles the differing governing structures of both democracy and anarchy. Throughout the duration of the story, the beneficial sides, as well as the pitfalls of each authoritative method, are revealed through the various consequences that result from the decisions made. While both the democratic and anarchic governing styles were employed by the misplaced island refugees, the democracy style of management was built around the basis of structure and order while the anarchy approach to regulation lacked any form of organization or discipline. As both forms of government were showcased amid the same congregation of boys, many contrasting ideas and beliefs between the two became immensely distinguishable. Some of the disparities of the systems that are exhibited through the course of the book include varying rationale used in decision making, the contrasting character the leaders of each movement possessed, as well as divergent symbols that represent each methodology.

Would you want to help other people even if they didn’t appreciate what you’ve done to help them? Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding, took place during World War II. It is about a group of kids all by themselves on a deserted island with no adults. Piggy, a major character in the novel, is a twelve year old boy who is considered the smartest boy on the island. Piggy believes Ralph is the best leader on the island, ignores being called fat and useless, and imagines himself as the smartest person on the island, which positively effected the novel.