Order, leadership, power, and moral consequences. These are some concepts needed in society to maintain civilization. Lord of the Flies by William Golding explores these ideological struggles between two main characters: Ralph and Jack. With different perspectives about how one should rule, they both challenge each other from the start. The novel begins with a plane crash in the middle of an unknown island where a group of young English boys are stranded without any adults, and are thus tested on survival and morality. Ralph, our protagonist, steps up right away after being elected leader. He is portrayed as a democratic character that is quick to enforce rules, manage, and provide assistance to the group. He is the primary representative of civilization, order and authoritative leadership from the traditional school structures. Jack is Ralph’s antagonist who represents the savagery and dictatorship that a tyrannical would have. His selfish desire is to gain power and control over the group. Jack never thinks of the moral consequences to the island, leading him to a dominant nature. He believes a leader should be obeyed given any order. By the end of the novel, he develops exactly into that leader. Although Jacks use of coercive power is accepted when the boys descend into their animalistic behavior, only Ralph’s referent power can be truly accepted as legitimate by civilization and society.
In the beginning of Lord of the Flies, we are introduced to the powerful conch which is the most important symbol from the novel and the first discovery. Although Ralph finds it, Piggy comes up with the plan to blow on it to “find the others” on the island (Golding 8). Piggy’s action shows his expert power; however, Ralph’s tool of referent power takes over and because of the conch Ralph is elected as the leader of the group, As Ralph is described it ts pointed that “[M]ost obscurely, yet most powerfully, there was the conch” (Golding 22). Showing us not only the power the conch really possesses, but also showing us that the boys are aware that electing a leader is the only way for things to work out.
Ralph even gives the boys the idea of voting and freedom by raising the conch and saying they have to “have a chief to decide things” (Golding 11). This shows his intuitive thought of law and order; a main trait of democracy, where the boys have the opportunity of choices. It is decided later on that whoever holds the conch in their meetings has the right to speak, and everyone has to listen (Golding 33). Giving not only the conch power but also giving the boys the power to be heard; Thus, the conch is what made the island a civilized society from the start. Considering the rule was enforced by Ralph and Piggy, it told us that from the start he tried to preserve the civilized living principle, that we were granted in humanity (Golding 22). By having this conch it is representing the order and law in their island, because of the right they are offered from this conch which of course, is freedom of speech.
In William Golding's epic, Lord of the Flies, the guiltless young boy named Jack has started to change into the enemy of the story. He paints on an undermining “red and white” face thickly striped with “charcoal that connects backwards right ear to left” of his jaw, and when he sees his reflection he begins to “laughing forebodingly” around a pool of water (Golding 63-64). Jack sees the impression of himself in this manner in the pool and changed absolutely. His dubious side was at present coordinating all his reason and strategy for thinking. Despite how Jack's age isn't clearly imparted all through the novel, it is shown that he is a standout amongst the most settled among the get-together of youthful colleagues on the island and is around the age of twelve or thirteen. This prompts the conviction that Jack's presentation of confirmation inside this front of war paint is a trademark one.
Golding contends that individuals are on a very basic level of savagery, when drawn toward delight and brutality; they will have effectively figured out how to make flourishing civic establishments for a great number of years. So that discredits Golding's hypothesis about human instinct being savage, correct? Not exactly. Golding goes on to make a comparable contention; he delineates progress as a cloak that through its guidelines and laws veils the wickedness inside each person. So even while civic establishments flourish, they are simply concealing the monster. They have not annihilated it.
The nonexistent monster that scares all the young men represents the basic intuition of brutality that exists inside every person. The young boys fear the beastie, however just Simon achieves the acknowledgment that the fear the monster since it exists inside every one of them. As the young men develop increasingly savage, their confidence in the monster becomes more grounded. At the end of the novel, the young men are abandoning it forfeits and regarding it as a totemic god. The young mens’ conduct is the thing that brings the beastie into reality, so the more brutally the kids act, the more genuine the monster appears to turn into. The young men “turn into”the monster when they murder Simon.
Golding portrays the savages' conduct as creature like; the savages dropped their lances (man's instrument) and “shouted, struck, piece, tore. There were no words, and no developments yet the tearing of teeth and paws” (Golding 153). This depiction is fundamentally the same as Sam and Eric's portrayal of the brute on the mountain. The Beast is a danger, be it envisioned or genuine, to the general public that has been shaped on the island and is treated all things considered by every one of the characters with the exception of Simon. This danger is at initial a unifier of the young men and after that separates them, all looking for security in the clan and its military power. Jack is the controller here, he utilizes the Beast as a method for picking up and looking after power, utilizing the Beast also to the purposeful publicity of authoritarian states. So the mammoth can be viewed as an instrument whereby Jack keeps up his capacity, a portrayal everything being equal and a method for imparting trepidation and regard in the people. With regards to the book, whenever took a gander at generally, the Beast is the danger from Soviet Russia utilized by governments to control their kin and increment military spending or correspondingly any promulgation utilized by any legislature to undermine majority rules system. Likewise, Simon acknowledges there is no monster and says “perhaps it's solitary us” (Golding 155). This shows how Simon understands the "murkiness of man's heart" influences every one of us.
Throughout the novel, Ralph does many things that represents his leadership over having a civilized society. One of the most astonishing approaches he takes is when all the boys build the shelters. As the elected leader, Ralph is shown to be altruistic as he quickly thinks of the groups safety before his. Ralph knows to maintain civilization, and overcome their fear, they would have to have something they can feel safe in and call it home. This is seen when Ralph gave the feeling of hope to the boys, when he talks about the queen's maps. It gave the assembly of boys a sense of “safety by his words” and the “respect towards him” (Golding 29). Bestowing even more legitimate power to Ralph. Without the feeling of hope that Ralph gave to the boys, the island would have formed in utter chaos; Furthermore, building the shelters didn’t just provide safety, but it also created the bond with each other; and that is teamwork. It’s where everybody felt the need to participate, showing us that leadership and order is needed to maintain a civilized society; Therefore, Ralph's authority over his legitimate p
ower is what kept the island civilized and secure from the start.
Regardless of Ralph's altruism and positive expectations, he encounters many obstacles at a young age through respectfulness, which uncover his inborn crude nature. Although Ralph is imperfect like the rest of humankind, he is depicted as a moderately empathetic leader, who is a defender of civilization and wishes to build up an organized, agreeable life on the island where a great possibilities of the boys being rescued is present.