Struggle For Power In Lord Of The Flies Essay

With absolute power comes absolute corruption, but with limited power comes limited corruption. In the novel Lord of the Flies, the arbitrary need for a leader brings forward strife and competition between characters that desire power. Ralph with his old democratic leadership style clashes with Jack’s unethical style to rule. In the book Lord of the Flies, we learn that eagerness for power is strong enough to break the boys’ fragile civilization, which is demonstrated by the characters Ralph, Piggy and Jack.

Since the beginning of the book Ralph and Jack were having some tension over who became leader, but later Jack took it way too far. While Jack was busy going insane Ralph was still holding on to sanity. Ralph’s motivations at first were his ideas of getting rescued by his dad. Later he realized no one knew that they were

“We saw-” “-the beast-”. In the Lord of the Flies by William Golding, there were a group of English Schoolboys. They roamed around on a deserted island, a war was going on in the near future. There are many possible things a “beast” can be. The definition of a “beast” evolves throughout the story.

The environment, specifically the power within proves stronger than the character traits of those involved. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, there is a complete and very sudden elimination of civilization and structure within the group of boys. This is significant because of their age and the lack of ability to be independent that has not developed enough to the extent that they have the capability to survive on a deserted island together without any adults. For instance, Ralph exclaims “No grownups!” (Golding 8).

He formed his own tribe, which planned to hunt down Ralph’s group. Eventually, that dispute for leadership in the beginning led to Piggy’s life being lost. The second way that this book relates to the quote is that Ralph was thought of highly because of his leadership capabilities and his acceptance towards others. In the first chapter, Ralph is promptly elected

Most of his rebellion, though, comes from his jealousy of power--power that Ralph kept pointing out in his speech: “ ‘Now I say this and make it a rule, because I’m chief’ … ‘All this I meant to say. Now I’ve said it. You voted me for chief. Now you do what I say’ ” (Golding 81).

This shows that he can’t take on the role of being a good, strong leader. Towards the end Jack also stole Piggy’s glasses which symbolize power which Ralph lost, “‘You could have had fire whenever you wanted. But you didn’t. You came sneaking up like a thief and stole Piggy’s glasses’!” (Golding, 1954, p. 176).

Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in! (Golding 114).

There are millions of books to choose from in the world today, some are about eternal love others about adventurous teenagers living in a dystopia. Oddly enough a very smart naval officer in the war wrote a book about humanity 's true ways and how we genuinely are and who we can become. Lord of the Flies is the book that was popular in its day and still is. Its full off loose ends, foreshadowing and pure evil. But William Golding keeps us all guessing till the shocking 12th chapter when we learn the true meaning of become a savage and what we can truly develop into.

In Lord of the Flies, William Golding shows the progression of absolute power, and how ambition can take over one's mind. Stranded on an island after their plane crashed, the boys create their own democracy with one absolute ruler, just like many other governments throughout history. The boys voted Ralph as their ruler, but Jack slowly starts to take some of Ralph’s power, and eventually usurps him as their chief. Lord of the Flies suggests that absolute power is corrupt, and that humans are overly ambitious in wanting to take power from the person who has the most of it. Just like any large group of people, the boys decide that they “ought to have a chief to decide things” (Golding 22).

One boy, Ralph was unwillingly thrust into power because of his attractiveness and easy-going personality, while a power hungry, cunning boy named Jack strives to rule them all. Power is an important concept in this novel as it causes most events to take place, such as it does in the world we live in. It causes wars, arguments, laws, and revolutions, but when the right

“Power is dangerous. It attracts the worst and corrupts the best.” When the young boys first gathered after the crash, they were civil, mostly well behaved boys until the need for power took advantage of them. Two crucial symbols from the novel are the sow’s head and the conch shell. Each of these symbols represent power however, their powers have different meanings.

Being authoritative and clever when situated in a life and death scenario is the characteristics an effective leader must possess. However, if we were to compare the differences in Jack’s and Ralph’s rule, it’ll be two completely distinct approaches. First of all, Ralph governs the group with a set of laws, such as the rule to maintain a constant fire signal. However, when people oppose Ralph, he doesn’t seem to punish them, but rather he does nothing. During the beastie assembly, after the outbreak of the crowd’s disobedience, Piggy told Ralph to blow the conch, but in response, he said, “ If I blow the conch and they don’t come back; then we’ve had it…”(pg92).

Corruption’s Rise to Power Combined Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler killed 54 million people. This begs the question, why do people who are clearly corrupted and even murderous followed by many? William Golding in his novel The Lord of the Flies attempts to answer that question through his portrayal of the character, Jack. In the novel, a group of boys get stranded on an island and attempt to create a proper government.

He deciphers a way to tell the readers that as human beings, there are just as many ways to lose power as there are to gain it. Piggy is the main source of this information, and through his past, and the ways he acts, he somehow manages to show the readers the significance of how, through our personalities and things we can’t help, we lose so much power. Many books and novels in this world focus on the things that help us gain power and leadership, but the fact that Golding did the opposite, makes this book stand out more than the others. For the boys on the island, power is a big struggle; there are always fights over who gets to speak and who gets to be in charge and make all of the major decision. Through these fights and through these arguments, William Golding shows that power is a hard thing to grasp and it is something that is even harder to maintain.