Civilization Vs Savagery In Lord Of The Flies Essay

Conflict occurs in the novel when Jack meaningly disobeys Ralph on a multitude of occasions. These times include the signal fire, hunting, building shelters, and the murder of Simon and Piggy, both of which are Ralph’s friends. The first reason I think the boys’

In the book, Lord of the Flies, William Golding used each character appears as a personified aspect of humanity. Ralph, arguably the protagonist, primarily represents civilization. His opposite or rival, through the book and through what he represents, is Jack. Savagery is what came before civilization, as evidenced by human history, and Jack in the end succeeded in destroying it. Both characters were able to gain a following, but the way Ralph achieved this was extremely different from Jack. Ralph’s power struggle with Jack represents the difference of how civilizations control and how tyrants control.

He becomes one of the prominent leadership figures and his interest in establishing a society aligns with Ralph’s, the first elected leader, but he shows a propensity for aggressive behavior by yelling that it would "serve [them] right if something did get [them], you useless lot of cry-babies!" (Golding 64). Choosing to attack the young boys for their fears plays into Jack’s fanaticism about his nearly-embraced island life. Becoming defensive about what he is doing for the group, he attacks the same people he attempts to govern. Later, the ideological differences between Jack and Ralph prove too great, and Jack sets fire to the island in his bid to kill him, “smoke...seeping through the branches in white and yellow wisps, the patch of blue sky overhead turned to the color of a storm cloud” (152).

First of all, in Lord of the Flies, William Golding demonstrates selfishness from the theme of power. Power is one of the factors that can make people express their selfishness. In Lord of the Flies of William Golding, boys decide to elect their leader who will earn the power to control the group of boys. At the beginning of the story, Ralph is chosen to be the leader of the boys, while Jack is appointed to be the leader of the hunter. Jack and his hunters think that they are the special group of boys because they have the most significant duty.

Later on in the book Jack starts to question Ralph's leadership. So Jack decides to go off and make a new tribe. Jack ends up recruiting a lot of Ralph's members. Then Jack's tribe steals from Ralph and ends up killing two of Ralph's members.

William Golding’s Lord of the Flies shows a story that covers a group of young boys who have crash-landed on a deserted island. One of the older boys, Ralph, is voted as chief of their group. Piggy is Ralph’s close advisor and a keeper of wisdom in the group. Jack Merridew is the leader of the hunters who were once a choir group. Throughout their troubles finding food and keeping a signal fire going for rescue, the boys have a civil war of sorts when Jack and his group of hunters split off from Ralph’s group.

Frequently, Jack attempts to turn the boys against Ralph, only caring for his own desires. For example, “He’s not a hunter. He’d never have got us meat. He isn’t a prefect and we don’t know anything about him. He just gives orders and expects people to obey him for nothing.

The first way is that because Jack didn’t accept the children for who they were, there was friction between him and the rest of the boys. In the first chapter, an attempt at civilization was made. Jack states that he himself should be elected chief, but he is ignored by the group of young castaways. Another boy from the back of the pack shouts that they should hold a vote, which, of course, everyone except Jack agrees to. The children elect Ralph as leader because of his welcoming and laid back character.

Ralph usually sided with Piggy, mainly because Piggy thought logically and Jack thought about only the present and never about the future. Jack never brings up his feelings about this except to use it against Ralph during an argument, “That’s right---Go ahead and favor Piggy like you always do---” (91). Ralph earlier realized not even he knew how “a link between him and Jack had been snapped and fastened elsewhere” (73). Eventually Jack becomes the chief of the savages.

Originally it goes smoothly but over time it starts to crumble and collapse. Arguments and fights occur more frequently and eventually Jack decides that “I’m not going to be part of Ralph’s lot-” (Golding,140) This quote shows how Ralph tries to be civilized but over time the more freedom the boys have endured, the quicker their version of civilization crashes. Jack and Ralph both want different things but their ideas clash. Like how in the real world we have different political parties with different beliefs behind them.

Like the others, JACK has lost his connections to reasoning and reality in exchange for power through extortion and fear. Ralph and JACK’s confrontation, essentially, sets the stage for the competition between Ralph’s path of civility and order versus JACK’s path of evil and demagoguery. When JACK wins the battle against Ralph, he immediately utilizes the BOYS’ fears of the BEAST in order to bolster his power. Within the process of conformity and deindividuation, the BOYS, desensitized, do not question JACK’s power while he commits acts like “beat[ing] Wilfred” (159) for no reason. Golding specifically denounces JACK’s actions and portrays him like an animal.

Despite Jack and the other boys' recent inhumane nature, Ralph still considers joining forces with them because he is still responsible for them, and his focus is still on getting everyone rescued. This reasoning is crucial for leaders to be successful;

In the book The Lord of the Flies we can see that many conflicts happen while the kids are in the island, most of these conflicts are struggled to be solved. The main conflict and the one that I 'm going to be talking about is the conflict between Ralph and Jack, were both boys compete for power. Ralph is more civilized and tries to make a fire and build tents while Jack is more of a savage who uses violence and wants to hunt all the time. Its is easy to see that in this literary piece the author uses many conflicts to make the reader visualize wants happening in the island. Ralph is voted by the boys to be the leader of the group, in the book he represents leadership, civilization and order.

Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding, is a novel that tells the story of a plane full of English schoolboys, evacuating the ongoing war, crashing near an island, leaving them marooned. With there being no adults or supervision the boys are left to fend and survive on their own. A boy by the name of Ralph is picked as their chief and he organizes fire and shelter. Another boy by the name of Jack, who is leader of the choir boys that were on the plane takes that group hunting. Over the during of the novel, the hunters become savage especially under the influence of jack.

Throughout the book we witness the power struggle between Jack and Ralph, we watch as Jack undermines Ralph's authority and gains control of the boys on the island. Jack's leadership is powerful, he understands how to coerce others into following him and is exceptional at controlling his crowd. Take for example him leading the crowd of hunters, “Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood” (Golding 56).