Democratic power can be used to control a society, as well as establish a closeness as civilians. To lose sight of this can mean the corruption of a civilization caused by the lack of order. One’s choice of independence in order to better the chances of their survival requires complete dedication and willingness to risk. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Ralph loses his democratic power due to his failure to ensure survival and protect the boys as a leader. Ralph’s failure to lead the group is due to his initial and chronic independence and inability to compete with Jack’s followers, accounted for mainly by fear. His integrity enables a growing confidence in his ability to avoid reliance on leadership power in order to survive. Ralph’s
Ralph knows that the only good chance the boys have of being rescued is that if a passing ship sees the fire. All of the other boys are still harbouring the idea that someone will eventually come and find them, which is also unrealistic. Ralph is the only boy who is not living in a fantasy world and knows what they have to do to get rescued. Another thing that makes Ralph realistic is the fact that he instills rules amongst the boys to create
In the book, Ralph says, “I’m scared. Not of the beast, that too. But nobody else understands the fire.” Ralph tries to be the leader and control the boys with survival on the island. Ralph also tries to go against Jack, most of the time, being fearless which I do
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.
In the quote above, Ralph is attempting to hide when the boys pass by him. Jack however notices him and Ralph realizes this may be the end. Jack, along with his tribe and their spears and painted faces run down Ralph through the forest even setting it on fire. In the end Ralph ends up being saved by luck, running into an officer. If it were not for the officer, Jack’s evilness would have got the best of him, and Ralph would not have survived.
He participates in the circle of dancing and yelling around the bonfire, which soon leads to the death of little Simon. He realizes the horror of what has actually happened, that ensures the reader about the little piece of social well-being that Ralph still
In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, after a plane crashes on a deserted island, a group of kids with no adult supervision on the island, the kid have to figure out how to survive and get rescued. Ralph is voted as leader of the group, because he seems like he looked the part and had good charisma. Ralph blows the conch shell to assemble all of the kids to see who survived and to discuss what to do next. At first we see that Ralph does show he can be a good leader by making a plan on how to get rescued and assigning jobs to other kids. But as the book progresses he slowly turns into a bad leader who does not have control over the kids, when he gets frustrated and cannot control the kids to do their jobs.
As it not only controls the boys, the chaos that ensues when Ralph is in charge is controlled to the point that Jack can exploit the boy’s weakness to his advantage. “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!" (Golding 178).
If he had not been apart of the dance, then his own life would have been at risk. “There are, for instance, conditions in which cruelty seems to flourish, which is different from saying that it has clear causes. What are these conditions? Chaos is one, fear is another.” (Golding, 1) When people are afraid and in a chaotic environment, they often act cruelly, and this is precisely how Ralph acts.
Ralph is a source of leadership and authority to the castaway boys on the island. Ralph processes the Conch, the only physical manifestation of authority and society on the island, this symbol is identified and given it significance by Ralph. Ralph is a lasting source of authority, and therefore the former society in which the boys lived in. Ralph’s rationality and natural leadership skills allow him to recognize the need to create a stable and peaceful society on the island that is the exact opposite of the war surrounding the eden that they inhabit. Ralph’s leadership is one based on a positive view of humans as civilized, and founded in morality, which ultimately fail:
Ralph is first introduced as the fair boy who is a natural born leader. He applies Piggy’s intelligence to think of a way to summon the other survivors on the island. Ralph follows through with Piggy’s idea and uses the conch which emits a loud sound that can be hear through the island. The sound eventually lures the group of boys towards them. His leader instincts are best portrayed when he’s able to side with Jack after offering to share his power: “The suffusion drained away from Jack’s face.
Ralph’s realization of power shift, loss of innocence, and whom he considers a friend changed. He learned the effects of jealousy and fear that lead to murder and betrayal. Most of the boys betrayed him and joined Jack, teaching Ralph the lesson of who his friends are. He learned Piggy may look different, but in the end, he had the most loyalty and reason. Jack’s envy of Ralph led to his outburst his disrespect for the boys’ right of speech and the animals’ right to live.
Piggy stops Ralph from doing something dumb that he will
By making the right choice, he would not have to live with a guilty conscience. Also, his dad told him to go to the sheriff, and if he chose not to he would be deliberately disobeying his dad. Making the right choices builds character. The second reason Ralph should have went to the sheriff is trying new things is exciting. For the first time ever, he experienced what a saloon was like
Guilt takes over Ralph’s body and he is beginning to think that maybe the boys are taking this dispute slightly too far in line with the quote, “I’m frightened. Of us” (Golding 200). Ralph is foreshadowing that something monstrous is about to happen on the island, and that maybe the boys need to reevaluate the problem and fix this before the dilemma gets out of hand. Unfortunately, that is not the case. At the end of the story, the reader can indicate that Ralph has lost his innocence by the quote, “Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of true, wise friend called Piggy” (Golding 261).