Ralph's Manipulation In Lord Of The Flies

In literature symbolism plays a significant role. Symbolism basically relates to the symbols that points towards specific ideas not in a literal sense but by use of multiple symbols. It really gives the deeper stratum of meaning to a work of literature.Symbolic meaning is employed to give something totally different meaning which is much more deeper and you can say the idea becomes implied to some extent . In novels symbolism highlights the deeper implications of the situations or characters and their effects. William Golding has used several symbols in his novel “Lord of the Flies”.

1. But a sign came down from the world of grown-ups . . . (95)

Ralph’s vision is more logical unlike Jack’s vision. For example, when Ralph was yelling at Jack he states “I was talking about smoke! Don’t you want to be rescue? All you can talk about is pig, pig, pig!”(55).Evidently this is an example of Ralph’s vision to get off the island. Ralph tells Jack that he doesn’t have the conch. Ralph affirms “Hasn’t anyone got any sense? We’ve got to re-light that fire you never thought of that Jack, did you? (111). this is an illustration of Ralph’s vision of getting of the island by heavily prioritizing the signal fire, Also this illustrate Ralph’s Authoritative style of leadership. To reiterate, Ralph’s vision is more valid that Jack’s vision

William Golding’s Lord of the Flies is an influential novel which reveals the darkness of mankind and evil inside of all humans. Lord of the Flies is set in the early 20th century, during a time when Europe is under attack and surrounded by war. For this reason, a plane carrying a group of British schoolboys is flown away from the chaos in hopes of bringing the boys to safety. Suddenly, the airliner is mistaken for a military aircraft and taken down. After all of the pandemonium the boys soon realize that they are the only survivors. Now stranded on an unknown island, the boys must govern themselves. Soon the burning desire for power overthrows their civilized approach of leadership as a deciding factor tears the boys apart. Golding effectively uses the symbolism of the conch, the beast, and painted faces to reinforce the theme of how difficult situations reveal the demons inside of everyone. Together these symbols are applied in order to lead the reader to the suspenseful end.

After Ralph ran away, he was alone with no one to help him while he was injured. Ralph doesn’t feel safe anywhere since they group of savage boys could be anywhere to attack Ralph. After they group of boys decided to join Jack in his tribe, the group of boys turned into savages. Ralph is worried that everyone one will die on the island since Jack doesn’t know how to be a chief. Ralph can’t do anything anymore since he is no longer the chief and because everyone is turned against him. No one is safe anymore on the island since most of the boys had turned savage and is willing to kill if Jack orders them too.

A person’s true colors are seen when they come across times of great challenges and conflict, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” ~Martin Luther King. This quote best fits the plots of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. In Hamlet, Prince Hamlet struggles to keep himself sane while acting insane to avenge his father murder. In the Lord of the Flies, Ralph and Piggy try to keep peace and order on the island while jack resorts to complete savagery. The Characters in both novels struggle and show their true nature when they are put through hardships.

Upon arriving, Ralph’s primary ambition is to get off the island safely, considering the expected immaturity in reaction to the boys’ sudden loss of authority. He manages to maintain this intention regardless of his job or worth in society among the boys. As evil challenges his capability to retain this quality by the irony of the fire, breaking of the conch, and overall destruction of civilization, demonstrates his level of mental strength considering all of the odds against his favor. Having the, “voice of someone who [knows their] own mind,” and instituting an independent attitude towards his goal, Ralph displays competence and trust in his capabilities rather than depending on that of others. As displayed in his immediate need for order, Ralph establishes a plan to get off of the island. When his leadership is overruled, it is natural for him to continue in his ambition to survive, proving his maintained integrity as a character. His use of the conch allows for him to fulfill his need for organization, but its failure to function as a representation of equal power suggests Ralph’s inability to lead. His loss of power is not seen in his actions following his loss, sensing that leadership is not a necessity, rather independence is what leads him to his success. In effect by the evolution of barbarism and shameful

Ralph never acknowledges that Piggy was the first to point out the conch shell and explained to Ralph what it was. Ralph, instead of giving credit to Piggy for the idea of the conch shell, blows through the conch and then takes charge. Ralph begins giving orders and proceeds to take on the role of chief. Ralph’s authority was made possible because “there was a stillness about Ralph as he sat that marked him out: there was his size, and attractive appearance; and most obscurely, yet most powerfully, there was the conch.” (22). The conch shell plays a big part in Ralph’s authority and order. His leadership skills, along with the conch by his side, is what made the other kids on the island listen and idolize him. Golding glorifies the power of Ralph and his conch shell in order to represent control, which is important to the ongoing order and regulation of the boys throughout their time on the island. Without the shell, there would be no order among the lives of the boys on the uninhabited island. In addition to Ralph promoting the power of the conch, Jack also agrees and emphasizes that in order to run a society, there must be a strong and rational set of rules that needs to be followed. When the boys made a fire with Piggy’s specs,

At first glance, Ralph is a central character who starts and completes William Golding novel The Lord of the Flies. From the onset of the novel, he is described as a “fair boy” with an “attractive appearance” (p7, 29). The author compares his stature as that of a boxer, “as far as width and heaviness of shoulders went, but there was a mildness about his mouth and eyes that proclaimed no devil” (p11). He has the physique and presence of a typical leader – strong but with a kind heart that makes him trustworthy. He is also described as being in an intermediate state, who has “lost prominent tummy of childhood and not yet old enough for adolescence” (p11). From this, the readers can infer that Ralph is still just another innocent boy not ready to realize the malicious evils of mankind.

The character in the novel Lord of the Flies that represents the Id, is Jack. In the Psychoanalytic lens, the Id is defined as the basic desire, or the fundamental root of what each person strives for. Expressing several characteristics of the Id, Jack continually leads the reader to infer Jack is the Id. Additionally, Jack has an enormous desire for control and leadership. As well as a difficult time keeping his desire, “in the background.” Thus, often interfering with Ralph’s leadership and views. 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. All this talk—” (Golding 126). Jack shows an example of his furor demeanor and his irate temper. A second reason to support the idea is that Jack portrays his desires against Ralph. The id of Lord of the Flies does not view the world

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.

Golding presents the protagonist, Ralph, who is decently intelligent and completely civilized, to demonstrate how once individuals are pulled away from civilization, the dark forces within them will arise and change how they are for the time being. 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 waved again for silence. ‘Jack’s in charge of the choir. They can be – what do you want them to be?’ ‘Hunters.’ Jack and Ralph smiled at each other with shy liking. The rest began to talk eagerly.” He does this after taking into account the needs and desires of the others, like a true leader. Although Ralph was

“we’ve got to decide about being rescued” There was a buzz. One of the small boys, Henry, Said that he wanted to go home… He lifted the conch. “Seems to me we ought to have a chief to decide things” (22). After Ralph had blew the conch for all on the island to hear, it brought the whole group together for the first time. Ralph made the suggestion of needing a leader for the time being, and what exactly they needed to be able to survive. As Ralph showed characteristics of a great leader, although he lacks the ability to actually lead the group of rambunctious boys. Ralph does not constantly demand for the other boys respect and to see if orders were followed through, instead he whines and complains to the boys that they are not doing all what they are told, and are not doing them right. “all at once, Robert was screaming and struggling with the strength of frenzy. Jack had him by the hair and was brandishing his knife. Behind him was Roger, fighting to get close. The chant rose ritually, as at the last moment of a dance or a hunt. “Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in!” Ralph too was fighting to get near, to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh. The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering”(114). Through the book Ralph stays civilly orientated mostly throughout the book, chapter 7 is when Ralph finally snaps. When he slowly, without really knowing, starts to contribute to the wild ways of the other boys in order to survive. 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

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. While many of the boys play and have fun he is worrying about building tents for shelter and keeping the fire burning to produce smoke. Ralph also uses the conch that represents law and order in which the person that holds the conch has the right to speak. His main wish is to be rescued and go home, so he tries to get the boys to work in a civilized way that would

Power and manipulation takes over people’s minds and turns us into egotistical people without even knowing and the sense of having control or authority can brainwash us into the people who we despise. William Golding fabricates his ideas around the time period 1933 after he received his English degree where he mostly wrote poems. Golding’s world consists of writing novels, pulling ideas from the real world into his own creative words on paper, this is where he developed his most famous book, Lord of the Flies, throughout 1954. The perspective of Lord of the Flies is through the eyes of the Second World War and since he was in this war, his point of view on violence changed and gave him a different outlook on society. In the Lord of the Flies