Lord of the Flies Ideal Government
What would an ideal government look like for a group of boys stranded on an island? In “Lord of the Flies” a plane crashes on an island stranding a group of young boys. They have no adult supervision, so they try to create a civilization themselves. They use a conch to symbolize power and use glasses to start a fire. This civilization does not work, for they can do anything they want and get away with it. The government falls apart in “Lord of the Flies” due to the lack of the boys’ effort to use founding ideals, create citizens’ rights, and establish a formal government.
The first aspect to a working government is the founding ideals. Tranquility is the most important ideal because without a peaceful country,
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Ralph jumps into a bush to get away from Jack who is hunting him. Golding states,”The pointed end of a stick appeared. In panic, Ralph thrust his own stick through the crack and struck with all his might” (Golding 194). Ralph uses a stick to protect himself against Jack and his “army”. The boys on the island are good at defense, but they are not using it the right way. When the boys kill Simon because they think he is the beast, they are protecting themselves. They should look who the person is before they attack them. The Preamble declares,”...provide for the common defense…” (U.S. Constitution). In other words everyone needs protection, but they must use it for the right purpose. The boys receive weapons, but only if they can prove they are using them for the right reason. Everyone needs some kind of protection to survive in a world with many …show more content…
Since Ralph is in charge, he lets Jack choose what he wants to lead on the island. Although, Ralph chooses the wrong person to lead hunting. Jack takes all of the power into his own hands. “Communism is supposed to mean we’re all in this together” (John). This is something that the boys on the island do not understand. They turn against one another, which is not the smartest idea. If the boys work together, they can find a way off the island and have a better chance of survival. With this economy, the best type of government has to have officials that serve for a certain period of time.
Democratic is the government that would work best on the island. Anarchy is the type of government that the boys establish on the island. This does not work for the boys are missing the necessary stability that they need. Jack said that they need to decide about being rescued. Everyone starts talking at once. The boys decide to elect a chief to establish rules, so they have a vote and elect Ralph chief (Golding 22). This shows that the boys start this type of government on the island, but it goes downhill when Jack takes over without being elected. The boys need to hold a proper election and follow the rules the chief creates. John Adams states, “No other government in the world has changed its deficits to a surplus as has the United States under the present administration” (Adams). This means that the ideal government would succeed on the island because if the government
The Lord of the Flies is one big allegory, the way the boys are formed on the island is similar to different governments our world has had before, and currently have. The type of government that the island has, changed throughout the book. In the beginning the government is a democracy, but towards the end it changes to a dictatorship. This dictatorship is run by Jack who gathers followers when he promises pig meat, and fun. This idea is shown throughout the book, in many places, through objects, and actions.
Society The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding is about a group of boys that were in a plane crash in the 1940’s during a nuclear War. The plane is shot down and lands on a tropical island. Some boys try to function as a whole group, but see obstacles as time goes on. The novel is about civilization and social order.
Upon the arrival of the boys to the island Jack immediately found himself in the center of a power struggle. Although the conflict was brief, there was still a very obvious confrontation between Jack and Ralph. Once the boys had assembled themselves there was an election to see who was to be chief. Despite the fact that Ralph was voted leader, the desire to be in command never left Jack. Jack already had some leadership skills, being head choirboy at his old school, and he continuously challenged Ralph. The greatest source of conflict between Jack and Ralph was the debate over the necessity of maintaining a fire. Ralph felt that it was necessary to keep it burning at all times while Jack believed that hunting pigs and getting meat was much more essential.
In the book, Lord of the Flies, William Golding connects a disaster to a bunch of little English kids with the government and civics. There are at least five different ways William Golding connects the civics and the boys that were stranded on the island. Some of the events are reflected directly from our government. The Constitutional principles tie into the book a lot by the popular sovereignty, limiting powers, sharing powers, separation of powers, and protecting against tyranny. There are many different elements of the government which includes voting, symbol of government authority, and committees which are of the most important.
This democratic society does not last very long as the children (especially Jack) have a lack of respect for the conch and the rules. We can see this when Jack decides, “We don’t need the conch anymore, we know who should say things.” As the conch represents democracy, we can see that civilisation on the island is breaking up and savagery is starting to take over. We can also see a break up in society when Jack says, “Bollocks to the rules!” Here we can see that Jack contradicts himself while managing to diminish the assembly and the power of the conch.
The desire to have power on the island creates the corruption of power within all who crave it, leading to their transformation to become evil human beings. In the novel, the boys arrive on an island without any guidance and the lack of civilization which makes it impossible for them to survive for a long time. To ensure the boy's safety and survival, the boys have to choose a chief who can keep order within the boys. Jack, the strongest character in the novel, believes that he is the most eligible to be the chief because he is the “chapter chorister and head boy”(34) of the choir boys. Jack already has power and he wants to become even powerful to point that he can control all the boys on the island. However, when voting for the chief, the
There is an unknown perfect science to being a leader. Some say that this is something you can attain over time with training or guidance, and others say it's a talent you must be born with. In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, one of the main characters Ralph, is elected the leader. The reason he is elected the leader isn't boldly laid out for the reader, but what is noticed, is that Ralph carries the true essence of a leader. Ralph can be seen as a great leader by the way he has everyone's best interest in mind, by the way he sets certain rules to maintain a civil society, and how he calls assemblies to address the issues that he has become most concerned with.
Absence of Rule in William Golding's Lord of the Flies Works Cited Missing In today's society, rules control peoples' everyday lives. In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the result of a society without rules and regulations is demonstrated throughout the novel. The boys of the novel are abandoned on an island without adults and only their own teamwork and knowledge to keep them alive.
Without government, society degenerates and people lose their capacity for moral behaviour. Survivors in Haiti say that if other countries had not provided aid and restored order, there would be much more violence and everyone would only serve themselves. In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the author uses the events on the island to demonstrate that people require government to restrain their impulses. The creation of a democratic government with Ralph as chief allows the inhabitants of the island to make decisions together and take everyone’s viewpoint into consideration. Soon, however, the democracy begins to be disregarded. When Jack creates a dictatorship, he fails to restrain the impulsive behaviour of the boys, which demonstrates the superiority of Ralph’s government.
When placed on a deserted island, a group of strangers banded together to try to survive. They decided on a leader, problem-solved, fought off a beast, and formed their own society, even if it was somewhat flawed. This was the situation in the famous TV show, Lost. The Lord of the Flies and Lost are similar in these many different ways, with the exception that the show featured a tribe of adults instead of children. That just proves how difficult it is to maintain order in a society; even the adults struggled with keeping it peaceful and civilized. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding presents a broken society of savage boys fighting one another to suggest that man’s capacity for evil is brought out by the need for power and control.
In Lord of the Flies, when the boys first arrived on the island, the first thing they did was create order under leadership. Ralph immediately tried to find other boys and congregate them together. Once he found Piggy, he used a conch shell to bring the rest of the boys together. After this, they chose a leader. These boys were so desperate for organization in their situation that their survival instincts made it the first thing they accomplished as a
The political system that they had on the island was corrupt. It wasn't the system but the individuals who were responsible for corruption in society. At first they had a leader, Ralph. He made rules, held meetings and tried to keep things in order. Soon Ralph's rules are being ignored and questioned. Jack was too concerned with hunting, to worry about the other things that can keep them alive, like the signal fire that would get them rescued, Madness came into his eyes. "I thought I might kill." "But you haven't yet (51)." Soon, Jack decides he's had enough of Ralph, "I'm not going to be part of Ralph's lot. I'm going by myself. Anyone who wants to hunt when I do can come (127)." He lures the other boys away and makes a tribe. Ralph's community deteriorates. Jack is responsible for the corruption of their society.
Throughout the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, many different conflicting societies develop. These groups of young English schoolboys have conflicts between them for many different reasons. Some of them are so spread apart in age that their beliefs and actions are very different. Other groups are conflicting because they have different opinions about who the leader of the entire group should be. The groups also argue about what their priorities should be while trapped on the island. These conflicts continue to grow until the very end, when one group finally gains supremacy.
As the story opens, the boys are stranded on the island without any type of authority and must fend for themselves. A meeting is held and the chief, Ralph, is quickly named. A reader at once can notice there is already a power struggle between Jack and Ralph but this is overlooked when Jack says rational and sensible remarks about what should be done. The stability of civilization is still apparent when Jack says, “I agree with Ralph. We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we’re not savages. We’re English, and the English are best at everything. So we’ve got to do the right things,” (Golding 42). The boys are still influenced by the restraints they learned from a controlled society. Joseph Conrad asserts that “there exists a certain ‘darkness of man’s heart’ that is suppressed by the light of civilization” (Introduction to Lord of the Flies 2). “Although Golding suggests the harmony of an ideal society, he does not indicate any faith in its creation” (Kennard 234). The more meetings that are held the more futile they become. “ ’We have lots of assemblies. Everybody enjoys speaking and being together. We decide things. But they don’t get done,’ ” (Golding 79). The boys realize that there are no punishments for what they do and disregard their priorities. “The idea that the absence of the restraints of civilization can lead to a subversion towards savagery” (Introduction to Lord of the Flies 2). The makeshift society that the boys have created is already starting to weaken.
As a result of having two groups within the whole, a leader must emerge in order to keep the two groups working efficiently. Since there is no adult on the island to take on the responsibility, the character’s environment once again forces them to elect a leader. The person who is elected is Ralph. He is forced to be organized and insightful on how to keep everyone alive. This is shown through him organizing a way for people to voice their opinions in his meetings. It is also shown through him suggesting that they build shelter and appointing people to take on certain parts in that task.