The Need for Social Order, Demonstrated in Lord of the Flies
The story, Lord of the Flies, was created by William Golding in an attempt to create a microcosm of the world in which he can illustrate his beliefs about mankind. Golding exhibits many of his beliefs through the events and themes of the story. One in particular stands out above the rest, man’s need for social order .Golding shows the readers that man needs social order through the physical events of the story where social order is upkept and eventually destroyed, and also through the symbolic events of the story.
In the first chapter of Lord of the Flies, Ralph calls together all of the boys using the conch for the first time. Their first rule of action is to elect a leader because
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The conch represents order on the island, as it is what brings the group together throughout the majority. So it would be logical to say that the breaking of the conch (181) shows how all social order is lost, which is why the boys go on to kill Piggy and try to kill Ralph without guilt or shame. The boys need this catalyst to bring them together as a civilization with social order .Ralph’s character as a whole is similar in this regard. Ralph represents order on the island because he is the main person trying to uphold it, he constantly tries to make the civilized and orderly decisions for the group. Therefore, it could be stated that Ralph’s loss of control over the boys (148-154) represents how the group loses social order as well. The boys need social order to guide them to make the right and civilized decisions. Lastly, the navy sailor that arrives to rescue the boys at the very end of the story. The arrival of this sailor represents the return of social order and civilization on the island. This is implied by Golding from the reactions of the boys, they cry and sob due to the sudden realization that they’ve all been committing horrible acts. All of these symbolisms in the story show how Golding is trying to imply that man needs social order to truly feel the weight of his/her
William Golding communicates the idea through Ralph that all the order and goodness of the island is gone when the Conch breaks and how the rest of the boys turned into savages. Golding shows in the novel that, “Samneric were savages like the rest; Piggy was dead, and the conch smashed to powder.” This quote it demonstrates how the other boys took everything from Ralph who was the only person still somewhat civilized. The rest of the boys just follow and let the evil inside consume them. The other boys broke the conch to show how they turned on the only person not evil. The conch broke because they forgot how authority works and the do not listen to anybody and more. Samneric turned to evil also and the only person that wasn’t changed was
The book Lord of the Flies was William Golding’s first novel he had published, and also his one that is the most well known. It follows the story of a group of British schoolboys whose plane, supposedly carrying them somewhere safe to live during the vaguely mentioned war going on, crashes on the shore of a deserted island. They try to attempt to cope with their situation and govern themselves while they wait to be rescued, but they instead regress to primal instincts and the manner and mentality of humanity’s earliest societies.
Golding uses the conch shell, which Ralph and Piggy find, to demonstrate a source of leadership and order within the civilization. As the conch becomes a source of authority and assembly, it “becomes no less than the basic challenge to the Tribe to choose between democracy and anarchy, civilization and savagery” (Gregor). As order decreases within the civilization the boys are forced to choose between Ralph, who symbolizes order, and Jack, who symbolizes savagery and chaos. The boys quickly join forces with Jack, which is their first step of their decline into savagery. One of their final falls into savagery was when Roger rolled the boulder into Piggy and “the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist” (Golding 181). By the conch breaking, order on the island was completely gone and the physical violence began to increase as chaos started to occur. In Kathleen Woodward’s article, “On Aggression: William Golding’s Lord of the Flies,” Woodward says that “children require strict supervision and constant discipline, for without these, they pose a serious threat to the adult world” (Woodward). As the rules for the adult world were made to keep order so were the rules and tasks that Ralph had assigned. Rules are cru...
The need for social order is a very common theme throughout The Lord of the Flies. Over the course of the novel the reader witnesses the slow collapse of all forms of order, government, and civilization on the island. The results of this collapse are astounding. Golding writes, “As they watched, a flash of fire appeared at the root of one wisp, and then the smoke thickened. Small flames stirred at the trunk of a tree and crawled away through leaves and brushwood, dividing and increasing… Beneath the capering boys a quarter of a mile square of forest was savage with smoke and flame” (Golding 44). This quote marks the first point when the boy’s Civilization begins to collapse. If the boys had person overlook the building
At the beginning of Lord of the Flies, the boys create a democratic government. As the story progresses, the initial democracy on the island is ignored, and a dictatorship rises in its place. This dictatorship fails to keep the boys in order. The author, William Golding, shows that without the institution of a strong government and set of rules people will become impulsive and seek instant gratification. In the absence of order, people tend not to become disciplined of their own accord, but rather dissolve into destructive chaos.
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding is tale of a group of young boys who become stranded on a deserted island after their plane crashes. Intertwined in this classic novel are many themes, most that relate to the inherent evil that exists in all human beings and the malicious nature of mankind. In The Lord of the Flies, Golding shows the boys' gradual transformation from being civilized, well-mannered people to savage, ritualistic beasts.
Under Jack's rule, the boys become uncivilized savages. They have no discipline. Ralph, however, keeps the boys under order through the meetings which he holds. At these meetings a sense of order is instilled because the boys have to wait until they hold the conch to speak. When Ralph says, "I'll give the conch to the next person to speak. He can hold it when he's speaking." (Golding 36) he enforces his role of leader by making rules and gives the boys the stability of an authority figure, mainly himself. By doing this he wins the boys respect and confidence in his leadership abilities. Ralph uses his authority to try to improve the boys' society. By building shelters he demonstrates his knowledge of the boys' needs. When he says to Jack, "They talk and scream. The littluns.
One of the main themes in William Golding's 1954 novel Lord of the Flies is that without civilization, there is no law and order. The expression of Golding's unorthodox and complex views are embodied in the many varied characters in the novel. One of Golding's unorthodox views is that only one aspect of the modern world keeps people from reverting back to savagery and that is society. Golding shows the extreme situations of what could possibly happen in a society composed of people taken from a structured society then put into a structureless society in the blink of an eye. First there is a need for order until the people on the island realize that there are no rules to dictate their lives and take Daveers into their own hands. Golding is also a master of contrasting characterization. This can be seen in the conflicts between the characters of Jack, the savage; Simon, the savior; and Piggy, the one with all the ideas.
The novel “Lord of the Flies” was written by William Golding to demonstrate the problems of society and the sinful nature of man.
In the beginning of the book the boys tried to be civil, live by rules, be peaceful to one another and follow moral commands. The conch’s literal role in the novel was to summon meetings, however there was a much deeper meaning to it. The conch represented rules, democracy and civilization and when it got crushed it was clear that all these signs had long vanished and that the boys had long lost their innocence and humanity for they were now savages. The conch was used throughout the book to establish order and all respected its authority for only the ones who held the conch spoke during meetings. We can see from the very beginning that the conch set order, by blowing in to the conch Ralph and Piggy were able to reunite all the survivors, this straight away showed the reader how the conch held some sort of authority that throughout the book became clearer. The entire first chapter--The Sound of the Shell--is devoted to the conch, and its symboli...
Without these two key factors, society fails and humans may revert back to natural tendencies, forgetting the civilized manner in which they were raised. Ralph finds this conch shell in the very beginning of the novel. It helps him to become the leader of the group and becomes vital to keeping order in the society. “If I blow the conch and they don’t come back; then we’ve had it. We shan’t keep the fire going. We’ll be like animals. We’ll never be rescued” (Golding 93). Here, Ralph is relying on the conch as a way to keep order in their society. It shows how Ralph perceives the conch, and how it relates to the maintenance of a signal fire, which connects him to civilization. Ralph becomes scared for the others like Jack and Roger, because he senses their descent into evil. Death and destruction also come to light with the killing of Piggy by Roger and the conch shell’s destruction. “The rock struck Piggy a glancing below from chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist” (Golding 209). Once the conch becomes destroyed, so does order on the island. Piggy’s death symbolizes the end of civilization among the boys. (1 more
William Golding’s Lord of the Flies shows man’s inhumanity to man. This novel shows readers good vs. evil through children. It uses their way of coping with being stranded on an island to show us how corrupt humans really are.
Another thing that was symbolized in the book is the conch shell. The conch is what Ralph blew into to get the boys to come together. At first they established rules, one of them being the person holding the conch is the only person who can speak. The conch symbolizes order among the boys. As time past the boys acted more and more uncivil, and they didn't pay much attention to the conch. At this point, order stated to disintegrate. Towards the end of the novel, when the conch was shattered, all civilization of the boys shattered along with it. There was complete chaos on the island.
When the boys first arrive on the island, they are civilized, and have authority and order, but they eventually devolve into savagery and disregard the authority as their inner beast comes out. Authority and order is important in any civilized society. There must be some rules as well as someone who makes the rules and enforces them, or else it would be chaotic, and the inner evil in people would eventually come out without anything to regulate everyone. In the beginning, there is authority and rules to follow, and they are civilized. Ralph is elected as the leader because “there [is] a stillness about [him]…that mark[s] him out; there [is] his size and attractive appearance; and most obscurely, yet most powerfully, there [is] the conch” (Golding 19). Because he blows the conch, he is seen as a good leader to all the other boys. The conch eventually becomes a symbol of authority and order for the boys. It is used as a way to call meetings, and at those meetings, the person holding the conch gets to talk. All the boys respect Ralph as their leader and respect the conch and the rules of the conch. At this point there is some order and Ralph has
In the book Lord of the flies the theme “Living together in society” is shown throughout the book in multiple places. Early in the book all the boys gathered together on the beach and they elect a leader. Everyone decided between two older boys named Ralph and Jack. Ralph was elected chief, but he had to constantly had to reassure his leadership throughout the book. In one instance, when nobody was listening to him Jack stated “I am the chief, I was chosen!”(Golding 90). It was a good idea to elect a chief that created rules, but Ralph failed to create consequences for going against the rules he created. With nobody following the rules The other boy Jack went against him and started his own “tribe”, doing so he turned all the boys against Ralph