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Comparing and contrasting ralph and jack lord of the flies
The literary analysis of Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Lord of the Flies symbolism
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There are two types of people in this world, good and evil. Some people think that evil comes to us from the surrounding society, others believe it is inside us and we are born with it. William Golding in the novel Lord of the Flies believes that all people are born with evil inside which needs to be restrained by a civilized society. In the novel, there is a stark contrast between the two societies set up by Ralph and Jack. Ralph is restrained by a civilized society, yet Jack is not restrained so his evil comes out at a faster rate. This shows through the personalities and the roles of each leader, in the different qualities in the second in command, Piggy and Roger. Most of all it is noticeable in Jack’s and Ralph’s values.
Looking at the role and personality of the leaders, right off the bat it says that there are two different societies. Firstly, Ralph is more of a democratic leader. He prefers when most things are decided together, “Let’s have a vote” – says Ralph (30). He claims this when they are choosing a leader. On the other hand, Jack is more of a dictator. When Jack becomes leader, he loses his civilized self and becomes a savage. He does not use his name but instead he calls himself chief. “The chief has spoken” – says Roger, this represents that no one has the authority to contradict the chief (174). This means that no one can contradict Jack. Lastly, both leaders use the beast as a way to control the group but in different ways. Ralph uses the beast to inspire and persuade everyone to work hard in order to get rescued. In contrast, Jack uses the beast to gain control of the boy’s “But if there was a [beast] we’d hunt it and kill it”- says Jack (48).This gains most of the boy’s trust plus it reassures everybody in th...
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...This shows that the values of the two leaders, Ralph and Jack, impact a lot on the societies civilization and differ from one another.
In conclusion, the two societies differ from one another by the values of the leaders, whether it is having fun or getting rescued. The second in command, Piggy and Roger, and their perspective. The roles and personalities of the leader of the Ralph and Jack. The main difference in the two societies is whether or not they are restrained by civilization. The society set up by Jack is a savagery, inhumane and animal like style, yet Ralph’s is more proper, civilized and hopeful of rescue. Jack has no bounds on civilization, which makes his evil come out first, unlike Ralph who is restrained by civilization. Many will say that the evil comes from within us, others say it comes from the society that surrounds us, what do you believe in?
At the opening of the novel, Ralph and Jack get on extremely well. We are informed Jack, “shared his burden,” and there was an, “invisible light of friendship,” between the two boys. Jack changes considerably throughout this novel. At first he tells us, “I agree with Ralph we’ve got to have rules and obey them,” This shows us that at the beginning of the novel, just like Ralph, he wants to uphold a civilised society. We are also notified, “Most powerfully there was the conch.” As the conch represents democracy we can see that at the beginning of the novel the boys sustain a powerful democratic society.
Lord of the Flies has several themes that are the key to understanding of literature. Three of the themes of this novel are the fear, courage and lastly survival. Fear has been surrounded throughout the entire novel. With the amount of fear because of an apparent beast, many of the people on the island have changed. Most of the boys have become more violent throughout the novel and have no sense of direction as what to do next. Jack was one of those people who had changed majorly throughout the novel. Courage is one of the most important things to have mentally and physically when you’re stuck in an unknown island. Ralph’s courage in the book became strong when he had lost two of his close companions in Simon and Piggy. Survival is the best theme in this novel simply because of the lack of tools and the laziness of the people throughout the book. These themes show how great and wonderful this book is, and if you read it thoroughly, you will understand the perils and the adventure of Ralph, Jack and the rest of the boys in Lord of the Flies.
Humans are intricate. They have built civilizations and invented the concept of society, moving accordingly from savage primal instincts to disciplined behaviour. William Golding, however, does not praise humanity in his pessimistic novel, Lord of The Flies, which tells the story of a group of British schoolboys who are stranded on an uninhabited tropical island without any adults – a dystopia. Golding evidently expresses three views of humanity in this novel. He suggests that, without the rules and restrictions on which societies and civilizations are built, humans are intrinsically selfish, impulsive and violent.
The boys are drawn away from a civilized way of living. Comments made by Ralph and Jack show the boys that Jack is resorting to savagery. Ralph and Jack both agree in the beginning while they are reasoning in a civil manner. Throughout the novel the two leaders stray from one another because of differences in motivation. Jack told the boys "We've got to decide about being rescued" (Golding 20). This statement illustrates Jack's civilized concern for the whole group. Jack seems to put the group before him. This unselfish concern soon dissolves as the internal beast prevails over the civil Jack. "I ought to be chief because I'm chapter chorister and I can sing C sharp" (Golding, 21), displays Jacks own arrogance. However, the narrator has more insight into this power struggle, "This toy of voting was almost as pleasing as the conch" (Golding 21). The narrator sees this act of voting through the boy's eyes. The narrator implies the boy's failure to understand the importance of a leader.
“Everybody has good and evil within them. All we're trying to say is that people are not all good or all bad. People are more complicated than you think, and one has to be more knowledgeable about the complexities.” This quotation from Stephen Schwartz establishes that even the best of people can be bitter by their own nature. In the novel, Lord of the Flies, William Golding removes the restraints of society to prove that it is human nature to live primitively and that evil lies within all of us. The sanctions of society begin to deteriorate due to the loss of communication, Jack’s obsession with hunting, and the inhumane nature of Jack and his “tribe”.
They both surrender to savagery on the island. Clearly, Jack’s devotion to the way of life is far more intense, but Ralph still feels the thrill of stabbing a pig and partakes in the killing of a human, a concept that he once could not grasp. Other than this similarity, Jack and Ralph progress through the book in very divergent ways. In terms of leadership, the boys develop in opposite fashions. Jack, once the lesser of the two, rises to be the most powerful. Ralph, on the other hand, begins as the leader, but falls behind as the book progresses. This is due to a growing theme of savagery and the effects of fear on the boys as they spend time on the
In the novel, "Lord of the Flies," a group of British boys are left on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere. Throughout the novel, they have conflicts between civilization and savagery, good vs. evil, order vs. chaos, and reason vs. impulse. What would it be like if the boys were replaced by a group of girls? Would they behave the same way they did in the novel? I believe that the girls would act in the same behavior as the boys in all ways because, everyone is installed with evil inside them which is their natural instinct, also because in life there is always a power struggle in all manners, and the outcome with the girls would be similar-since both sexes would plan on getting rescued.
In the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a group of young boys from England are evacuated out of their country due to a war. The plane is then shot down and results into a plane crash on a deserted island. The boys are left all alone with no adults, no supplies, and no one to come and rescue them. They are all on their own and have to establish a new “society”. The boys have to choose someone to govern them and that person ends up being Ralph, who had an internal struggle between what is right and wrong closer to the end of the novel. The boys turn into savages, killing each other, and showing their evil inside each of them. According to, William Golding man is inherently evil, evil is in all of us, but it is oppressed by society, and comes out when there is not anything to hold us back, civilization is what holds back evil from coming out, or it is what triggers evil inside of man.
Contrasting Ralph and Jack in Lord of the Flies & nbsp;& nbsp; & nbsp; Ralph and Jack are both powerful and meaningful characters in William Golding's novel, Lord of the Flies. Ralph is an excellent leader; responsible, and stands for all that is good. Jack is a destructive hunter, selfish, and represents evil. These two main characters can be compared by the actions they take as leaders, their personalities, and what they symbolize in the story. & nbsp; Ralph first takes on the position as leader at the beginning of the story, when the rest of the boys vote him in as chief.&nbs Rules and standards are set when Ralph is the chief. He orders the group to build the basic necessities of civilization, shelters, and most importantly to keep the fire going, in hope that they will be rescued and return to humanity. " But I tell you that smoke is more important than the pig, however often you kill one" (Golding 75). Jack, on the other hand, takes on the idea of every man for himself. He does not care about making homes, only about hunting. When Jack is the leader, evil takes over and all good is destroyed. Under Jack's power both Simon and Piggy are killed. & nbsp; Not only do the two character's decisions clash so do their personalities. Ralph is caring and considerate, being kinder to Piggy, making friends with him and constantly confid Ralph represents law, order, organized society and moral integrity. Throughout the novel he is constantly making common-sense rules for the boys to follow. Unlike Ralph, Jack is unkind, caring about no one
To begin, Jack’s role in the novel largely parallels that Cain’s in the Bible, suggesting the boys’ constant war with each other in reality personifies a war within themselves. At the beginning of the novel, Ralph, accompanied by Piggy, finds a conch lying on the beach. Intrigued, Ralph blows into it to summon the boys who survived the plane crash on the island to a meeting. Jack marches his choir to join Ralph on the platform, and the boys decide to vote in a chief. They dismiss Piggy because of his thick build, asthma, and glasses. Trying to decide between Ralph and Jack, the boys note “the most obvious leader was Jack. But there was a stillness about Ralph as he sat that marked him out: there was his size, and attractive appearance; and...there
The novel Lord of the Flies was full of challenges that the boys overcame in order to survive. Conflicts within themselves, with nature and with each other constantly test the children’s ability to endure. Struggles against the natural elements of the island, rival groups or fear of the unknown continually appear throughout the story. Some of the boys on the island did not survive the quarrels that they faced. They perished because they were lacking something that the surviving boys did not. The survivors had a natural primal instinct or a physical or mental advantage over the boys who did not make it. ‘Only the strong survive’ is an important element that runs through the novel Lord of the Flies because in order to survive the boys must turn to their primitive instincts of physical strength and savagery.
The separation between Jack and Ralph was there leadership techniques. Jack was a person who only cared about what he wanted and what was good for him. He was aggressive, selfish, and merciless. Ralph on the other hand was a person who put others first. He was kind, understanding and merciful. For Jack, he wanted complete control and would do anything to keep it. This meant that he had to do something to keep his power in line, tying people up and beating them for no reason. Ralph however, had no punishments for his people so they could “walk all over him.” To have a good leader a person must combine Jack’s ways with Ralph’s ways in order to do so. The first trait a good leader should have is to be powerful. A good leader needs to be powerful
Ralph can be compared to a leader such as Gandhi, while Jack can be compared to a leader such as Hitler. Ralph is more like Gandhi because he is constantly thinking about what is best for the group and not himself. He doesn’t hold himself above the group at all and is equal with the group. On the other hand, once Jack gains leadership, he holds himself on a golden pedestal above the rest of the group like Hitler did during WWII. Once he gains some power and just wants more. Once he has more power, he starts to judge and kill others for no apparent reason other than that they would compete with him for leadership, just like Hitler would.
Ralph and Jack are definitely two different people. For instance, Ralph acts like a civilized leader, and Jack is an overtaking, pig hunting, demanding person. Ralph is usually able to keep a good temper, unless Jack oversteps his boundaries, which is like everyday. Now Jack, he loses his temper over the slightest things. For example, when people don’t do what he asks, you can
In the story “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding, he shows how the boys lost all innocence and civilization. The boys went from having innocent child minds to taking lives of other people, acting savage, and losing all civilization due to problems on the island. The boys had forgotten where they came from and became savage in order to survive; it was the need of survival that caused the loss of innocence among the boys.