Power Hungry Lord Of The Flies Quote Analysis

The influence of power, or “power hungry”, has had a huge effect on many people who feel that they must be in charge. These people often have trouble being told no or being told that they can’t be in charge. People throughout history have done it in many ways. Our own government displays this when we elect a new president every four years. These candidates often tell the public what they want to hear and how they’ll make it a better place, when, in reality, they only mean half of it and they just want to be able to have the power of the president. In the novel Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, the antagonist, Jack, shows throughout the book that he craves power and feels that he deserves it more than anybody else.
In Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, Jack starts off from the very beginning of this twisted tale by having Jack electing himself as leader. After Ralph blows the conch and all the kids gather round, Jack says that he deserves to be leader right away. He doesn’t give and reason why to start out with, he just says that he should lead and he expects that

everyone should agree. Since Ralph was the one to gather the children, he is the other candidate for the election for leader. When the vote comes for Jack and nobody raises a hand, he is furious and has a hard time coping with the fact that he isn’t in charge and giving orders.
As times goes on in Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, Jack finally is convinced that Ralph is not suitable for the title “leader”, and leaves the group to start his own tribe and, in the process, takes the choir boys with them. He does this not only because he is the leader, but because they are blood thirsty and he promises them meat, which means they get to kill again. This was an ingenious move by Golding, because he then adds more tension between Jack and Ralph, but also he now has created tension between two tribes. This decision only escalates the violence and blood shed, which would draw most readers in more and want to see how it ended.
Jack went to the extremes in Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, by going as far to kill Piggy and attempt to kill Ralph for being the leaders of the opposing tribe.

Jack ruled with, what we call today, an “Iron Fist”. Golding shows this by telling how Jack ruled, how he’d beat those who didn’t obey him and how he was violent, greedy, and self-absorbed. He rolled a boulder down the mountain the killed Piggy and organized a party to mutilate Ralph. By this point in the story, he was so infatuated with power that he didn’t care about being rescued and that he was willing to spend the rest of his life on that island just to be the leader and ruler of all everyone. This is Golding’s way of showing how Jack had become so obsessed with power that he would kill anyone who said he was unfit for it and have a public “example” to show what would happen to those who opposed and threatened his

reign.
This is Golding way of showing how Jack craved power and that he was willing to go to the extremes to claim the title of leader and be unchallenged. Golding had an interview where he said that the book was written about little boys because it would show the base, primitive nature of the human race. In the process of including Jack and his actions into this story he did a pretty accurate job of showing this throughout the novel. Inside all of us we want to be in charge, but some feel they need it, have earned it, deserve it, or even should be given it because they are better than everybody else and are more fit for the position. This is how William Golding displays these actions in his novel Lord of the Flies.