Power In Lord Of The Flies Analysis

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Tropical islands, with fruit-bearing trees and bright fantastic birds, are often seen as a lovely jungle paradise. However, this idyllic image is turned on its head within William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. The novel, set at the dawn of the next world war, spins the tale of how when a group of British boys land on a deserted island, their adventure is anything but paradise in the end. The children, who had originally gathered to set up a system of order led by the protagonist, Ralph, soon end up giving into the fears and trials of survival. This shatters their sense of order and civilization while simultaneously the root of their problem becomes clear. Golding presents the theme of how selfish power can only end in ruination of all involved …show more content…

As the leader of the choir, Jack enters the meeting on the shore with the belief that he should naturally be leader because “[he’s] chapter chorister and ... can sing C Sharp,” (Golding 22). He is instantly characterized by Golding indirectly through his words which display both his arrogance and his want to be leader of the boys on the island because he had been of his choir before. Jack has the end goal of getting the control simply for the sake of having the authority, and he is not interested in the greater good of the group. This is shown through his actions, where after failing to kill a pig on first meet, he swears no future mercy and slams his knife into a tree. Jack becomes obsessed with his pig hunts instead of doing duties that would aid the collective group. His wants are purely selfish in nature, and this ends up causing conflict and problems within the text. Jack’s choir boys are originally put in charge of keeping the signal fire going; they fail to do so during the crucial time when a ship passess by the island because he had them hunting after a pig. His actions end up losing the group their chance to catch attention and be rescued. However, this isn’t the only instance where power used selfishly causes problems for the

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