Robespierre Lord Of The Flies Critical Analysis

Freedom is a critical part of any society - without freedom citizens tend to become unhappy and no longer want to associate with their government. However the same goes for order; no order means anarchy and anarchy means that the people will want to disassociate with the community. In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a group of boys crash land on an uninhabited island in the Pacific in the midst of war and must establish a functioning society based on what little they know about government from civilized life. A new society as had to be formed during the French Revolution, also by people with limited political experience. They based their new government off of Enlightenment ideas that would ensure them their natural rights: life, liberty,

and property. In order to ensure these natural rights in democratic society, freedom and order must be balanced, but without balance, then the government will become useless and chaos will ensue.
Though difficult, if a balance of freedom and order is achieved, the civil rights of all citizens will be preserved. Upon first landing on the island, the boys decide, after a lengthy discussion about how they plan on surviving, that they should, “‘have a vote [...] for chief!’” (22). The idea of voting in and of itself is quite orderly because it is set up to be very organized. However, democratic voting also denotes a reasonable degree of freedom, because everyone gets a say when it is done correctly. The boys do not yet have malicious intent, which allows for a fair democratic vote that incorporates both freedom and order and gives everyone one of their individual rights - the right to free speech because they have the ability to voice their opinion about the various candidates. The idea of having a “chief” also will protect the boys’ right to life because they have a strong leader to keep them safe from harm, while still allowing the boys the freedom to choose their leader. This is idea of a strong leader maintaining the safety of the people is also seen in the work of the Enlightenment thinker Thomas Hobbes. Hobbes believed that people are incapable of remaining humane without a strict absolute monarchy, but that citizens must give up their power in a social contract between themselves and the government. Although Hobbes’ ideas are more lenient towards order, there is still some degree of balance between freedom and order. Despite the absolute monarch maintaining order, the citizens still have freedom in regards to their power, having the ability to decide whether or not to give it up. This balance allows for the protection of rights because the monarch will see to it that citizens have their lives and property protected, but with the ability to give up their personal power, the civilians maintain their right to liberty. Taken together, both voting and absolute monarchy with a social contract both allow for rights to be maintained and for the general protection of the society as a whole.
If order is too prevalent in society, uprisings will occur within causing the government to lose power. After failing in a desperate attempt to overthrow Ralph, one of the eldest boys whom the children initially to be their leader, Jack, another one of the older boys, decides that he is, “‘not going to play any longer. Not with [Ralph]. [...] I’m going off by myself [...] anyone who wants to [...] can come too’” (127). At this point, Jack has become embittered by Ralph’s constant orders for everything to be precisely regulated and no longer wants to conform. By saying that he is “not going to play any longer”, Jack implies that their situation is a game therefore should be treated as such, with the option for more freedom, fewer strict rules, and more fun. The bulk of Ralph’s original group ends up joining Jack’s new tribe because they decide that they too want more freedom and want the situation to be more lighthearted, but in turn, the considerably well established government loses all of its power and can no longer protect the boys’ natural rights as they descend into savagery and begin to harm each other. This association between lack of freedom and rebellion can also be seen prior to the French Revolution, France had an extremely regulated social hierarchy called the Old Regime, which consisted of three estates, that the lowest class (the Third Estate) was not too fond of. The members of the Third Estate were over-taxed and were unable to get any laws that benefitted them, so they rebelled and created a new government called the National Assembly. The French government was very much stuck in its ways of excessive order and poor circumstances. This caused the mistreated Third Estate, as well as others who agreed that they needed more freedom, to decide to defect from the people in power and build a new government which allowed them the freedom they so desperately wanted. The Third Estate becoming the National Assembly is related to Jack’s tribe breaking away from Ralph’s group in that the downfall of the government ultimately occurred due to rebels angry at the government creating new societies that allowed higher levels of freedom. Too much order will always eventually lead to times of rebellion, which offer citizens much less protection than a strong balanced government.
When allowed excessive freedom, chaos will arise in a society and citizens will no longer be safe.

Maximilien Robespierre, the leader of the infamous French National Convention, believed that all inhabitants of a society should be free from monarchy, but his call for reform quickly became a reign of terror and 40,000 people were executed by the guillotine, a machine that chopped off people’s heads painlessly and instantaneously. There was very little order in Robespierre’s National Convention, and Robespierre was not a very strong government official, which meant that there was no one to keep people from wreaking havoc and any common sense that anyone had was lost amidst the chaos. This is also seen in Lord of the Flies when Jack and Ralph are arguing about which way of leadership is superior - Jack’s autocratic totalitarian way or Ralph’s direct democracy. The argument gets out of control and a giant boulder is released, hitting Piggy, one of the last boys remaining in Ralph’s group and causes the, “conch [to] explode into a thousand fragments and [cease] to exist [and] Piggy [...] [to travel] through the air [...] [fall] forty feet and [land] on his back” (181). Jack’s tribe varies so much from Ralph’s - Ralph being so focused on rescue and survival while Jack’s group of savages live a much more indulgent and free life. Their argument about Jack’s poor choices regarding his lack of order in the way that he leads causes the conch, a symbol of democracy and order, to be reduced to nothing more than “a thousand fragments”, representing the end of order and the prevalence of total freedom on the island. Jack’s overly free society clashing with Ralph’s orderly society also leads to the death of Piggy, the only reasonable child on the island, which shows that with the remarkable amount of freedom that Jack allows comes the loss of reason and the beginning of suffering. Robespierre and Jack are similar in that they both lead radical new civilizations and both allow for

so much freedom that society becomes tumultuous and all logic is lost, allowing for nothing but suffering and death.
A perfect balance of freedom and order may only exist in theory, and if there is too much of either freedom or order, there will be consequences. These consequences include chaos and the loss of government power. However, if an effort is made to maintain a balance, the life, liberty, and property of all citizens will be ensured.