Theme Of Control In Lord Of The Flies

Control is a part of life. People seek control. People, like myself, even feel more comfortable when we are in control. But sometimes, we aren't always in control, which we might not be prepared for, but this “loss of control” is somewhat inevitable. We can not control whether or not we are in control or how we react to a loss of control, which might even be our downfall. In several stories from literature, there is a loss of control. Whether it be The Lord of the Flies or the short story And of Clay Are We Created, there is some sort of way control is present, and that is what I will be examining today.
Control is a big theme in the 1954 classic The Lord of the Flies. In the opening pages, the deserted boys are already fighting for control with one another, “Ralph counted… I’m chief then. The circle of boys broke into applause. Even the choir applauded; and the freckles on Jack’s face disappeared under a blush of mortification” (Golding

23). Ralph and Jack’s “lust” for control is almost immediately evident. Ralph and Jack’s need for control already begins to spark tension. Several other times in the book, Ralphs need for control grows, like when Ralph says “All this I meant to say. Now I’ve said it. You voted me for chief. Now you do what I say. They quieted, slowly, and at last were seated again. Ralph dropped down and spoke in his ordinary voice.” (Golding 81) or when he says “I’m chief. I’ll go. Don’t argue” (Golding 104). Ralph isn't the only one who wants control though, there is his “rival” Jack. These two consistently bump heads throughout the book. Jack eventually splits from Ralphs tribe with his own people, leaving only Piggy and Ralph. Jacks tribe even goes on to kill Piggy, leaving only Ralph. Fortunately, they are found before Ralph would be killed. The events that then unroll are, in a way, indirectly about control. Jack abandons the tribe because he wants to be the leader of his own tribe (desire for control). Many of the events leading to the end of the book are either directly, or indirectly because of control.
Not all of the stories feature a strong desire for control, some stories feature a loss of control, like the short story And of Clay Are We Created. This short story (based on true events) is about how a volcano erupted in Colombia. The heat of the volcano caused the ice to melt, which in turn results in a mudslide, trapping many people. You can see how one of the main characters, Rolf Carlé, begins with some control in his life, but slowly loses the control because he can't figure out a way to save Azucena, one of the little girls trapped by the mud. Rolf Carlé immediately tries to help the girl, “We watched on our screens the footage captured by his assistant’s camera, in which he was up to his knees in muck, a microphone in his hand, in the midst of a bedlam of lost children wounded survivors, corpses, and devastation” (Allende 250). This passage from the text makes Rolf Carlé seem like a man who has control of the situation, he doesn't think twice about mud stopping him, he doesn't even seem worried about it, making him seem in control. “Nothing could stop him, and I was always at his equanimity in the face of danger and suffering; it seemed as if nothing could shake his fortitude or deter his curiosity” (Allende 250). This passage from the text comes almost immediately after the quote above, which further helps create a sense of control. Rolf Carlé slowly starts to lose this control throughout the story. He struggles to save her “During those
first hours Rolf Carlé exhausted all the resources of his ingenuity to rescue her.

He struggled with the poles and ropes, but every tug was an intolerable torture for the imprisoned girl” (Allende 252). While Rolf Carlé struggles to free the girl, you can almost see the control slipping away from him. Rolf Carlé loses more and more control in every single page in the story. When Rolf Carlé realizes he is losing control of the situation, he begins to picture his dad beating him, his sister he abandoned, and his mother. He begins to be hopeless, “I knew somehow that during the night his defenses had crumbled and he had given in to grief; finally he was vulnerable” (Allende 258). Rolf Carlé loses hope and realizes there isn't much he can do, and on the third night, the little girl gave up, and Rolf Carlé removed her safety buoy, and she sank into the mud and died. Rolf Carlé came into the situation with seemingly full control of what he was doing, but in an unfortunate turn of events, he loses all control and ends up losing the

girl.
These two books are similar in the way they deal with control. In the beginning, the main characters (Ralph and Rolf Carlé) are strong. They seem to be fully aware of their situation, they seem to be in control. Throughout each character own experience in the story, they both begin to lose more and more control, until they lose all control, which results in the death of their friends (Piggy and Azucena). The control these characters had made them confident, kind of how control makes people outside of literature confident. It is when they lose control, where everything falls apart. They lose their confidence (while Jack gains his), and they begin to feel hopeless which leads to terrible events happening, all because of control.