Chaos In Lord Of The Flies Essay

Ralph represents order and discipline, while Jack represents an unhealthy drive for power and savagery. In the beginning of the novel, Ralph is voted the leader of the group and attempts to make life on the island disciplined and civilized, like their life in England. However, throughout the novel Jack rivals Ralph’s leadership role, attempting to overthrow him. As the boys’ savage impulses increase, more of them begin to side with Jack instead of going with Ralph. As Ralph loses his hold over the boys, almost all of them begin to act violently and barbaric. An example of this is when the children of the island murder Simon for no justifiable reason. Even Piggy and Ralph partake in the murder, showing that the violent human impulse is in

In the book there is conch which gives the beholder of it power over the rest of the group. Jack knows that the group is torn on who should be their leader, so he does whatever is necessary to get the conch and control the group. Jack knows that the only way to do this is to make the group turn against Ralph. With power on his mind his begins to belittle Ralph and make the group think Ralph hasn’t been a good leader. This happens when Jack says, “Who are you, anyway? Sitting there telling people what to do. You can't hunt, you can't sing” (Golding 238). The group then begins to trust Jack because Ralph seems inferior compared to him. Once Jack has this power he begins to think that everyone who isn’t with him is against him. This leads to Jack killing Piggy to stop and uprising from him and Ralph. There is no way that a 13 year old boy would kill another classmate unless he was fueled with power like Macbeth was. Jack isn’t the only one in the book to let power get the best of him, Ralph also falls victim to it. Ralph begins to disrespect his best friend on the island Piggy when the book says “Ralph pushed Piggy to one side. ‘I was chief and you were going to do what I said’” (Golding 132). This quote shows how Ralph is willing to harm someone he care about just to show everyone including Piggy how powerful he truly is. Both Ralph and Jack let power cloud their judgement which

“Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of a true, wise friend called Piggy” (Golding 225). In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, he uses the theme of order versus chaos to show that good has the capacity to become evil. It starts with the boys’ beginnings on the island, to the breakdown of their society, to the tragedies that unfold their civilization. The boys are victims of a deteriorating civilization that turns them into ruthless and more animalistic characters without any law, order or control.

As John Locke once said, “Humans have the natural ability to reason,” this seems to resonate a lot with the idea of government and the ability for everyone to be rational in order to protect our society. In modern times, reasoning mostly achieves the idea of solving a problem without harming others, and because human nature is innately more harmful and abrupt, this causes much trouble within society. In the novel, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Golding shows how without proper reason and government, there will be a corruption of society, as seen with the evolution of Piggy as a character.

Even though Piggy is the one that died, he could have still been responsible for his own death. In chapter 11, page 171, of The Lord of the Flies Piggy says, “ I got the conch. I’m going to that Jack Merridew an’ tell him, I am.” It was Piggy’s decision to go the cliff and confront Jack. He kept insisting that they go and get his specs back instead of waiting and being patient while they came with a better plan when they did decide to go speak with them. If he would’ve waited just a little longer he could still be alive. Again in Chapter 11, page 171, Piggy says this after Ralph tells him he will get hurt, “ What can he do more than he has? I’ll tell him what’s what. You let me carry the conch, Ralph. I’ll show him the one thing he hasn’t got.” Piggy underestimates Jack and his “tribe”. He does this because he does not

The fire represents civilization and Piggy’s symbolize trust. In a society, people needs a leader who is willing to collaborate, be productive, and can establish rules in order to survive, but everything soon backfires once the fire went out. As the fire goes out, Golding starts to develop a “beastie” that began to rise inside the boys’ which symbolize the boys’ savage behavior while living on the island (Golding 35). This interpret that in the beginning of the story, Jack was slightly unconfident in his hunting skills, but at the book progress, Jack become more vicious and ambition for power, which lead the “beast” started to grow inside of him. For instance, in Chapter one, Jack was hesitant to the kill the pig, but in Chapter Four, after jack and hunters had executed the pig, Jack started to sing, “Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood” (Golding 69). This exemplifies how the “beast” had grown and become uncivilized, in addition, it foreshadows the boys will attack each other since Jack had finally slaughtered the pig, and which Piggy will be the first to die. The mask that Jack had put on had many things to do with Ralph as being a leader because Ralph is not being stern with his rules which persuade the boys’ to think that Ralph is gullible. Furthermore, when

Throughout the story, the conch is used to call assemblies and keep order. When a group of boys crash and end up stranded on an unknown Island two characters - Piggy and Ralph find a conch. Ralph later uses the conch to develop a sense of democracy within assemblies. Rules have been made pertaining to the proper use. When holding the conch you are granted a right to speak without interruption. Upon hearing the call of the conch the boys gather together for a meeting. Golding writes, “He faced the place of assembly and put the conch to his lips [...] The others were waiting and came straight away” (Golding, 78). This quote proves the conch provides stability and power because the boys drop everything they are doing when hearing the call. Golding also writes, “The booing rose and died again as Piggy lifted the white, magic shell” (Goulding, 180). This quote shows how everybody is respectful towards the conch and the rules that follow.

Nobody seems to listen to Piggy’s intelligent ideas of how they should act on the island in order to survive. When Jack began assembling his own group of boys, under his leadership, things began to fall apart. Piggy is expressing his frustration towards the boys in the quote,“Can’t they see? Can’t they understand? Without the smoke signal we’ll die here? Look at that!” (Golding, page 139). Piggy, like Simon, has always questioned if the beast could be deeper than a real being. Therefore, Piggy had a greater fear of the boys abandoning the fire, than he did of the beast. The boys are being naive, going after pigs and the beast instead of tending the fire, and Piggy realizes that. He is aware that the boys don’t see the importance in the fire signal as he and Ralph do. Abandoning the fire will lead to no rescue and eventually death upon the island. This could be foreshadowing Piggy’s death since the group of savage boys end up killing

Piggy urges Ralph to use what power he has left by calling a meeting: “’What’s grown-ups going to say?’ cried Piggy again…The sound of mock hunting, hysterical laughter, and real terror came from the beach. ‘Blow the conch, Ralph...You got to be tough now. Make ‘em do what you want.’ Ralph answered in the cautious voice of one who rehearses a theorem. ‘If I blow the conch and they don’t come back; then we’ve had it. We shan’t keep the fire going. We’ll be like animals. We’ll never be rescued.’” In this situation, Piggy is still worried about the punishment of his previous life. He is the closest thing to an adult on the island, and Ralph is the only one who advocates listening to him, illustrating Ralph’s connection to the rules of traditional civilization, which the other boys despise and want to escape through the island. After showing blatant disregard to their “chief’s” rules, they decide to escape the constraints of Ralph’s assemblies and embrace their inner savagery with Jack. Piggy urges Ralph to blow the conch, the symbol of his power throughout the book, but Ralph understands that his form of leadership is becoming the less desirable option to the boys: if he calls an assembly and the other boys do not respond, its power, and his civilization, will have completely disintegrated. Ralph constantly emphasizes their responsibilities on the island—specifically, tending to the signal fire.

Although already one death has occurred, the others do not seem to realize what has happened, and continue to give their new chief power. Jack's tribe then kills Piggy, and goes on a rampage, as Jack "brainwashes" the others into believing that Ralph's customs were boring and wrong. This is what sets all the others out to kill Ralph at the end.

Jack then taunts Piggy at night and steals his glasses so that the hunters can have a fire which show that the one they should be listening to is useless to the boy's savage nature. Golding then uses Piggy to further the themes in the novel Lord of the Flies by turning him into a symbol representing intelligence and having that intelligence be destroyed once the boys become savage and destructive eventually killing Piggy when he goes to take back his glasses which can also symbolize intelligence. Golding also uses Piggy's death as a way to show that the savagery in humans have won against the rules of society because once Piggy has been killed by the boys they eventually go after Ralph to kill him, which none of the boys would have done if not living on the island. The savagery in the boys becomes much greater once they go after Piggy's glasses and even further after Piggy has died, once the boys are found they will probably be mentally scared forever or even separated from society because of their actions which shows why they should have listened to

Jack’s departure from the boys sparks a civil war in between them and ultimately creating a giant war that lead to death of some of the boys. Jacks uprising or rebellion is hinted early in the book but he shows his true side leaving Ralph’s group. This action by jack creates the events of piggy and simons death but creates the reason they are rescued. Jacks new aggression embodies war and destruction itself and is a monster. When jack breaks out against Ralph he not only defeats him but he shows that Ralph is weak eventually taking everyone Ralph has by torture or death.

When they first arrive at the island, Jack and the rest of the boys wears the same mask of innocence as every other human being, but it soon begins to slip. Throughout a massacre of pigs, Jack and the other boys releases their animal nature. Initially, the boys try to set up an island society that mimics the English society, with discipline and authority. The behavior of the boys is the same as they showed at school back home, but the need to be the survival of the fittest pushes the boys’ past their humanized nature. The children want to have familiar rules. Piggy says, “We’ll have rules!” he cried excitedly. “Lots of rules! Then when anyone breaks ‘em--” (Golding 25). Everyone follows the rules in the beginning, hoping that it will lead their rescue. But when their hopes dwindle, they soon fall out of order, becoming two independent and opposed groups. To become superior to the others, Jack kills pigs and humans and earns the place of a tribe leader. His actions show that humans act to

Imagine this, a small hand full of boys stranded on an island, their ages ranging from six to twelve meaning they are all fairly young. A system is formed, an attempt to establish and maintain order across the island. They elect and identify a leader, create basic rules, identify what is alright and what will be frowned upon, and try to attain their basic human needs in the most efficient way possible regarding the circumstances. But it is not long before their system proves faulty, this group of inexperienced and quite immature children simply can not uphold a successful society, this is proven as their system is turned to shambles and death ensues.

“Isolation is a dream killer” (Barbara Sher). In the novel Lord of the Flies written by William Golding, kids stranded on an island must figure out how to survive. By hunting pigs and building shelters the kids tried to subsist on the island. Through the process of hunting, the kids became cruel, evolving to the point of being barbaric. Thus, through the barbaric actions of the boys and the outside world, Golding shows that savagery exists in all people.