Lord of the Flies - Social Order

Lord of the Flies - Social Order

Order! Order!

There are many different views on social order in today’s society. The only manner of social order is always agreed upon is that is it considered necessary. William Golding plays this out brilliantly in his Lord of the Flies. The characters were either knowledgeable of social order or they were completely in denial. With these barriers, Ralph, Jack, and Simon struggle with leadership.
Ralph leads in the best way known to him and responsibly works. As the protagonist of the story, the boys appoint Ralph the leader of the democracy over the island. While most of the boys only want to have fun and avoid work, Ralph constantly attempts to build shelter and contemplate ways of being rescued. Ralph’s control over his group is strong at the beginning of the novel but as it leads on and the boys give in to their savage, animalistic, immoral ways, his power is decreased by Jack’s increased support of the littluns. Ralph’s dedication to civilization makes his biggest wish only to be rescued and to return to a society of structure. Ralph is guided by Piggy through the entire novel. Whether it was the smallest things like using the conch, “We can use this to call the others. Have a meeting.”, to the fire, Piggy pointed him in the direction that needed to be taken. Ralph had a strict outlook on how the boys should act and the barbarism of the other boys disgusted him. Later on in the story, Ralph realizes that the savagery he has been seeing lives uncontrollably within all of the boys, including him. Ralph would agree to the saying “There are too many people, and too few human beings.” (Robert Zend) Ralph responds tragically to the news of the evil within him, who then goes into despair. Even after being rescued, Ralph weeps over the knowledge of the capability of human’s evil and his failed attempt of controlling it.
Jack represents power hungry violence of the dictatorship throughout the entire novel. Being Ralph’s rival, Jack is angered by the fact...

Similar Essays