Ralph has noticed a drifting between the boys, due to both of him lacking leadership, and to the hunters’ growing free-spirited but crazy morals. He noticed the longer they were away from home, the more sanity they loss. Within the last few weeks, Ralph lost his two only friends due to the horrid actions of the hunters. Seeing Stanley killed for the humor of a hunter, and glimpsing at Simon being stabbed and torn apart both made Ralph realized that not only the voice of reason and justice is gone, but also their hope of redemption, to be rescued. Even after counseling and therapy, Ralph himself felt like those mere five weeks were dreading, endless years, as if he matured throughout time spent on the
Ralph, leader of the group, is attempting to control everyones behavior and maintain it at what is considered “acceptable” for young boys. He appears to know what is right from wrong despite of his young age. “Ralph, looking with more understanding at Piggy, saw that he was hurt and crushed.” (p. 25)This demonstrates how he recognizes that
The rest began to talk eagerly.” He does this after taking into account the needs and desires of the others, like a true leader. Although Ralph was
Ralph’s realization of power shift, loss of innocence, and whom he considers a friend changed. He learned the effects of jealousy and fear that lead to murder and betrayal. Most of the boys betrayed him and joined Jack, teaching Ralph the lesson of who his friends are. He learned Piggy may look different, but in the end, he had the most loyalty and reason. Jack’s envy of Ralph led to his outburst his disrespect for the boys’ right of speech and the animals’ right to live.
Human Endurance and Its Shatterable Civilization The Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a warning to all about human’s natural instincts and the flimsy idea of society’s civilization. After the schoolboys’ airplane crashed on the island with no surviving adults, it was up to them to create a system or government of some sort to prevent absolute chaos. In the beginning of the novel all the boys’ had their sense of civilization still intact. As the reader can see throughout the book, Jack, Ralph, and Piggy are symbols of how dominant human instincts can easily take over the weak rules of civilization.
Being under a dictatorship can demolish any kind of sanity one has. Now Ralph has realized what power and manipulation can do to one person. He never intentionally plans on becoming a savage, and unfortunately, he misses his dignity. In response, Boyd comments, “It is rather the coming of an awareness of darkness, of the evil in man’s heart that was present in the children all along” (Boyd 27). His elaboration explains how the beast was not only in Ralph but in all of the young boys.
He shows this by making them afraid of childish things like monsters. Also, their vulnerability shows at the end of the story. “And in the middle of them, with filthy body, matted hair, and unwiped nose, Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy.” After everything they went through, someone finally comes to rescue the boys and they respond by crying. They let down the guards they built for survival and revert to being kids.
“They hate you, Ralph. They’re going to do you. They’re going to hunt you tomorrow.” (Golding, 170). After all the chaos from previous chapters of the novel, Ralph realizes that he’s completely isolated and lonely.
Ralph knows that the only good chance the boys have of being rescued is that if a passing ship sees the fire. All of the other boys are still harbouring the idea that someone will eventually come and find them, which is also unrealistic. Ralph is the only boy who is not living in a fantasy world and knows what they have to do to get rescued. Another thing that makes Ralph realistic is the fact that he instills rules amongst the boys to create
Ralph is a source of leadership and authority to the castaway boys on the island. Ralph processes the Conch, the only physical manifestation of authority and society on the island, this symbol is identified and given it significance by Ralph. Ralph is a lasting source of authority, and therefore the former society in which the boys lived in. Ralph’s rationality and natural leadership skills allow him to recognize the need to create a stable and peaceful society on the island that is the exact opposite of the war surrounding the eden that they inhabit. Ralph’s leadership is one based on a positive view of humans as civilized, and founded in morality, which ultimately fail: Socio-political and religious readings of Lord of the Flies converge, not only in the figure of the beast, but also in the question of law: the children 's rules.
This statement shows that Ralph has a firm understanding that he is in control and the boys are dependent on him . He is needed because without him the boys would be lost with no knowledge of what to do step by step on the island . He was an adult figure position
William Golding’s book “Lord of the Flies” represents man’s struggle with authority, by creating a variety of characters with different points of view he is able to portray what happens when there is no one around to enforce the “law of the land”; Ralph is one of these characters, he represents a civil society with rules and laws to follow, he is intelligent and has more common sense than most of the group knowing that by building a shelter and starting a fire they would increase their chances of being rescued. In the end the group of boys turn on him (except for Piggy and Simon who both die in brutal ways) and it becomes fight or flight for Ralph as he is now alone on the island before ultimately running into the soldier.
Humans, according to the philosopher Thomas Hobbes, are selfish by nature. In his landmark work, Leviathan, he explains the importance of a strong government in society. According to Hobbes, without a strong system of government people would revert into a primitive state; war would run rampant, the natural law would not be abided, and those once tamed by society would become evil. William Golding based his novel, Lord of The Flies, on a similar idea. In this novel, many characters digress from civility into savagery. This digression is caused by the absence of adult supervision on the island, specifically affecting Jack, Roger, and Samneric.
A Crumbling Society The novel Lord of the Flies written by William Golding tells the story of a group of boys abandoned on an island to fend for themselves. In the novel, a group of young English boys trying to escape war get stranded on an island after a plane crash. Initially there is order, but as time progresses things begin to fall apart and the island is reverted to a much more primitive state. This movement away from a normal, civil society over time shows what the disconnect from the larger civilized world can do to people, especially young children who have never been on their own before.