Lord Of The Flies

4 Pages 1071 Words

The Lord of the flies Essay

The Lord of the Flies is a story that takes a group of boys out of a civilized society and puts them on an island. In this novel, William Golding explains that when we drift away from civilization, we tend to go back to our savage roots. The characters Ralph and Jack struggle amongst themselves to be the leader, Ralph, Piggy and Simon represent good while Jack represents evil, and all the hunters act like savages. In William Golding’s The Lord of the Flies, the struggle for leadership, good versus evil and the loss of innocence are the key themes that describe what happens when we lose our senses of civilization.

This novel illustrates the struggle for leadership through Darwin’s survival of the fittest theory. Survival of the fittest means that the individuals who are able to adapt best to existing conditions are the ones who will survive, while the others perish. Ralph is unable to adapt to the conditions of the island and constantly thinks of ways of being rescued, while Jack adjusts well to the conditions on the island. Through Ralph we see the difficulty of setting up a colony in a place where there is nothing, and the difficulty to keep the group under his leadership. “The thing is: we need an assembly. No one said anything but the faces turned to Ralph were intent.” (Golding 84) In the beginning, they had no idea about where to even begin in order to survive. Ralph was the oldest and so he knew that it was up to him to take a stand. He ordered the boys to make huts for shelter and thought of ways for them to be rescued. While Ralph waited to be rescued, a new leader, Jack, gained power. “I’m not going to be part of Ralph’s lot. I’m going off by myself. He can catch his own pigs. Anyone who wants to hunt when I do can come too.” (Golding 140) As the boys lost their civilization, Ralph’s position declined while Jack rose. Jack believed that the group should have fun and feast w...