Lord Of The Flies

24 Pages 6025 Words

hoir as if they were troops, allowing room for neither discussion nor dissent. Significantly, the role that he first chooses for his choir is as hunters; he selects that task which is most violent and, in this society, most related to military values. However, as his inability to kill the pig demonstrates, Jack is not yet accustomed to violence. Golding indicates that Jack must prepare himself to commit a violent act, for he still constrained by societ!
al rules that oppose this behavior; his authoritarian attitude has given him a predisposition to violence, but he must shed the lessons of society before he can kill.
In both temperament and physical appearance, Ralph is the antithesis of Jack. Golding idealizes Ralph from the beginning, lavishing praise on his physical beauty. In the island sun he immediately achieves a golden hue, a physical manifestation of his inward qualities. Ralph is no great intellect and even behaves somewhat childish in his first encounter with Piggy, but otherwise he has a gravity and maturity beyond his years. He is a natural leader, a quality that the other boys recognize when they vote him leader. The vote for chief establishes a conflict between the different values espoused by Jack and Ralph. Jack assumes that he should assume the role automatically, while Ralph actually achieves it reluctantly by vote. Ralph therefore comes to represent a democratic ethos.
Piggy, in contrast, is the intellectual of the group. Although he is physically inept, clumsy and asthmatic, he has a quick wit and the best grasp of their situation. It is his knowledge of the conch shell that allows Ralph to summon the rest of the boys together and he who shows the most concern for some sort of rational order. He has a particular interest in names, immediately asking Ralph for his and wishing that Ralph would reciprocate, as well as viewing that as the greatest concern when the boys assemble. The idea of naming is one of the fir...