Essay, Research Paper: Lord Of The Flies

In William Golding's Lord Of The Flies, two characters, Ralph and Jack, represent good examples of a protagonist and an antagonist. Throughout the novel the author contrasts these two characters socially, psychologically, religiously and politically. He shows how the characters transform through different stages from boys to savages and how we reflect onto our children. In doing so, Golding is sharing his views about human nature, that without society's rules we are all savages at heart.

William Golding uses Ralph and his nemesis Jack, to show how civilization works and how it doesn't. There are two main factions on the island. The group that follows Jack and the group that follows Ralph. Jack, the chief of the hunters, represents hidden human passion and an almost animal like cruelty. Ralph on the other hand represents common sense and how we see a perfect society. Ralph stands for order and conduct of society. In Golding's novel, each chapter begins with order, which means Ralph has control. Ralph uses the conch to show order and the right to speak. By the end of each chapter there is no order and there is usually chaos, this shows that evil and/or fear has control, meaning Jack has control.

To interpret this book in a psychological aspect you have to pay close attention to the detail relating to the idea the book suggests. At the end of the book when the naval officer asks Ralph "Who's boss here?" Ralph still replies "I am" (pg224) regardless of the fact that all the other boys were chasing him down to kill him. Ralph chooses not to see reality for what it is, he is an optimistic person. Ralph chooses to see and believe only what he wants to. Jack I am sure had a lot of problems when they got off the island because of all the changes he went through. Jack saw being stranded on an island with no adults as a blessing where he could show his true personality. Every person had a breaking point where they would transform from a British schoolboy to a cruel, heartless savage. I think that Jack broke quicker than everyone else did because of his passion for authority.

When you interpret this book from a religious point of view you will be letting many other aspects of the book pass by. This happens because religion has the philosophy that only the things that are good are good, and the things that are bad are bad. The pig's head on the stick is very important to this book because it is an offering to "the beast" but the beast is inside all of us. It is our determination to survive at any cost. When you are analyzing this book religiously there are two very divergent character. This would be Ralph and Jack. Ralph would be compared to Jesus because of all the things he does for everyone else. Jack would be related to the Anti-Christ or the devil because of the fact that he cares for himself and he kills two innocent people. When Jack kills his first pig and he takes the bloody knife and passes it over his forehead he is baptizing himself as a hunter. In a symbolic way you could say that Jack has created his own religion.

Jack is the dictator who uses force to show his thoughts and feelings. Therefore he is the destructive side of man. On the other hand Ralph is the believer of democracy and fairness. He is the voice of hope, and the responsible type of person. The boys on the island show what human civilization is like.
Allegorically in the world it would be a legislative form of government versus a military type of government. Where Ralph's group it the legislative and Jack's group is military. The disorder caused by Jack and his group threaten the island and the society that Ralph has tried so hard to form. Ralph wants huts and a signal fire. The huts, which stand for civilization and the signal fire to, get rescued. This shows that Ralph creates and builds. On the opposite end of that is Jack who wants to hunt, kill pigs and have fun. This shows primitivism. Jack is shown as a person who kills and destroys. Here is the conflict; creating and building versus killing and destroying.

The boys on this island begin to go through changes. As the novel begins they are just normal and innocent boys. But as the story continues on you can see these changes. The changes are subtle at the beginning, but as the story continues on the boys quickly transform into hunters. They are not maturing just adapting to their situation. This is just the start of the frightening transformation. By the end of this story almost every single one of the innocent British boys have become bloodthirsty savages. At the start they were all healthy well-mannered young boys who were students in high standard private schools. These boys quickly become hungry hunters. It doesn't take long for the first change to take place. The older boys such as Jack and Ralph are realizing the need for food. Jack's choir is elected as "the hunters". The first hunt is a failure. The night brings driving hunger. This hunger brings readiness to kill. The boys don't know how to hunt, but the hunger drives them. The boys scare up a pig out of the creepers and a dull pocketknife in the throat greeted it. They had hunted and killed. No one had taught them how to hunt they were taught by there own hunger. By the end of the book the boys are not only ready to kill for food, they are killing each other.

The most things a person learns are in the first five years of his/or her life. A couple of things in this book are to remind us that there is still life outside the island such as the dead parachutist. Even though that is a sign of the adult world it is still not a very good sign. The adult world is in the middle of a horrible war. The dead parachutist in the tree suggests that humans have de-evolved, or gone backwards in evolution. Ralph cries, " If only they could send a message to us...a sign or something." The dead parachutist was a sign to tell them that what they knew of civilization in the adult world was falling apart as it was in their own world. Ralph refuses to give into defeat. When Ralph thinks to himself " He would like to have a bath, a proper wallow with soap.... and decided that a tooth brush would come in handy too" Jack gave into primitivism very easily because of the fact that he doesn't have very fond memories of civilization or of his childhood.

With what I have just told you about the two characters, Jack and Ralph you should be able to see that in William Goldings novel The Lord Of The Flies that the characters switch roles as being the protagonist and the antagonist. In the begining Ralph is the protagonist and Jack is the antagonist but as they go through a series of events and a lot of learning experiances in the end Jack is the protagonist and Ralph is the antagonist

By WB