Commentary on Lord of the Flies Essay

Lord of the Flies

In William Goldings book, Lord of the Flies, he creates a character named Ralph, a British boy who is trapped on an island. He symbolizes civilization. Ralph grows throughout the book in which brings his life through a lot of ups and downs.

Several boys were stranded on an island which led to controversy. There were two groups in which leaders were appointed. Ralph was a boy who was put into a situation where he was elected to become the leader of his group. He maintains his leadership status throughout the book by keeping everything in order. Many deaths on this island occurred. While the other boys wanted to play around and have fun, Ralph was more concerned on ways to keep everyone alive, such as building huts and thinking of ways to get rescued. As Ralph encountered everything, he believed his group should be based on school, so he established rules his group had to follow. Many rules were made, for example Ralph says, We cant have everybody talking at once, well have to have hands up like at school. (33) This showed me that Ralph is mature for his age and is taking charge just like a leader should do.

Jack is Ralphs enemy in the book. He is the leader of the second group. Hes the more rebellious person and shows a lot of qualities that makes him evil. Ralphs emotions change as the plot develops. When Ralph sees his group falling to pieces one by one by Jacks group, Ralph sees that hes losing his friends. While Jack becomes more popular, as a leader, Ralphs position declines, as well as the boys in his group decrease, besides Piggy, Ralph was left alone by his group.

Ralphs main wish was to find a way to get off the island and to not be in a place where there arent any grown ups. (33) To be able to get off the island, Ralph joined Jacks group for a short time period in which he realizes violence exists in all the boys. Ralphs story ends tragic as he loses a lot of boys in his group especially Piggy because Jack kills him. Although a lot was negative about Ralphs adventure, he was luckily rescued.

In my opinion William Golding is trying to show that our society is very violent. I also think that Golding is trying to say in his writing that one day youll grow up and have to take care of yourself and maybe others, and that its a tough job but you have to manage. Ralph definitely showed a lot of courage going against vulgar kids, but he managed to stay alive throughout the entire book.