lord of the flies character essay ralph

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Lord of the flies – charcater essay on ralph.

Choose a novel with a character who you find interesting. With reference to the text show how the writer made the character interesting.

In The Lord of the Flies by William Golding Ralph is a very interesting character. In the novel a group of boys become stranded on a desert island and must fight to survive. Ralph is a compelling character because he is the one who fights to keep civility alive amongst the boys and tries to stop them becoming savages. We can track how he does this throughout the novel.

The first way Ralph proves to be interesting is when he establishes a sense of order on the island. He finds a large conch and gathers the boys together and tells them “I’ll give the conch to the next person to speak, they won’t be interrupted”. We can see clearly here that there is a sense of democracy, any boy who wishes to speak will be given the chance to do so. The idea that they won’t be ‘interrupted’ shows that Ralph expects the boys to listen to each other and give each other respect even if they don’t agree with one another. Ralph is also clearly the leader here as he is the one in charge of where the conch goes. This makes Ralph interesting as he is clearly the authority figure and he is clearly in charge at this point.

Ralph continues to exert his authority over the boys. The younger boys begin to slack off from their work and the older boys don’t pay attention to the fire and so Ralph shouts “I’m calling an assembly” and the boys immediately gather at the point. This shows that Ralph is still the boss at this point and it shows the boys still have a sense of civility as they conform to Ralph’s instructions. This is interesting because it shows Ralph is still able to control the boys at this point and there is still a sense of a functioning society.

Ralph sees that the boys are starting to move away from their civility as time passes and he tries to remind the boys of who they are. The older boys let the fire go out and Ralph, furious at them asks “Are we savages or what?” The tone of this is angry and he is trying to tell the boys that they need to behave better. The loss of fire is a loss of hope of rescue. Letting the fire go out suggests that some of the older boys aren’t actually fussed about getting off the island. This scene is interesting because it shows Ralph is starting to feel exhausted from being the only authority figure and he is getting frazzled at trying to get so many boys to conform to rules that will ultimately save them.

Ralph starts to lose his authority when Jack begins to openly challenge him. Jack punches Piggy and steals his glasses in order to restart the signal fire, Ralph calls him out on it saying “That was a dirty trick” and we are told “Ralph felt his lip twitch”. Ralph is openly identifying Jack’s deviant actions whereas in the past he would have let Jack away with it. He is trying to control Jack here. His lip twitching is an involuntary action but it betrays Ralph’s dislike for Jack. This scene is interesting as the group of boys can now see the split between Jack and Ralph and will be forced to take sides, and Ralph here actually looks weaker because he is not using brute strength.

Finally Ralph loses control of the boys completely but refuses to join them as he still clings to civility over savagery. When Simon is mistaken for the Beast and murdered Ralph is the only one who will admit “that was Simon, that was murder” and when they are finally rescued and the naval officer asks jokingly had they killed anyone Ralph responds “Only two” and Golding reveals “The officer knew when people were telling the truth. He whistled softly.” Ralph’s first statement is just that, a clear acknowledgement that the boys’ savage behaviour has led them to kill someone. Ralph’s response to the naval officer implies that the boys could have ended up killing more boys if rescue hadn’t occurred. Ralph is not scared of the truth. Ralph is interesting because he is the one boy on the island who has matured and grown a strong moral centre prizing civility over savagery.

In conclusion, Golding makes Ralph an interesting character by showing him grow as a leader and then remain the only boy who will not succumb to savagery by joining Jack’s group. Ralph is there to show us what could happen when savagery takes over from civility.

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• Lord of the Flies

William Golding

• Literature Notes
• Lord of the Flies at a Glance
• Book Summary
• About Lord of the Flies
• Character List
• Summary and Analysis
• Character Analysis
• Character Map
• William Golding Biography
• Critical Essays
• Major Themes
• Concept, Identity, and Manifestations of the Beast
• Golding's Use of the Fable Structure
• Famous Quotes
• Film Versions
• Full Glossary
• Essay Questions
• Practice Projects
• Cite this Literature Note

Character Analysis Ralph

Ralph represents leadership, the properly socialized and civilized young man. He is attractive, charismatic, and decently intelligent. He demonstrates obvious common sense. Ralph is the one who conceives the meeting place, the fire, and the huts. He synthesizes and applies Piggy 's intellectualism, and he recognizes the false fears and superstitions as barriers to their survival. He is a diplomat and a natural leader.

Ralph's capacity for leadership is evident from the very beginning (he is the only elected leader of the boys). During the crisis caused by the sight of the dead paratrooper on the mountain, Ralph is able to proceed with both sense and caution. He works vigilantly to keep the group's focus on the hope for rescue. When the time comes to investigate the castle rock, Ralph takes the lead alone, despite his fear of the so-called beast. Even in this tense moment, politeness is his default. When Simon mumbles that he doesn't believe in the beast, Ralph "answered him politely, as if agreeing about the weather." British culture is famed for civilized reserve in emotional times. By the standards of the society he's left behind, Ralph is a gentleman.

Having started with a schoolboy's romantic attitude toward anticipated "adventures" on the island, Ralph eventually loses his excitement about their independence and longs for the comfort of the familiar. He indulges in images of home, recollections of the peaceful life of cereal and cream and children's books he had once known. He fantasizes about bathing and grooming. Ralph's earlier life had been civilized, and he brought to the island innocent expectations and confidence until certain experiences informed his naiveté and destroyed his innocence. As he gains experience with the assemblies, the forum for civilized discourse, he loses faith in them. "Don't we love meetings?" Ralph says bitterly, frustrated that only a few of the boys actually follow through on their plans.

Over time, Ralph starts to lose his power of organized thought, such as when he struggles to develop an agenda for the meeting but finds himself lost in an inarticulate maze of vague thoughts. Ralph's loss of verbal ability bodes ill for the group because his authority lies in the platform, the symbol of collective governance and problem solving where verbal communication is the primary tool. Ralph's mental workings are subject to the same decay as his clothing; both are frayed by the rigors of the primitive life. Yet in response to the crisis of the lost rescue opportunity, Ralph demonstrates his capacities as a conceptual thinker.

When "[w]ith a convulsion of the mind, Ralph discovered dirt and decay," he is symbolically discovering humankind's dark side. At the same time, he has learned that intellect, reason, sensitivity, and empathy are the tools for holding the evil at bay. Ralph's awareness is evident when, realizing the difficulty of this lifestyle in contrast to his initial impression of its glamour, he "smiled jeeringly," as an adult might look back with cynicism on the ideals held as a youth.

Although he becomes worn down by the hardships and fears of primitive life and is gradually infected by the savagery of the other boys, Ralph is the only character who identifies Simon's death as murder and has a realistic, unvarnished view of his participation. He feels both loathing and excitement over the kill he witnessed. Once Ralph becomes prey, he realizes that he is an outcast "Cos I had some sense" — not just common sense but a sense of his identity as a civilized person, a sense of the particular morality that had governed the boys' culture back home.

When Ralph encounters the officer on the beach at the end of the book, he is not relieved at being rescued from a certain grisly death but discomforted over "his filthy appearance," an indication that his civility had endured his ordeal. In exchange for his innocence, he has gained an understanding of humankind's natural character, an understanding not heretofore available to him: that evil is universally present in all people and requires a constant resistance by the intellect that was Piggy, by the mysticism and spiritualism that was Simon, and by the hopes and dreams that are his.

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Ralph is the representation or symbol of leadership, civilization, order, good, etc. This quote ‘He was old enough, twelve years and a few months, to have lost the prominent tummy of childhood and not yet old enough for adolescence to have made him awkward. You could see now that he might make a boxer, as far as width and heaviness of shoulders went, but there was a mildness about his mouth and eyes that proclaimed no devil’ physically describes him as at least 12 years old, having no baby fat and no adverse effects of puberty, ‘fair’, attractive, has ‘fair’ hair, has the body of a boxer, athletic, and last, but not least, mild eyes and mouth, and in a nonphysical sense, also is charismatic, intelligent, shows common sense, a natural leader, diplomatic. Ralph is the one who makes the meeting place for the boys to get together to talk, the fire for warmth and a way to get the boys rescued, and the huts for shelter against bad weather and also uses Piggy’s intelligence and realizes that the boys’ fears and superstitions stop them from surviving. He shows his ability to be a leader when he was able to think and act cautiously and with sense when the other boys panic over mistaking the dead soldier with a parachute on the mountain for the ‘beastie’ and tries endlessly to make the boys focused on hoping to get rescued and also when he was the only one to explore the castle rock even though he is afraid of the ‘beastie’ At first, Ralph was expected having adventures on the island but as time goes on, he becomes unexcited about the boys’ independence from adults and wants to go to his ‘old’ life which is shown when he daydreams about his ‘other’ life and also about bathing and grooming in the quote ‘Once, following his father from Chatham to Devonport, they had lived in a cottage on the edge of the moors. In the succession of houses that Ralph had known, this one stood out with particular clarity because after that house he had been sent away to school. Mummy had still been with them and Daddy had come home every day. Wild ponies came to the stone wall at the bottom of the garden, and it had snowed. Just behind the cottage there was a sort of shed and you could lie up there, watching the ‘akes swirl past. You could see the damp spot where each ‘ake died, then you could mark the ‘rst ‘ake that lay down without melting and watch, the whole ground turn white. You could go indoors when you were cold and look out of the window, past the bright copper kettle and the plate with the little blue men. When you went to bed there was a bowl of corn’akes with sugar and cream. And the books’they stood on the shelf by the bed, leaning together with always two or three laid ‘at on top because he had not both- ered to put them back properly. They were dog-eared and scratched. There was the bright, shining one about Topsy and Mopsy that he never read because it was about two girls; there was the one about the magician which you read with a kind of tied-down terror, skipping page twenty-seven with the awful picture of the spider; there was a book about people who had dug things up, Egyptian things; there was The Boy’s Book of Trains, The Boy’s Book of Ships. Vividly they came before him; he could have reached up and touched them, could feel the weight and slow slide with which The Mammoth Book for Boys would come out and slither down…. Everything was all right; everything was good-humored and friendly.’ However, Ralph’s experiences on the island have destroyed his naivet?? and destroyed his innocence which is shown when he becomes more faithless about assemblies or meetings even as he gets more experience with them when he bitterly says “Don’t we love meetings?” because only him, Piggy, and Simon does anything productive toward the boys’ survival on the island. As time goes on, he loses his verbal ability and his ability to organize his thoughts properly like how order and rules have disappeared because his mental ‘workings’, like his clothes, have been worn down by the primitive life on the island like when he tries and fails to develop an agenda for the meeting and when he cannot remember why he wants a signal fire and that Piggy has to tell him in the quote “remember what we came for. The fire. My specs.” However, he still has his ability to think abstractly when he responds to the lost rescue opportunity’s crisis. The quote “with a convulsion of the mind, Ralph discovered dirt and decay” shows that he figuratively discovers the dark nature of humanity but also, at the same time, he recognizes that the only things that can ‘hold’ the evil at bay are intelligence, empathy, and last but not least sensitivity which is hown when he ‘smiled jeeringly,’ like how adults might ‘look back’ with skepticism on ideals they had when they were children, when he recognizes the hardships of life on the island compared to his first impression of glamour on the island. ‘He jumped down from the terrace. The sand was thick over his black shoes and the heat hit him. He became conscious of the weight of clothes, kicked his shoes off ‘ercely and ripped off each stocking with its elastic garter in a single movement. Then he leapt back on the terrace, pulled off his shirt, and stood there among the skull-like coconuts with green shadows from the palms and the forest sliding over his skin. He undid the snake-clasp of his belt, lugged off his shorts and pants, and stood there naked, looking at the dazzling beach and the water’ Ralph’s first action is stripping off all of his clothes which is never a good thing because it is the first step toward becoming lawless and savage stripping is never a good sign and even though Ralph is just thinking practically when he took off his clothes to get cooler, it also shows that Ralph is just as savage as the other boys which is shown when he “shrieks with laughter” when Piggy told him his name which shows that although he is a good kid. The quote ‘Ralph entered into the play and everybody laughed…Ralph, carried away by a sudden thick excitement, grabbed Eric’s spear and jabbed at Robert with it…Ralph too was ‘ghting to get near, to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable ‘esh. The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering’ shows that Ralph looks depraved when he hunts when he talks about wounding a pig for the first time with excitement and thinks that “hunting was good after all.” Also, when he and Piggy’s went to Jack’s party, ‘Piggy and Ralph, under the threat of the sky, found themselves eager to take a place in this demented but partly secure society. They were glad to touch the brown backs of the fence that hemmed in the terror and made it governable.’ which turns into Simon’s murder although Ralph tries to deny that he was involved in the murder of Simon by saying that “we left early,” it is false because he helped kill Simon which goes to show that even Ralph has the beast living ‘inside’ him. When Ralph “launched himself like a cat; stabbed, snarling, with the spear, and the savage doubled up,” he shows that he is all animal-like at the end of the novel. Last but not least, Ralph realizes that the order back home is just fragile ‘cover’ of civilization and that he is going to be as savage as anybody else given the chance during a meeting in the late afternoon when everyone and everything looks different in his quote “If faces [are] different when lit from above or below’what is a face? What is anything?” which basically means that people lose their meanings when they are at the island because the boys become like savages, they are completely different than the regular British boys that arrived on the island. However, even though he becomes ‘frayed’ by the primitive life’s ‘fears’ and ‘trials’ and is slowly becoming a savage by the other boys, he is the one who thinks of the death of Simon as murder and has a unbiased view of his involvement with Simon’s death and so feels both loathing and excitement over it. When he becomes ‘prey,’ he recognizes that he is an outcast in that he is the only person with common sense and the only civilized person with a moral conscience which shows when he meets the officer on the beach that he is upset over his appearance because it is dirty rather than being relieved that he has been saved from a painful death which shows that after everything that has happened on the island, he still has his civility. He gave up his innocence and naivet?? and gained an understanding of the nature of humanity which is that everybody has evil in them and that everyone needs intelligence, spirit and mysticism, and last but not least, hopes and dreams to resist evil and last, but not least, this knowledge makes Ralph an tragic figure because even though Piggy and Simon are murdered, he is the only one who have to go back to civilization with the knowledge that he is, like everybody else, just a lawless and orderless savage.

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Lord of the Flies

William golding, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Lord of the Flies: Characters ( AQA GCSE English Literature )

Revision note.

It is vital that you understand that characters are often used symbolically to express ideas. Golding uses all of his characters to symbolise various ideas that he chose to explore in Lord of the Flies, and the differences between characters reflect age-old debates about human nature. Therefore, it is very useful not only to learn about each character individually, but how they compare and contrast to other characters in the novel. Below you will find character profiles of:

Minor characters:

The Littluns

Sam and Eric

• He is the novel’s protagonist and we see a good deal of the novel’s action from his perspective
• He can be seen as representative of humanity as a whole
• He experiences the competing influences of reason (from Piggy) and i ndividualism (from Jack)
• Ultimately, his demise suggests that Golding believes that i ndividualism (and savagery) will always triumph over reason and cooperation
• He is a charming and magnetic figure for the other boys
• He is also athletic and physically capable, which makes him even more attractive to the group
• This means he is a natural choice for the boys to elect as leader
• Ralph attempts to do what he feels is “right”
• Golding has him repeatedly referring to the values and moral codes of English society (“like in school”)
• He understands, unlike many of the other boys, that acting altruistically is the only way they will survive
• He deplores the impulsive i ndividualism of Jack and his hunters
• Although he has a strong moral compass, Ralph is easily led
• When invited to go hunting by Jack, he very quickly becomes frenzied like the rest of Jack’s tribe
• He needs constant reminding from Piggy to maintain order, or of his responsibilities as leader
• He becomes swept up in the ritualistic frenzy during Simon’s murder
• Unlike many of the other boys, Ralph recognises that evil lurks in the boys
• He acknowledges his part in the murder of Simon
• He “weeps” when rescued, understanding the “darkness of man’s heart”
• He is elected as leader in a vote
• These meetings allow – via the conch shell – all members of the group to have a voice and to debate
• He prioritises survival and rescue
• He sets rules and responsibilities to share out the burden of work fairly
• He feels entitled to lead the group because his father is a commander in the Navy
• His rules and division of labour are an attempt to emulate the society he has come from
• He mocks Piggy for his lower-class accent

• He is the most intelligent of all the boys
• It is his idea to use the conch shell in meetings
• It is his idea to first create shelters
• Although he objects to the other boys using them, his glasses are used to start the signal fire
• He keeps a register of all the boys
• He constantly reminds the others – even Ralph – of the need to follow the rules
• He reminds Ralph of his own leadership responsibilities
• Unlike the immature littluns, and the distracted hunters, Piggy understands how serious it is that they have to fend for themselves
• In Chapter 2, he seems to be the only boy aware (or willing to state) that “nobody knows where we are”
• His knowledge of the difficulty of surviving, and being rescued, is one reason he desperately clings to the rules 
• He says at one point that “Life […] is scientific”
• Indeed, we as readers never discover Piggy’s real name
• This is dehumanising , and his treatment in Chapter 1 foreshadows the violence first committed by the other boys against real pigs, and later, Piggy himself
• Jack repeatedly threatens Piggy with violence
• Piggy is later the victim of violence from Jack and his hunters
• Despite his absolute loyalty to him, Ralph never steps in to prevent Piggy being verbally or physically abused
• Ultimately he is killed by a rock thrown by Roger on Castle Rock
• Just before he dies he states: “Which is better – to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill?”
• For Golding, clearly savagery (“hunt and kill”) triumphs over reason and civilisation (“have rules and agree”)
• He is mocked for his lower-class accent
• He is constantly bullied by Jack and his hunters
• He is routinely ignored by others, including the littluns
• Society’s rules prevent human beings acting on their violent impulses
• Golding is suggesting that without these social norms  people with lower status would come to harm

• He stands in opposition to Ralph in almost every way
• It becomes increasingly clear that Jack becomes an obstacle that Ralph must overcome in order to first survive, and then be rescued
• As early as Chapter 1, Jack is described as “slashing” his knife at the plants on the island
• This is a turning-point for Jack’s character, as after this moment he becomes less and less inhibited to commit acts of violence
• The hunters have their first successful hunt
• They also begin to take part in ritual ceremonies, one of which (with a boy called Robert) almost ends in bloodshed
• He begins a reign of terror on Castle Rock, torturing any boys who disobey him
• Jack is obsessed with the idea of killing a pig
• For Jack, although he claims that he is hunting to provide food, it is much more about a primal and savage desire to kill another living creature
• Not tending to the signal fire (as he was supposed to) leads to a missed chance of rescue, but Jack firmly defends his actions
• Golding is perhaps suggesting, therefore, that the human impulse towards savagery is much stronger than that of civilisation (which rescue would represent)
• This means that he is not in total control, and has to compromise
• Initially he insists that doing whatever he pleases (hunting instead of building huts or gathering water) is actually better for the group (“I gave you food”)
• However, later his total rejection of Ralph’s authority is more explicit: “Bollocks to the rules!” (Chapter 5)
• However, this freedom is totally illusory , because Jack always has total authority on Castle Rock
• Jack punishes any boy who disobeys his orders
• On Castle Rock, Jack becomes a symbol for absolute autocracy
• Jack is also athletic and physically imposing (he is one of the tallest and oldest boys)
• He has authority over his choir from the outset (in Chapter 1 he is described as “controlling them”)
• He is powerful enough to kill 
• He offers the boys freedom, where Ralph offers chores and rules
• 1) A society based on sacrifice is less attractive to humans than one where personal freedom is promised
• 2) A uthoritarianism dominates democracy , given the opportunity 

• In Chapter 3 he helps the littluns gather food by picking fruit they cannot reach
• This shows that he believes in acting altruistically
• He is – perhaps other than Ralph – the only character in Lord of the Flies who makes personal sacrifices for others
• He is the only boy who is consistently described by Golding helping build the huts
• Where Jack “slashes” at them, Simon sees the beauty in a particular plant he refers to as “candle buds”
• Where the other boys fear the island, Simon sees the island’s beauty, especially in the secluded glade he finds
• Jack spoils this glade with the sacrificial sow’s head, just as he will destroy nature later by setting fire to the jungle in Chapter 12
• He is the first boy to realise that there is no beast on the island
• He says of the beast: “maybe it’s only us”
• This could also be Golding suggesting that there is no external evil on the island, only the evil that comes directly from the boys themselves
• Unlike Jesus Christ (which Simon can be seen to represent), his goodness does not inspire others to act altruistically
• They call him “queer” and Simon seems to have no friends
• He cuts an isolated figure and is marginalised  by the other boys
• Golding is perhaps suggesting that the human impulse for savagery and individualism is much stronger than that for civilisation and cooperation
• This is further evidence that all of humanity naturally tends towards savagery
• Golding is perhaps also suggesting that this human impulse is stronger than external value systems, such as the moral code of Christianity

• Roger is used by Golding to represent humanity’s capacity for evil
• Initially, Roger is presented as a quiet member of Jack’s choir
• At this stage he “threw to miss”
• This suggests that he is still constrained by society’s moral codes (“Roger’s arm was conditioned by civilisation”)
• However, this episode foreshadows later violent acts committed by Roger
• Later in the novel, Jack’s tribe split from Ralph’s and become liberated from Ralph’s and Piggy’s rules
• After the first successful hunt, the hunters are emboldened to commit more and more acts of violence (even against other boys)
• This rock – a boulder – is launched directly at Piggy, the impact of which kills him
• Sam and Eric indicate that Roger’s  inhibitions have now completely vanished: “ You don’t know Roger. He’s a terror”
• Without these conventions governing our behaviour, he seems to suggest, evil is unleashed

Minor characters

• The littluns are a collection of much younger boys who rely almost entirely on the older boys
• If Jack and Ralph are used by Golding to represent different styles of government , then the littluns represent ordinary citizens in society
• They keep registers
• They build shelters and provide drinking water for all the boys
• At the end of Chapter 2, Piggy notices that one littlun – with a mulberry-coloured birthmark – has disappeared
• This boy was last seen playing where a wildfire has just been raging
• It is clear to the reader that this boy has probably perished in the fire, but the boys ignore it and the littlun is barely mentioned again
• Golding could be suggesting that establishing a civilisation and assuming responsibility for its citizens is extremely challenging:
• Ultimately, Ralph and Piggy’s project fails, and this episode with the littlun with the mulberry-coloured birthmark foreshadows this
• Ralph and Piggy try to take this responsibility seriously:
• However, it is clear that even Ralph’s community-focused leadership fails the littluns:
• Sam and Eric are twin boys and are known collectively as Samneric
• They are loyal to Ralph and Piggy, even after Jack’s tribe splits from the group
• Golding uses the characters of Sam and Eric to explore the different leadership styles of Ralph and Jack:
• Although Sam and Eric wish to remain loyal to Ralph, they are forced to join Jack’s tribe
• This shows that Jack’s authoritarian rule is more powerful than Ralph’s democratic leadership
• Golding’s view is, therefore, a pessimistic one: that even though it is recognised that democratic government is preferable, it will lose out to authoritarianism

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Nick is a graduate of the University of Cambridge and King’s College London. He started his career in journalism and publishing, working as an editor on a political magazine and a number of books, before training as an English teacher. After nearly 10 years working in London schools, where he held leadership positions in English departments and within a Sixth Form, he moved on to become an examiner and education consultant. With more than a decade of experience as a tutor, Nick specialises in English, but has also taught Politics, Classical Civilisation and Religious Studies.

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Lord of the Flies

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• Literary Devices - Lord of the Flies
• Internet Archive - "Lord of the Flies"

Lord of the Flies , novel by William Golding , published in 1954. The book explores the dark side of human nature and stresses the importance of reason and intelligence as tools for dealing with the chaos of existence.

In the novel, children are evacuated from Britain because of a nuclear war. One airplane, with adults and prep-school boys as passengers, crashes on an uninhabited island, and all the adults are killed. As the boys fashion their own society, their attempts at establishing a social order gradually devolve into savagery. Finally abandoning all moral constraints, the boys commit murder before they are rescued and returned to civilization.

• Lord of the Flies

William Golding

• Literature Notes
• Lord of the Flies at a Glance
• Book Summary
• About Lord of the Flies
• Character List
• Summary and Analysis
• Character Analysis
• Character Map
• William Golding Biography
• Critical Essays
• Major Themes
• Concept, Identity, and Manifestations of the Beast
• Golding's Use of the Fable Structure
• Famous Quotes
• Film Versions
• Full Glossary
• Essay Questions
• Practice Projects
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Character Analysis Ralph

Ralph represents leadership, the properly socialized and civilized young man. He is attractive, charismatic, and decently intelligent. He demonstrates obvious common sense. Ralph is the one who conceives the meeting place, the fire, and the huts. He synthesizes and applies Piggy 's intellectualism, and he recognizes the false fears and superstitions as barriers to their survival. He is a diplomat and a natural leader.

Ralph's capacity for leadership is evident from the very beginning (he is the only elected leader of the boys). During the crisis caused by the sight of the dead paratrooper on the mountain, Ralph is able to proceed with both sense and caution. He works vigilantly to keep the group's focus on the hope for rescue. When the time comes to investigate the castle rock, Ralph takes the lead alone, despite his fear of the so-called beast. Even in this tense moment, politeness is his default. When Simon mumbles that he doesn't believe in the beast, Ralph "answered him politely, as if agreeing about the weather." British culture is famed for civilized reserve in emotional times. By the standards of the society he's left behind, Ralph is a gentleman.

Having started with a schoolboy's romantic attitude toward anticipated "adventures" on the island, Ralph eventually loses his excitement about their independence and longs for the comfort of the familiar. He indulges in images of home, recollections of the peaceful life of cereal and cream and children's books he had once known. He fantasizes about bathing and grooming. Ralph's earlier life had been civilized, and he brought to the island innocent expectations and confidence until certain experiences informed his naiveté and destroyed his innocence. As he gains experience with the assemblies, the forum for civilized discourse, he loses faith in them. "Don't we love meetings?" Ralph says bitterly, frustrated that only a few of the boys actually follow through on their plans.

Over time, Ralph starts to lose his power of organized thought, such as when he struggles to develop an agenda for the meeting but finds himself lost in an inarticulate maze of vague thoughts. Ralph's loss of verbal ability bodes ill for the group because his authority lies in the platform, the symbol of collective governance and problem solving where verbal communication is the primary tool. Ralph's mental workings are subject to the same decay as his clothing; both are frayed by the rigors of the primitive life. Yet in response to the crisis of the lost rescue opportunity, Ralph demonstrates his capacities as a conceptual thinker.

When "[w]ith a convulsion of the mind, Ralph discovered dirt and decay," he is symbolically discovering humankind's dark side. At the same time, he has learned that intellect, reason, sensitivity, and empathy are the tools for holding the evil at bay. Ralph's awareness is evident when, realizing the difficulty of this lifestyle in contrast to his initial impression of its glamour, he "smiled jeeringly," as an adult might look back with cynicism on the ideals held as a youth.

Although he becomes worn down by the hardships and fears of primitive life and is gradually infected by the savagery of the other boys, Ralph is the only character who identifies Simon's death as murder and has a realistic, unvarnished view of his participation. He feels both loathing and excitement over the kill he witnessed. Once Ralph becomes prey, he realizes that he is an outcast "Cos I had some sense" — not just common sense but a sense of his identity as a civilized person, a sense of the particular morality that had governed the boys' culture back home.

When Ralph encounters the officer on the beach at the end of the book, he is not relieved at being rescued from a certain grisly death but discomforted over "his filthy appearance," an indication that his civility had endured his ordeal. In exchange for his innocence, he has gained an understanding of humankind's natural character, an understanding not heretofore available to him: that evil is universally present in all people and requires a constant resistance by the intellect that was Piggy, by the mysticism and spiritualism that was Simon, and by the hopes and dreams that are his.

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Lord of The Flies — Piggy in “Lord of the Flies”: Symbol of Civilisation

Piggy in "Lord of The Flies": Symbol of Civilisation

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Introduction, body paragraph 1, body paragraph 2, body paragraph 3.

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Lord Of The Flies Characters By William Golding

1. introduction to the characters.

The characters in this book are incomplete when they are introduced and during the final revelation they, in a sense, dissolve. In Lord of the Flies, Golding created a group of children who are similar to the personalities and conditions of the human community. The characters of the book, human and beyond human, are taken from the everyday disputes and conditions of human life. In order to make the novel sound plausible to the reader, he selected the leaders, the bully and his subordinate, the intelligent, the reliable, and the passive. Golding's singular success in this book was to piece together, stone by stone, the solid reality around the pliable and the consummate imaginary. "Lord of the Flies" is the story of a group of British schoolboys who are marooned on an isolated island. At first, the group remains reasonably organized, with the presence of strong leadership, and the boys reach an agreement that what they do must be in the best interest of the group. Soon, their social structure and organization begin to break apart. With the disappearance of rules and humans on the island, basic characteristics emerge, such as cooperation, authority, and compulsion. The two characters that show these characteristics in the book are Ralph and Jack.

1.1. Overview of the Main Characters

Characters in the literary work are quite complex and interesting. The main character may experience a series of different feelings, thoughts, and wishes. The author's job is to create a multi-dimensional person, not a clearly outlined image in literature. Analysis of characters is fundamental to the process of understanding the work. Characters are of two types. Characters can be realistic, they behave as ordinary people or symbols, and they behave as allegorical figures of a large issue. The process of identity recognition is developed in stages based on the problems of the characters. The first phase is the emergence of a tendency to recognize the characters as a model of reality. The second stage begins the distinction drawn, the reader is starting to notice the differences in personality. Eventually, people perceive characters in terms of their own values. The characters in The Lord of the Flies can be grouped into several characteristics: the characters who bring no light to society (Jack, Roger, and the Littluns), the characters who connect the author to the good of society, and the characters who demonstrate the traits and benefits of society (Simon, Piggy, Ralph, and the Other Biguns). 1.1. Overview of the Main Characters Piggy, Ralph, Jack, Simon, and Roger are characters in Lord of the Flies that are under the author's control. Golding admits that he wanted to show the psychological level of good and evil. Ralph, Piggy, and Simon all react defensively when they are underage and their actions will be symbolic. Jack and his men are very primal and their reactions are direct and show evil. As the author of the book, Golding showed the relationship between the two main characters and how they interacted with each other. Golding describes his concerns about the two basic aspects of human beings through his characters. When he shows a conflict of good and evil, he uses younger boys with their painful children. Lord of the Flies is a microcosm in which Golding tested his specific thoughts and opinions to have good and evil on four different levels. Golding tests these thoughts by experimenting with a few characters to show the importance of good and evil levels. Golding stated that "demonstrating the essence of what is happening on the island and the way people live at different depths and manifestations of problems (On Beelzebub the symbol), p. 10). Ralph and Piggy have the physical characteristics of an adult and are role models that Golding uses to benefit society. They both bring good things to society, as they both believe in good and proper behavior. Simon represents a kind of knowledge and rules at a higher level than other characters. Roger is the epitome of pure evil and destruction, selfishness against others. He does four things in the book, the next sharply increasing malicious act. The first of these acts is when he stops the Littluns provision of ripe fruit on the first day of the group, the next act when, while removing Sugar's pile of rocks, rolls flat, this is accompanied by a prejudiced look at the small girl. When the hypothetical rumbling sound from the mountain appears, Roger throws away--and does not repeat the reference. This third act leads Roger to solidify the presence of the beast and the dead by killing Piggy. All the characters in the book are witnesses evidence of good and evil, which allows readers to see what is wrong. Golding put the boys together to see how good and bad fight in a real-life situation (Scaling Golding 2).

1.2. Significance of Character Development

"...Roger's arm was conditioned by a civilization that knew nothing of him and was in ruins." - William Golding In his novel, Lord of the Flies, William Golding provided vivid descriptions for the development of the interaction of the characters in the story. By analyzing the characters, we can see which character is most important and has a lot of influence, or which character played a supporting role to enrich the story. In all, the characters are the ones that advance the story and act out the story plot. Without them, the story itself will lose its dimension. The character descriptions in Lord of the Flies have great significance in developing the story because the plot mainly depends on the actions of the characters and what roles they portray in society. The outer appearances of the boys were their most obvious characteristics, and they were mentioned from time to time throughout the story. These physical descriptions helped to paint the pictures in the readers' minds and to make the stories more realistic. Golding also offered us a specific description of characters' personalities. By showing their thoughts, actions, and how they behave in society, he led us to become more familiar with the characters. The boys' thoughts reflected who they were and their hidden personalities; their different behaviors during social interaction were in fact Golding's own ways of telling the story of the group. We might learn from his narrative method and then see the manner of how human thoughts are influenced by personal traits, backgrounds, and society.

2. Leadership and Power Dynamics

The two boys who struggle most for dominance, aside from Ralph, are Jack and Piggy. Jack came with the 'boys' choir,' which is reflected in the way they follow him and in the language with which they are described: 'With drear obscurity, excitement beat upon them and they danced and sang' (23). He knows that the other boys are afraid, so he admits his fear; and he knows it will be harder the first night. About him blows the 'coercion' of his size, the 'mask'; the assembled group 'murmur assent.' This, Golding tells us, is the voice of a leader. The boys trust him, recognize his strength, and are afraid to be alone. Notice how Larry is described as the group is composed in some way of physical types which are skeletally similar to Ralph. Jack is 'tall, thin, and fleshing; and his hair was red beneath the black cap.' His skin has been 'bleached by the sun to a pink that is not quite tanned.' A story is that Piggy's 'hair was the only indication of his inner intensity.' His character mask, a 'comical ugly-faced-'This figures the physical stereotypes that are enacted as the character plays. None of the characters, except possibly Simon, undergoes a significant change. It is through Simon that we are going to imagine some of the alternative paths that the other characters could have followed.

2.1. Ralph vs. Jack: Contrasting Leadership Styles

The contrasting leadership styles of Ralph and Jack are central to the overall theme of the novel. The novel tells a story about a group of British boys stranded on an island and their tribulations during World War II. Although Ralph is voted chief by the other boys when the story begins, he realizes that the power struggle has only begun. He uses the conch to call meetings and lays down rules for the boys to live by. Jack resents Ralph's power and wants to be chief himself. The hunters are afraid of the "beast" and Ralph needs Jack and his hunters to kill a small pig so they can all eat it. The conch, rules, and orders do not concern Jack, only if he gets to be in charge and when everybody agrees to his free and unrestrained life. The boys in Jack's choir converting to hunters demonstrate the inherent evil in both the individual and in society when we are free to act on our own impulses. Ralph and Jack stand for different forms of leadership. Jack wants to be in control of his own life and also happens to be the only one capable enough to lead the group of boys that have made him the leader. He believes that the laws on the island limit his liberty. Every step Ralph takes closer is an intrusion on his territory. In their brutal killing of the sow, the tribe demonstrates its connection with dark, contemporary European history and anti-Semitism. Jack states in "Castle Rock" that his tribe is a "martial venture". When the other party comes to arrest Jack and his family, a major struggle ensues. Chief and Jack are the chief proprietors in the imagined community of the island. Their power is based on charisma, physical power, and fear. They all lead when others realize that the leadership skills are no longer valid. The only leadership they will follow are Ralph and Jack. Power of body more than power of character, virtue, indeed religious knowledge is the determining force in what society believes. The ability to charm and live together was forgotten long ago. They must lead, and they will be treated like leaders.

2.2. Piggy: The Intellectual Outcast

Piggy is Ralph's right-hand man. He has many good ideas, but because Piggy suggests them, the others think badly of the ideas. They ridicule him and laugh at him. His weight and glasses single him out as a target, and as he is an orphan, he has not had the support and grounding from his family. His bipolar nature makes him appear strong and resilient, and also exasperated when the boys are hurting his feelings. Piggy is the intellectual. It is Piggy who suggests that the boys build the fire on top of the island so that a passing ship will see the smoke, and so that they can cook the meat also. He suggests that the best way to ensure that the fire does not go out is to take the burning log to the place where they are building the fire. In his hatred for the lack of cleanliness, Piggy wishes for baths in the clear water and says, "If I had a bath, boats, a TV" and the boys reply, "There isn't a bath on the island, there isn't a TV, Piggy!" Piggy's involvement in a talking session led by Ralph's conch is crucial as he knows never to speak without taking the conch. The conch is a symbol of authority and civility. Piggy says, "I got the conch," when attempting to stop Jack's team from starting their own camp, showing that he considers the conch a powerful way of upholding the rules and laws for the feeling of decency. Piggy does use somewhat high and intellectual language (many words), but his nurse mother's manner has taught him to be clean, polite, and decent. Piggy makes an inappropriate request to be called Piggy as the other boys will take his name as a joke. Piggy finds Jack degrading and appealing to the boys' nastiness. Finally, "Piggy - fearful, is driven by ingrained principles, and without scruple filled with indignation, and tries to halt the beastly apocalyptic movement. Piggy's main, almost instinctive moments are based on his maternal instinct." It is only when Piggy is cruelly murdered that Roger is made to face misconduct, despair, and fate's curse.

3. Symbolism and Allegory in Character Representation

In societies that lack overarching structures and institutions to outline laws and agreements between individuals, human society is an area of instability, unpredictability, and chaos. Lord of the Flies presents human society's anthropological basis. It unveils the uncivilized nature of individuals when subordinated to and being part of a social structure. More specifically, it utilizes the settings and symbols of an isolated deserted island, where a group of juveniles, expelled from a plane crash, comprehends the ancient terror of nature and the instincts that govern behavior in anarchic pastoral life. The kids, as if representing an entire model of society, exhibit their original depth. To further clarify, Ralph represents authority, leadership, and rationality in the isolated island paradise, displaying his inclination towards recognized religious precepts and talks about the civilized world. The Christian worldview that distinguishes between good, inherent order, fairness, and harmony constantly influences him. Throughout the text, it overshadows the children's actions and reactions. Piggy, alternatively, represents science, civilized knowledge, intellectualism, and the power of thinking and is an object of Norman realist philosophical beliefs. He understands the despair of human nature and the authenticity of human life in his language and worldview, providing hope and insight to the immune system. He approaches life by knowing the rational nature of survival's mechanical repetitions, and these predict development's regular processes.

3.1. The Conch Shell: Symbol of Authority

The conch shell on the island is the most important symbol of authority in the novel. The meeting called by Ralph as the boys are first trying to organize themselves and first attempt to govern themselves is a call by using the conch shell. It therefore stands for the authority from and by the person or group holding it, but the holding of the authority is dependent upon the unanimous approval and decision of the group. With the arrangement, the boys, disorganized by nature, elect Ralph to be chief with certain specified rules and rights and restrictions under himself. As chief he holds the conch, and therefore the right to make the rules governing the island. Piggy thinks of the possibility of conch as authorities as "Suddenly Piggy was a-bubble with decorous excitement. "The conch counts for something. He kind of scuttled upholding the conch, my science, of course...The little ones! But I used to call him just a boy of his age and the conch doesn't count. What is wellful but Piggy has logic, even wisdom, Ralph, wisdom of a child with a sight." He clasped the support. At the same time showed the elegy of an authoritative figure at some possible party. Ralph clicked the valve of the deep hole." The conch became a symbol of his authority within their burgeoning society, although he is unable to use it effectively until the end of the story. It becomes crystal clear to the reader before the halfway point that the symbol of the conch is only as good as the people who hold it. Sometimes it is taken by individuals who feel out of power and wish to have it, others don't stand guard Ralph's power.

3.2. The Beast: Representation of Fear

The boys fear the beast without a proper appreciation of what it is and what it represents. Each child, a character without any depth of background or emotional presence, imbues the beast with his own particular fears. This reflection of intense desires and deep-seated fears is revealed as Piggy speaks about the beast for the first time. Ralph is taken in by the word and immediately the two boys agree that there is indeed a beast resting somewhere on the remote island. Later in the narrative, Simon perceives that the 'beast' is, in fact, inside the children! There can be little doubt that the author intended the beast to be reality and, in particular, the intense fear of the unknown. Another sophistication in the portrayal is that the true beast is within the boys themselves. Only Simon is outright aware of this elemental beast for some time on the island. Ralph sees the vast ocean and recognizes that they are separate from everything, including their parents. It satisfies a long-suppressed desire of absolute freedom but the depth of the conscious domination affects Ralph greatly. A ship on the distant horizon brings a realization that there is a civilization to which the boys were bound. The chapter ends with Ralph's rueful reflection 'I'm frightened. Of us. I want to go home. Oh God, I want to go home.' At the assembly, the idea is raised about beasts being very practical rather than supernatural in character. The vote procedures. The majority of the boys want rid of beasts, but then the irony is revealed to the reader. The fear in the minds of the boys transcends reality and Piggy speaks excitedly about a creeping hobgoblin creeping into their huts in the dark. The fire at night seeks to protect them from an imaginary beast, however, ironically this fire will make rescue impossible. The voice of civilization is faint and a storm hits the island signifying that the shelter provided by society is under threat. The time will yet come when the voice of civilization is drowned permanently.

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