Lord of the flies essay

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Lord of the Flies
In the middle of a raging war, a plane is presented evacuating some schoolboys who are Britons. The plane is short down and falls over deserted island in the tropical belt. Two characters, Piggy and Ralph discovered a shell of conch on the beach. Piggy quickly comes to the realization that they could make use of the shell to summon the rest of the boys. Having assembled, the boys come to a consensus to select a leader who would takes charge of the team and have them rescued. Ralph gets the nod of the group to lead the team and quickly appoints Jack from the group to head a group that will see to it that food is available to the team.
On another account, Ralph, Jack and yet another character in the group start of an expedition that was geared towards traversing the island. Having surveyed the island, Ralph opines that the group should light some fire so as to attract the passing ships. The boys actualize their dreams and the fire blazes. Unfortunately, the boys concentrate more on games than on the fire they lit. The negligent attitude of the boys sees the fire engulf the whole forest as the dead woods quickly burn out of control. One of the crew members disappears and is presumed to have been consumed by the ravaging inferno.
Ralph is an athletic, charismatic character in Lord of the Flies. He is the chief protagonist. It is sue to his charisma that he is accorded the honor to lead the boys as the bevel begins.

He is the chief embodiment of peace, order, productive leadership and civilization in the novel. The story depicts the children as young, judged by the kind of games they engage in. They splash water and play other games. Their deeper involvement in games prompts Ralph to voice a concern concerning their goal of keeping the flames of fire for signal purposes. The boys then build shelters for themselves. Being that he was the one in charge of food security, Jack got himself preoccupied with hunting. A fight ensues when Jack, having been criticized by Piggy, hits him on the face. After some order had been restored, fright seems to have rocked the little boys. They feel that there are monsters in the island and this makes them imagine the unthinkable.
Trouble comes when Ralph and Jack split groups and loyalties where each head separates camps. Ralph and Piggy suddenly turn monstrous and kills Simon. Moments later, Piggy is killed in a battle and Ralph escapes death with a whisker. The boys have turned wild and Jack with his crew hunt down Ralph who is apparently in his hiding in the forest. They try smoking him out in a bid to kill him. He survives the ordeal and gets moment to sober up and reflect on the events that came before.
The theme of Civilization versus savagery has widely been employed in the novel. It is the central theme that exists in the Lord of the Flies is a conflict between competing impulses that are two in number. These include the instincts guided by life under rules, moral commands and value of a group versus the instinct of violent acts and immediate desire to acquire supremacy. This is a system that can be represented in some ways, that is, laws versus anarchy, good versus evil to mention but a few. This theme occurs in the novel where morals of the boys and their civilization get dissolved. Godwin uses the characters of Ralph and Jack as symbols in the novel to represent the societal picture where it becomes apparent that humans often desire power and savagery. Ralph, being a protagonist, represents leadership and a sense of order. Jack on the other hand, is an antagonist whose quest surpasses the interests of other people within the novel.