Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Everyone's Evil

In the book, "Lord of the Flies", by, William Golding, a group of British boys are stranded on an island. During their time being deserted on the island, tension grows between the young boys and savagery breaks out. The desire for power affects the group, and people begin going their own way. With no absolute government ruling over them things begin to get blown out of proportion. Golding symbolizes political references throughout his book by showing that any type of government is difficult to achieve and maintain because of individuals' selfish motives.

Even though government is hard to achieve, some people on the island tried to accomplish it. Ralph is one of the older boys who tried to make life on the island fair from the beginning. The first day they get there, Ralph, who represents democracy, decides everyone should have a say in who becomes leader by having a vote. By having these kinds of ideas, he seems appealing to the other children on the island which makes him have a natural authority over everyone. However, over time he loses this authority to Jack. Jack is the opposite of Ralph; he doesn't care about anyone except himself and just wants to be in power. Unlike Ralph, Jack represents a dictatorship. Jack is power hungry and wants to be leader for all the wrong reasons. Ralph wants to be leader so he can help everyone out for the well-being of the survivors, while Jack wants to be in control just so he can feel superior to everyone else.

Even though most of the children on the island were not able to see Ralph was the best choice for government in their society, some people did. Piggy was one of Ralph's supporters who basically served as his lieutenant. Piggy represented the intelligence and sophistication of society, not only did he wear glasses but his hair never grows. This shows that he is not exposed to barbarity like the rest of the bows on the island. Piggy tries to transform the wild island into a society like the one they all lived in England. He tries to run things like an adult and with order. The other boys on the island ignore what he has to say and begin to start going wild. When they start to disregard him until he is killed it symbolizes their ignorance to common sense. Kind of like Piggy, a conch shell found on the island symbolizes control and rule of law. Whoever holds the conch is the person who has the right to speak and everyone else should listen too. The conch became an important object for whoever possessed it. The people who opposed the conch were Jack and his group. Jack's group is most of the hunters; they are basically under Jack's command, like his own secret police. The hunters symbolize military because Jack represents dictatorship. Jack's military carries out his duties and whatever he asks for. Some children are afraid to go against Jack in fear of the hunters.