Lord at meetings was a boy could

Lord at meetings was a boy could

Lord of the FliesMy character in Lord of the Flies is Ralph. The theme of Lord of the Flies is how human beings’ natural defects are the cause of society’s problems. No matter how good the laws or governments are at controlling people’s savageness, the inherent evil in people will cause chaos. Ralph tries to resists the urge to become a savage through out the book. Almost all of the other boys become hunters and forget what is important. In the beginning, all of the boys come to the assemblies and decide that Ralph should be the chief.

Ralph is the authority figure of the group. He was the one who kept reminding the boys that the fire is the important thing(chpt 4). The hunters let the fire go out and a ship just happens to come along. Because the fire is out, they lose a chance to be rescued. At first the meetings were the things that brought them together.

Meeting had rules and order in them. Jack was the boy that started the unraveling of civility. He wanted to be the chief and ended up being in charge of the hunters. He resented the power that Ralph had. Jack hated Piggy because he was always on Ralph’s side.

The rule at meetings was a boy could only speak if he had the conch shell. While Piggy was talking, Jack interrupted him and tried to take away the shell. Ralph yelled out “The rules! You’re breaking the rules!” Jack shouted “Who cares?” Ralph exclaims “Because the rules are the only thing we’ve got!”( pg 91) Ralph was the one who tried to keep everyone together and Jack did every thing to turn the other boys away from Ralph. There were times when Ralph almost when to the dark side. In chapter 5 on page 93, Ralph says “I ought to give up being chief.

” He had a fight with Jack over being responsible for the fire. Piggy and Simon convince Ralph to stay chief. When the rest of the boys don’t care anymore about things like being clean, Ralph thinks to himself that it is sad(chpt 7). Ralph comes closer to being one of the hunters when he participates in a mock kill. He too fells the urge to kill and to destroy. He also goes to the hunters and feasts with them on the pig.

Ralph struggles to remain in control of the boys. After the feast many of them join Jack’s group(chpt 9). The theme can be related to modern times.

People still succumb to their primal urges. Wars, genocides and other atrocities happen on a large scale. It is easier to do it in a group. Individuals, however, also can become savages. The recent school shootings and people who kill their co-workers are examples of people losing their civility. The normal reservations that people would have about hurting each other slowly disappear when they are not reinforced by society.

The boys on the island had no grown ups to tell them how to behave. Society is too lenient with violence in the media and people are not as repulsed by it as they should be. The boys were hardly shaken by the fact that they caused the deaths of three people. Only Ralph and Piggy understood that life should still be respected. My opinion of this book is that it is too close to reality for comfort.

People do sink into savageness and are capable of killing. I don’t like to be reminded of that fact. Though the evening news does the same thing. There is too much bad stuff in the world already. I see the possibility of that kind of depravity in my fellow students. They too are desensitized to violence and to pain.

I believe that society itself helps people become uncivilized not the lack of society’s rules and structure. The way to change the people’s capacity for degeneration is to change society’s acceptance of it.