Power In Lord Of The Flies

1274 Words6 Pages
Power No water, food, or adults. What would you do? Would you be one of the responsible ones? Or one of the people caught up in the uncivilized acts of murder, greed, and fear? The characters in the book, Lord of the Flies, arrive on the island not knowing anything. These are little boys, so their actions reflect nothing but utter irresponsibility. When there is such irresponsibility, it leads to total chaos and savage-like behavior. The boy’s decisions lack maturity at best, but this could be prevented with knowledge of learning through actions. When a group of completely different boys arrive on a deserted island, they all fall into different roles as the tyrant, victim, and responsible one. Victimization and power are the reasons…show more content…
Roger finds joy in tormenting others, and during downtime on the island, “Roger stooped, picked up a stone, aimed, and threw it at Henry--threw it to miss”(Golding 62). It is apparent that Roger continued to throw objects at Henry solely with intentions of torturing him. He tortured Henry just to show that he is the stronger one, so Henry is able to see that Roger has all of the power in the situation, and that is what satisfies Rodger’s huge ego. After Jack and Roger take control of Ralph’s rival clan, their automatic instinct is to revert to their violent manners, so they constantly frighten the little-uns, which causes the little-uns to say remarks like “‘—they made us. They hurt us—’”(188). It is very interesting how powerful five simple words can be. Sam and Eric utter these words to Ralph, and the tone of pure mortification is easily detected. These simple words show how awful Jack and Roger have acted; they think a “strong” leader must be forceful and violent, but the true meaning of a leader is much more complicated, involving care, trust, and honesty. Another example of how the desire for power over others causes evil, takes place when Roger and Jack decide to hunt Ralph, and “Jack made a rush and stabbed at Ralph’s chest with his spear”(177). Jack and Roger attempt to hunt Ralph because he is the only person left on the island that is a threat to their power, and they are both incredibly violent people, so the first conclusion they jump to, is death. This especially shows the insecurity both of these boys obtain; They are so afraid of someone challenging their power and hurting their fragile egos that they are able to go as far as to eliminate that person. Therefore, the evil acts that take place in life can be accounted for with the desire for

More about Power In Lord Of The Flies

Open Document