Power In William Golding's Lord Of The Flies

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To begin with, power is an obvious theme in the novel “Lords Of the Flies”. Jack is the novel’s primary representative of the desire for power. Indeed, Power can reveal Jack’s natural personality. In the earlier parts of the novel, when Ralph wins the vote, he asks Jack to lead the choir. Jack obeys Ralph’s order. As he replies to Ralph friendly, “‘ Hunters’ Jack and Ralph smiled at each other with shy liking.”Jack retains the sense of moral propriety and behavior,although Jack clearly wants the position.This quote shows that after Jack loses the election to Ralph, he is lack of power, therefore he needs to obey the order from his leader. Moreover, after Jack leads his hunter to capture a pig, most of the boys except Piggy leave Ralph’s…show more content…
In the novel " My Name Is Number Four", Ah Si lives in a family which has a capitalist background. During the Chinese Culture Revolution, people believed that the capitalism will be restore, whereas the key idea during this time period is that everyone should be equal. When Ah Si’s family is told that the red guards will search their house soon, she is scared and helpless. As the novel states, “ That night I could not sleep.” Obviously, Ah Si’s fear grows from her weakness of her status, and she has no power to protect her family. She is afraid to imagine what will happen tomorrow. Furthermore, when Zhao rejects her requirement for tan-qin, she turns to hopeless. As the novel claims,"I turned cold with fear. I would never see my brothers and sisters or Great-Aunt again." Again, because of her humble social identity, she cannot even choose the date of reuniting with her family. Her whole life is undercontrolled by those who have higher status and stronger power. In addition,during that time, Ah Si is forced to confess all the charges which the authorities give to her. After Ah Si has suffered the sleep deprivation, she says, “‘Tell me what you want me to write,” I said, ‘and I’ll do it.’” This quote tightly relates to the theme of power, because it shows that without power, she can do nothing but facing the humiliation and insults. Therefore, power can reflect her helpless and
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