Preview

How Did Ralph Become Chief In Lord Of The Flies

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
482 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Did Ralph Become Chief In Lord Of The Flies
In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, a group of schoolboys crash-landed on an island after the airplane they were flying in was shot down/flying in an airplane that was shot down. They were trying to escape Britain because a nuclear war was in progress. In the beginning of settling on the island, the boys ended up working together led by the main protagonist, Ralph, but towards the end, civilization collapsed and almost everyone became savages. Ralph was one of the schoolboys who became chief of the civilization by vote because he possessed a conch and the kids saw it as a symbol of order and power. He represented leadership and demonstrated common sense. He was the one who thought of the meeting place, the signal fire, and shelters. But the main antagonist, Jack, leader of the choirboys, disapproved of the votes and thought he should be chief because he craved control and wanted to lead both his choir and the group. …show more content…
He led his own group and was called hunters. They needed to eat meat, but in order for them to cook it, they needed a fire so; they raided the other group and stole the glasses of Ralph’s friend, Piggy. The hunters raided again and stole almost Ralph’s entire group and Jack gained a lot of power. Another way civilization broke down was the boys’ fears of the “Beastie”. They were horrified by it, but only one of the school boys, Simon, realized that their only fear was their imagination. As everyone grew more savage, their belief in the beast grew stronger. At one point, Jack and his hunters left it sacrifices and treated it as a totemic god. The boys ended up “turning into” the beast when they murdered Simon because they mistook him for the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Jack’s pressure on the boys triggers a domino effect that eventually transforms the “boys” to “savages”. He offers bribes of meat from his hunts and the whole idea of no order seems like fun to the young ones. The thought of the “beastie” also contributes to the chaos in there operation. It is one of the primary reasons Simon is trampled to death. Its scares the younger boys and Jack saying he will defeat it provides a sense of protection when he says “[it is] a hunter’s job” (102), drawing them…

    • 559 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ralph was the only civil guy left in the end. Although savagery came sometimes to him, he managed to stay civilized for the most part, even though the others became more savage. He is a reasonable leader, but lacks the experience and the knowledge to lead. Jack is an example of a leader, as he can easily get the bigger, more knowledgeable boys to go with him, while Ralph ends up with Simon, Piggy, and the litte’uns.…

    • 774 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ralph represents order in this book. In the beginning, he is known as the leader. He uses the conch to bring everyone together and the conch is what made him the leader in the first place. In page 39 it says, “Then, with the martyred expression of a parent who has to keep up with the senseless ebullience of the children, he picked up the conch, turned toward the forest, and began to pick his way over the tumbled scar.” This quote tells that Ralph represents order because it says “...with the martyred expression of a parent” and…

    • 645 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ralph is the elected leader of the group. He continues throughout the whole book to try to keep the order in the book. He first understands that he needs to set up a structure of rules to allow for the group of boys to remain civilized. The first great leadership skill that Ralph has is that he compromises. Ralph is a compromiser. The smartest compromises makes is that he instead of having Jack be upset about not being elected leader he makes Jack be the leader of the hunters. This would allow Jack and Ralph to have a good relationship until the middle of the book where having Jack be the head hunter would cause a split in the…

    • 657 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Jack suggests that the boys can keep the ?beast? happy, by providing it with portions of meat from their s: ??And about the beast. When we kill we?ll leave some of the kill for it. Then it won?t bother us, maybe?? (147). The fact that Jack feared the ?beast? suggests that all the boys deeply feared the ?beast,? because Jack, in his crazed-like state of mind, feared few things as a hunter or as a boy.…

    • 999 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    all and when Piggy is killed, Jack orders his tribe to kill Ralph. He even…

    • 456 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As soon as Jack was standing in front of the boys, he knew he wanted to be chief of these lost children. Instead of Jack being elected, Ralph was, and this sparked a slight emotion of mortification and jealousy within him. Right after Ralph gets elected as chief of the group of boys, Jack…

    • 447 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lotf Final Essay

    • 685 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The second Ralph was elected as chief, tension between he and Jack emerged. Ralph temporarily saved himself by giving Jack a prominent role, leader of the hunters. This made Jack seem more important, he was given power by this key role. As Jack’s hunting skills increased he began to slay more pigs and the other members of the tribe looked up to him. He soon became a savage who tortured animals instead of killing them just for survival. The other children were attracted by this, and joined the savage group. Ralph struggled to maintain power because Jack only wanted to have fun and kill, while he wanted to have rules and order so they could be saved.…

    • 685 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Foreshadowing In Piggy

    • 505 Words
    • 3 Pages

    He is disrespected and ignored by the other boys, even though he is one of the most wise, logical, and intellectual boys on the island. When Jack proves his savagery and how oppressive he can be by killing the sow and placing its head on a stick, Simon wants to prove that the beast does not exist, so he sets off to prove that the beast is nothing. In his efforts of coming back and telling the group that there is no beast, he is mistaken as the beast and brutally killed. “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!”(152) At this point the boys are rapidly losing their…

    • 505 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ralph represents orderliness and tranquility. He is the one who brings the boys together. When they vote for a chief, they elect Ralph, as he is in possession of the conch who brought them together; "There was a stillness about Ralph as he sat that marked him out: there was his size, and attractive appearance; and most obscurely, yet most powerfully, there was the conch." (Goulding 22). The conch has given Ralph authority and sets him apart from the other boys. As the novel progresses, he finds himself at competition for power-- with Jack. When the boys are tempted to engage in his savage…

    • 516 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the first two chapter of Lord of the Flies, the author William Golding illustrates the character Ralph in great detail. Physical attributes of Ralph include blonde hair, mild eyes, tall stature, and an athletic build (1,10, 22). Due to his athletic build and tall stature, Ralph appears to be physically superior to the other boys. Appearance is power, the physical superiority Ralph has over others grants him automatic power; however, because of his mild eyes and fair, blonde hair the other boys are not afraid of him. Ralph’s behavior in the first two chapters displays the powerful and the young, boyish side of his personality. In Chapter One Ralph does headstands, makes fart noises with the conch, and wrestles with other boys (10,27,17). These actions reflect those of a young child without a lot of responsibility, or the actions of a child with a high level of…

    • 475 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ralph is the democratic leader he became chief through voting, however why he was voted is unknown “toy of voting” suggests it’s a game for some of the boys and the little ones are going with the majority, the little ones are represented as fickle voters however Golding’s ideas also suggest it was because of his appearance, at the beginning of the book he is constantly referred to as the fair boy whereas Piggy is referred to as the fat boy, Ralph is pleasing to look at however when we first meet Jack he is red headed and freckled, Golding describes him as “ugly without silliness”, this suggests that Jack is a very serious boy. Ralph is a democratic leader and a thinker “Ralph chose the firm strip as a path because he needed to think; and only here could he allow his feet to move without having to watch them.” However Jack is a boy who takes action.…

    • 973 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When life throws scary and dire situations at you, some believe it is a test to see a person's true colors, and how that person reacts under extreme pressure and conflict. In situations like these, leaders are born. In The Lord of the Flies, Ralph becomes a frontrunner as the “chief”, or leader in the story. Ralph struggles to maintain a civil relationship between all the boys, but still remains the more appropriate leader, including his civility, his conflicts, and his purpose.…

    • 760 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The beas plays a huge role and is a imaginary fear from the start. Simon is the only boy who understands that they are all beasts inside. Meaning that he understood the evil witrhin each of them. Golding directly tells us that they are evil when The Lord of the Flies says “There isn’t anyone to help you. Only me. And I’m the Beast. . . . Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill! . . . You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are the way they are?”(158). When this is said all the evidence and clues come together to form the conclusion that the beast is the evil within us that cannot be take out or removed because it is apart of each and everyone of us. The Lord of the flies is a physical symbol of the beats however the boys’ behavior mentally brings the beast into existence. The beast makes the boys make rash decisions, act violently, and turn against one another, the death of simon is an example of this. Simons death was horrific and gruesome. Simon was injured and was crawling down the mountain, when he reached the bottom the boys started vigorously attacking him while shouting “ Kill the beast!Cut his troat! Spill his blood!”(168). They were so caught up in the chant and the fear of being killed first that they did not notice they were killing one of there own. Ironically simon was coming down to spread the word that the beast is not real and there is no need to fear it because the only beast they should fear is themselves because there is a beast inside each and every one of them. The “existence” of the beast has brought out the evil within them and turned them against one another. Golding has clearly proven his point that mankind is…

    • 1392 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fear In Lord Of The Flies

    • 844 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In the midst of danger, one will make irrational decisions. On the island, the boys are faced with many types of fears. Once the boys hear that there is a “beastie” on the island, one of Jack’s first ideas is to hunt it down. When Ralph doesn’t agree that they should be out searching for the beast, conflicts arise among Jack and Ralph which result in the separation of group. Without Ralph and Piggy, Jack’s group eventually turn to savages and do as they please, not feeling guilty or caring for a thing that happens. The boys recite an incantation right before Simon stumbles upon the camp and is brutally murdered by the boys, thinking that Simon is the beast. “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” (Golding 152). The death of Simon is a major turning point in the story because it signifies the boys’ major deterioration in morality and how less and less careless they’ve gotten since the crash. Another type of fear the boys are faced with is the fear of Jack. As the novel advances, Jack becomes more and more of a ruthless tyrant. He uses Roger to torture Samneric and by that action, he shows that he is powerful and whoever doesn’t listen to Jack will be punished…

    • 844 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays