"Lord of the Flies" Power Speech

The biggest theme in Lord Of The Flies is power. In the Oxford dictionary, power has several definitions, but the most relevant was “the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behaviour of others or a course of events”. In Lord of the Flies, the power theme manifests itself in symbols and characters. Three very central examples of this are Jack, Ralph and the conch. The conch has authority from the very beginning of the book, when Ralph blows it to call everyone together on the island. It also gives its holder the ability to talk and not be interrupted. As the novel wears on the conch begins to represent the civilised world and society, on the island where life is rapidly deteriorating into savagery. This is because the original ideas brought about in the very first meeting were supposed to create a society not too dissimilar from the one they had left. Those holding it originally commanded respect, and the ideas the came up with under its influence were good and would keep a safe and relatively productive society running. The conch and the meetings are one of the clearest examples of what is civilised on the island. It is a very diplomatic kind of meeting where everyone is supposed to get a say and they all make their decisions together. Their decisions are also for the good of everybody in these meetings; they aren’t driven by the desires of the boys, r thins that aren’t necessary to their survival. Once again, the conch is ever prescent, serving as a way for everyone to be heard. It is also Ralph who seems to hold this power. Ralph is the son of a navy captain, and a well brought up boy. He is a natural leader, and this is determined when at the first meeting where the other boys barely knew him they voted him as their chief. Throughout the entire novel, he is determined to try and keep peace, and also a relatively civilised society running. He keeps the order among the boys, and even though he has power he chooses to use it in a way that will