Power Lord Of The Flies Essay

Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a book that questions people and how they deal with power and their own humanity. In this book a group of boys are stranded on an island without any parental figure or adults of any kind and are forced to survive together. The main concept of this book is power. Throughout the book Ralph and Jack are struggling to steal power from one another so they can lead the boys. William Golding illustrated power many ways in this book. Our three generalizations of power fit into this book very well. Power expires and is temporary, can be positive or negative, and powerful people must have followers in order to maintain power is true. Especially in the Lord of the Flies.

The generalization power expires and is temporary is seen in Lord of the Flies. In the beginning of the book Ralph had a lot of power over the boys and could tell them what to do. And the boys would listen to him and take orders from him. But then as Jack began to get more popular and provide the boys with meat and other things Ralph’s hold on the group slowly diminished. Even at one point of the book Ralph didn’t want to blow the conch shell because he was afraid that none of the boys would come to the meeting. If they didn’t come to the meeting then that would mean that he lost all of his power over them entirely.
Abraham Lincoln said something like anyone can stand adversity but if you want to test their character give them power. Power is how you decide things and how you know people's true intentions. Jack was a person who when was given power abused it and harmed other people with it. You can fit all the generalizations about power into Lord of the Flies. Power expires and is temporary, can be positive or negative, and powerful people must have followers in order to maintain power. William Golding did an excellent job of describing power and how people react when given