MY ESSAY

English essay – Lord of the Flies
By Mira Barstad

4. Comparing the characters



Lord of the Flies was written by William Golding, published in 1954. I haven’t done any research of him, but I guess he is from Britain because it was where the book was published, and the following boys where from. The book was written a couple of years after Second World War (the cold war), that’s probably why he mentions a lot from the war: “Didn’t you hear what the pilot said? About the atom bomb? They’re all dead.” – Piggy.


This is an island. At least I think it’s an island. Perhaps there aren’t any grown ups anywhere. – Ralph and Piggy discuss what to do; they’ll just survived a plane crash on a deserted island. The only survivals are a group of boys from the age six to twelve. Fortunately they have access to clean water and lots of eatable berries and plants. They’ve also seen some pigs in the area…
Ralph and Piggy finds a conch and Ralph blows in it. All the other boys hears it and they have a meeting. They figure out, in order to make this work, they’ve need a leader, a head of Chief. Ralph is elected; he gets more votes than Jack Merridew, the leader of the Choirboys… Jack accepts this, but he make himself leader of a new group called the “Hunters”.


Ralph and Jack are two very different boys. Ralph “the fair boy”, “the boy with the fair hair” and so on; the author refers him like a sympathetic and a rightful boy. Ralph is twelve years and a few months, one of the oldest boys on the deserted island. He gets respect from the younger boys, and he is leader of the island. His father was a commander in the navy, and a role model for Ralph. Even though Ralph seems like he wants to be popular among the boys, he is both kind and rude - toward poor fat Piggy. The other boys enjoy teasing Piggy, and they all just take him for granted. (If it wasn’t for him and his specs, they wouldn’t manage to start a fire at all...)


I’m in the middle of chapter 5, “Beast from water”, and I think Ralph is starting to like Piggy, and he stands up for him when Jack and the other boys make fun of him. Ralph is definitely the more mature than the other boys, especially Jack… Personally I dislike Jack. He makes his own rules, and doesn’t listen to Ralph and all he cares about is the meat, meat, meat! “We’ll go hunting every day!”

Jack Merridew is a tall redheaded boy with freckles. He is pale and the leader of the “Hunters”. He is more into getting meat than being rescued unlike Ralph. I think the other boys are a little scared of him, and Jack himself is intimidated by Ralph. Ralph commanded that the hunters should make a fire on the mountain, so that ships that (possibly) would run by could spot them by seeing the smoke on the island. Jack agreed, and said he would keep the smoke going. Piggy and Ralph see a ship one day, and run toward the mountain… The fire was out. They eventually find the hunters, they’ve managed to kill a pig, but they also let Ralph down. They lost the only shot they had to get off the island. (For now)

Their characters affect their leadership styles, Jack who is the bad boy, figures out he wants to be in charge and doesn’t listen to Ralph anymore.

Ralph is as said, more caring and understands if the young ones want to play, so he builds shelter and huts almost all by himself. The Hunter is off doing unnecessary stuff. He is going to get exhausted.


It seems like the group will be divided in two, the hunters and Ralph and the other boys.
The contrast between the two boys is a lot of metaphors. For example: Ralph the fair boy is beautiful and tanned. Jack is pale and is referred as “ugly without silliness”. His tall, thin and bony. I think Jacks represent the “evil” power sick people, and Ralph is fairer, and cares about his people. The contrast is getting bigger and bigger. I’m sure it will get worse the more I read.






Now me and Martine aka the clever girls (Right Tor?) are going to read more in our fantastic book! Stay tuned .... xoxo