Lord of the Flies

The author, William Golding uses the main characters of Ralph, Jack, and Simon in The Lord of the Flies to portray how their desire for leadership, combined with lack of compromise leads to the fall of their society. This desire for leadership and compromise led to the fall of their society just like multiple countries during times of wars.

In the Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses characters to convey the main idea of his novel. The story begins with a war, and a plane carrying several young boys, who are being evacuated, is shot down from the sky. There are no adult survivors; however; the boys were brought together by Ralph blowing on the conch shell. They formed a tribe to stay alive. Slowly the stability and the sense of safety in the group started to deteriorate, similar to the downfall of societies during World War II. They are not only hunting animals now, but they are killing each other like savages in order to stay alive. This action of killing is like Hitler during World War II and his persecution of Jews during the Holocaust.

One of the main characters, Ralph, was very likeable to everyone and was almost immediately elected as the leader of the tribe, with the only competition being the leader of the choir boys, Jack. Even though Ralph just wants to get home, he remains to look strong and tough to the other boys, to try and keep things as civilized as possible. So, Ralph decides that; "We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages. We're English, and the English are best at everything." (Pg. 40). This quote is of Ralph trying to get the boys motivated so that they would listen to him. Eventually, Ralph began to cave in, and acted as the others did; "Ralph...was fighting to get near....The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering." (Pg.104).

Jack, who was the leader of the choirboys ("The Hunters") is also one of the main characters in this novel. He is the complete opposite of Ralph and acted the same way Hitler would. He only wanted the attention and control over the tribe, just like Hitler only wanted the control over Germany and probably the World. Jack, who from the beginning disliked Ralph and you might say despised Ralph (because he thinks that he could be a better leader and should the leader), later decides to split from Ralph's tribe, and make his own with the majority of the boys who follow him; "as one wielding a nameless authority" (Pg. 166).

Simon, who is another important person in the novel, is seen as a "Christ-like" figure and you could even say that he represents the independent nations during World War II. Simon could represent an independent nation during World War II because he did not fight for one side even though he was a choirboy, however he just wanted peace. "Then, amid the roar of bees in the afternoon sunlight, Simon found for the littluns, the fruit they could not reach... and passed them back down to the endless, outstretched hands." (Pg.51) Although Simon is one of the choir boys; he is made out to be an outcast and is the only choirboy that does not become a hunter. Simon is the only person that seems to really care about the well-being of the others on the island. The boys thought of Simon as kind of batty, and Simon finds this out from the Lord of the Flies;