A society is a united group of people that work together to create a satisfactory life for each other. Lord of the Flies by William Golding tells the story of a group of young boys and their attempts to create a decent life for themselves on the island that they are stranded on. Ralph is the leader of the boys, Piggy is intelligent but susceptible to being picked on, Simon represents human goodness, and Jack is a power hungry, inexperienced boy who challenges Ralph to be leader. Societies only work if all of its parts come together and work in unity.
If one thing is done wrong in a society, that malfunction has the potential to destroy them. This allows for many different occurrences to cause a society to fail. A lack of adequate leadership, disregard to the rules, and corruption among its members are the main reasons why societies fall apart.. The success or failure of a society depends on the level of leadership within it. Ralph knows that he must lead the boys, not because it will give him power, but so they may survive on the island. He looks to put the boys in advantageous positions for the future and cares for his followers, but he also loses control of his followers.
The absence of control for Ralph is seen when Jack turns the boys to savagery and he must lie to keep his ollowers relaxed. When talking about the beast, Ralph tells the boys that there is no beast and they will be rescued, and as a result, “The assembly was lifted toward safety by his words” (37). Ralph does show off his persuasion skills by assuring the boys that they will be rescued, but in reality he does not know if that will actually happen. Although Ralph does well at calming down the boys, he demonstrates poor leadership by lying to his followers.
Ralph does not have a complete leader within him, but he does have the right idea of what being a leader is about. On the other hand, Jack shows that he is not a suitable leader at ll. He tries to dominate the boys and is only concerned about indulging himself in hunting and playing. Unlike Ralph, he does not care about the other boys on the island. Jack only cares about power. When he breaks off from Ralph’s group, Jack leads them give free rein to instinct over intellect and order. Under his leadership, Jack’s tribe kills Simon, Piggy, and tries to kill Ralph, giving in to complete disorder.
He uses fear, like a dictator would, to govern what his followers do. Jack is an exceptional example that a lackluster leader rips society at its seams because he separates the boys on the island, leads them to a isfigured position where nothing productive happens, and ultimately causes the boys to digress to savagery. Considering that both Jack and Ralph, along with every other boy on the island, could not fill the position of chief correctly, the lack of a guiding influence for the boys becomes apparent.
Before being stranded on the island, the boys lived with adults which could lead them down the right paths in difficult situations. Once they were deserted on the island, they had no one to guide them like a parent or grown up would back home. Ralph, Jack, Piggy, and everyone else have to figure how to govern each other on their wn. Their society slowly falls apart because they always had adults to help solve their problems, but on the island, they are left with no one mature enough to direct them.
Societies need guiding leaders, such as Presidents, law enforcement, judges, social workers and anyone else that can work to maintain order among its members. Strong leadership is important because it keeps a society’s people from becoming uncontrollable, it keeps the society united, and it leads the society in the right direction. Societies cannot function if its members do not adhere to the rules and decisions of the society. At a meeting, the boys agree pon working on building huts diligently until they were complete. The boys agree to work hard on the shelters, but most of them run off after awhile.
Consequently, the huts are not built well. If everyone follows what they say they will do, the shelters will be constructed well. However, the huts are not built well because most of the boys do not follow the rules. The construction of the huts can be seen as a representation of society. When everyone decides to help build them, the results are a stable, satisfactory shelters. In some cases though, only a few people decide to help build the shelters, and the shelters fall apart. The shelters falling apart portrays how society can fail if there is a nonobservance of the rules.
Along with the shelters, the conch also shows how noncompliance can tear a society apart. The conch represents the rules and order of society. It was made to keep order during assemblies, but soon, the conch changed appearance, going from, “Yellow and pink to near- white, and transparency” (78). The conch’s coming to transparency represents how the rules may become obsolete if people choose not to follow them. The boys can see right past the rules as they go into their savage ways, just as the eye can see through a transparent object.
Later, Roger kills Piggy, and at the same time, the conch, a symbol of order, breaks. This makes it known that when someone goes against what is expected in a society like Roger does, order is disrupted within the society. The conch shows that when the guidelines set in a society are not followed, society shatters. Rules are important to society as shown by the signal fire. The signal fire’s purpose is to allow passing ships to see that the boys have been stranded on the island. Therefore, it is imperative to Ralph that the fire is maintained because a ship may pass by at any time.
A ship passes by while the hunters, who are responsible for aintaining the fire, are out hunting, and there is no one to keep an eye on the fire. The fire goes out and the ship does not rescue the boys. This happens because the hunters do not follow their assigned job. All it takes is one group to ignore the rules and the consequence is tremendous. Without people to fill their roles in a society, the society goes into chaos. As seen by the example of the signal fire, society requires people to follow the rules so that it may progress. When people do not follow the rules, no one gains anything, just like the boys who are not rescued.
The signal fire shows that a lack of attention to omeone’s role in a society causes it to fall apart because the rules are made to ensure that everyone may profit from being apart of the society. Failure to act in accordance with the rules makes a society collapse because it decreases productivity, it initiates chaos, and it keeps people from benefitting from a society. As displayed by the boys on the island, corruption causes societies to fall apart. Simon’s death shows how corruption can rip society. Jack asks the boys if they would like to join his new tribe.
Ralph tries to convince the boys to stay, but most of them choose Jack’s tribe. As this happens, Jack orders his people to do heir ceremonial dance where they pretend to kill a pig. Simon comes back from his hiding place, and the boys circle around Simon and do their dance. This time, instead of pretending to kill the pig, they actually kill Simon. At this point, all order goes away and Jack’s group turns to savagery. Jack is hungry for power and bloodthirsty. When Jack creates his own tribe, it can be expected that the boys within the tribe reflect the traits displayed by him.
His corruption leads to the boys becoming savages, which destroys any sort of civilization on the island. Since the boys that follow Jack into his new group transition to a more primitive tate when killing Simon, his death shows how corruption can ruin a society. Piggy’s glasses also represent how corruption leads to the downfall of societies. After Jack separates from Ralph, his tribe needs something to light their fire. They decide that Jack, Maurice, and Roger will take fire from Ralph, and that night they raid Ralph’s group.
After a violent struggle with Jack, Roger, and Maurice, Piggy realizes that they had came for his glasses. Jack and the others go back to their camp victorious, while, “Fr glasses” (168). The corruption on the island can be seen through this example. Piggy cannot see without his glasses and Jack still Jack’s] left hand dangled Piggy’s broken has the indecency take them from him. They could have found another way to make a fire, but since Jack and his tribe are so focused on making people’s lives miserable, they choose to terrorize Piggy by taking his glasses.
Their bloodthirsty mentality ruins society on the island because Jack’s tribe relies only on their instincts which are those of barbarians. Piggy’s glasses being stolen show how society falls apart from corruption because Jack’s tribe victimizes Piggy through their primitive ways. Corruption destroys society which can be seen when the hunters try to kilI Ralph. The night before the boys are rescued, Ralph finds out that the hunters are going to kill him the next day. He hides in the thicket so Jack will not be able to find him.
The hunters try to roll boulders and make their way into the thicket to kill Ralph, but they cannot penetrate the heavy forestry. Then, Jack’s tribe sets the whole jungle on fire so that they may kill the hiding Ralph. He leaves the thicket, and runs to the beach where he meets the naval officer that comes to save the boys. At this point, corruption is running wild on the island. All civilization is lost, and can only be retrieved by the boys being escued. Jack’s corrupt ways lead the boys to attempt to kill Ralph. To take the life of another human being is horrible and shows how corruption can drive people to commit awful crimes.
Society has been ruined because of the corruption from Jack. He causes the boys to act as if they had never been civilized to begin with, and this results in the downfall of society on the island. The will to kill another person shown by Jack’s tribe insists that corruption ravages society. This is because taking someone’s life requires an evil that exists within people who have broken the walls of society. Corruption wreaks havoc on ociety by turning its members into savages, tyrannizing other people, and encourages wicked behavior.
Societies deteriorate because of an absence of guidance, inattentiveness to the rules, and misconduct among those apart of a society. Today, many countries are falling apart due to social issues. The outcome of these issues is war, such as the Syrian Civil War. Although the society of the boys on the island did not go to war, it shows the reader how people in societies can go insane if the society is not facilitated correctly. People do not want society to fail, but the success of a society comes down to the proactiveness of its members.
