Month: April 2016

He wandered around reckless on the busy street of the city. His head was spinning and he was feeling ill. He had just been handed the biggest challenge of his career: negotiate with an insurgency in their own territory. Suddenly, thoughts of worry began to overcome him; would anyone know where he was, would anyone come to his rescue? Evening was approaching and he decided to forget the challenge which rests upon his shoulders and headed to the nearest national train station. The hustle – bustle of the monotony of everyday life was everywhere with people rushing home only to repeat their work cycle day after day after day.

He finally found a train which would be going out to the countryside but the train was about to depart. The man ran as fast as he can towards the train and just before the train doors, he managed to climb on board. As the man took his seat he sighed with relief and looked out the window to see themselves quickly departing the city. After an hour, the train arrived deep into the countryside. The man disembarked, took a deep breath of clean, unpolluted air. Just one breath was enough for the worries to flow out of him like a river. He was free of thought and free of burden.

He takes a walk and spots a nice a beach. He walks to it and can feel the ever so satisfying texture of the sand on his bare feet. As the sun was setting and the moon was rising, the glistening of the moonlight illuminated something on an island. The man scratched his head in confusion. He hadn’t see that island before so he was curious to see what was on the island. The man was looking around to find something to help him across the lake. In the corner of his eye, he sees something in the shape of a boat. He quickly shifts attention on it and it confirms it; it’s a dinghy. He pushes it into the water, gets in and starts rowing. However the further away he gets the more his enthusiasm deteriorates. He begins having doubts whether or not it’s a good idea to even continue. Perhaps it was hidden  away on the island. Perhaps no one wanted it to be found. Nevertheless he continued forward.

When he arrived he was shocked to have found nothing. He could’ve swore that he saw a small, glistening box but when he arrived it’s as it vanished into thin air. He started to explore the island, with its lush, untouched trees and undisturbed plants. Then, as if they came out of nowhere, three men dressed in ragged black clothes appeared. The man was shocked, he was  hyperventilating but the men calmed him down. They explained that they were spies from the insurgency and were there to ‘deal with him.’ This phrasing spooked the man who began yelling for help which promted one of the spies to cover his mouth. What they said next absolutely terrified the man.

They explained that they were not there to do what the man thought, but rather to discuss with him. The man was given the task of negotiating with their leader, and he was well aware that whatever he negotiated would change the future of his country and of the future of their insurgency. The man was suspicious to what these cloaked men wanted. Then it all became clear. They begged him to save them. They begged him not for him to persuade their leader to surrender. All of this baffled the man so naturally he asked why, after all, they were disrupting the safety of their host country. He asked them of this, and the men were shocked to how the media portrayed them. They explained how their people were being oppressed and killed by their government. Their brothers and sisters were being killed yet they were putting up the image of them being democratic and free and of these insurgents threatening their way of life. No, they were fighting for freedom. The man, overwhelmed with emotion fainted.
The moon was setting and the sun was rising, painting the dark blue sky with colours of orange, red, yellow like it was a canvas. The man woke only too see the men gone. He made his way back to the dinghy, rowed back and got on the morning train. The man was determined with his eyes opened to new ideas to make things right. He wasn’t going to be a slave to conformism anymore. It was time to make a change.

One of the main characters who most influence the power dynamics of the group in Lord of the Flies is Jack. Jack is able to manipulate the group when they grew discontent by Ralph’s leadership.There’s a growing schism between the ideologies between Ralph and Jack which is one of the main reasons that Jack is able to take power away from Ralph by forming his own group. Ralph’s ideology focuses more on the idea of being saved and maintaining the fire, whilst Jack wants to go hunting and have fun on the island. This schism becomes well known and the split effectively occurs when Jack and Ralph disagree on going to the mountain or staying by Castle Rock. Jack, in open defiance, walks towards Castle Rock. This is demonstrated when it says, “Jack led the way down to Castle Rock.” This suggests that Jack is leading a large part of the group down to the rock. Earlier it also says, “Mutinously, the boys fell silent or muttering,” after Ralph made it clear that he was the chief. The important word here is ‘mutinously,’ an adverb, because this sets the mood. The root word ‘mutinous’ means that they boys were feelings ready to rebel or not listen to Ralph anymore. This shows that the boys are discontent with how Ralph is leading the group and also suggests that they are much more likely to leave Ralph and find a new leader. This becomes important later in the book where it becomes evident that Jack completely despises Ralph’s leadership and makes his own group. This becomes clear when Jack says, “I’m not going to play anymore, not with you. – He’d never have gotten us meat.” This discontent and pointing out of flaws and lack of luxuries is what Jack has manipulated in order to gain support of the group and eventually the entire group defected to Jack’s tribe except for the littleuns, Samneric and Piggy. This schism may be the representation of the ideological war between Communism and Capitalism, the main driving force behind the Cold War. Noting that this book was published soon after the beginning of the Cold War, it is likely that it had a significant impact on the book with Ralph, the mostly democratic of the two, representing Capitalism and Jack, the totalitarian who wants to make examples out of people, would be the representation of Communism. What Golding wanted to show with this allegory was the incompatibility between these two boys and how they would not be able to work together. Jack’s way of leadership would never fit into the style of Ralph’s leadership. Their priorities are different and their ideology is different.

An important event which dramatically changed the power dynamics was the death of Piggy and the destruction of the Conch. The death of Piggy is significant because Piggy was the one who safe guarded the Conch and informed Ralph of logical thinking and ways to keep power. In this sense Ralph’s legitimacy only comes from Piggy and him safe guarding the Conch. The death of Piggy and destruction of the conch symbolically hands over power from good to evil. This is because Piggy represents the good in humans and their morality. It’s also important to note that Piggy’s death is of high importance and is arguably more of an impact than the death of Simon or of the little boy.This is because Piggy’s death lead to the complete collapse of society and Piggy’s death was deliberate; they meant to kill him, whilst the little boy’s and Simon’s death was somewhat accidental. The legitimacy of the conch is also demonstrated when  after its destruction Jack says, ” The conch is gone. I’m chief.” This shows that Jack was trying to earn legitimacy and now that Piggy was dead Jack is able to claim all the power away from Ralph. Therefore the destruction of the conch is able to completely change the power dynamics. Furthermore the conch represents law and order and the destruction launches them all into anarchy. This shows how the conch is a feature of symbolism. The conch represents something more than what is shown.This is demonstrated in the hunt for Ralph which is shown by the quote, “Kill the beast. Cut his throat. Spill his blood.” This shows how the tribe has descended into full fledged savagery. This can be seen clearly from the changing of the pronoun ‘she’ to ‘he’ in the chant. The chant was altered because of them hunting Ralph and the murderous tone of their chant makes it clear that they want to kill Ralph. Before the conch was destroyed there was only one death due to savage behaviour but now the entire tribe are going willingly against one person. This shows how the destruction of the conch and to a lesser extent the death of Piggy has led to a change in power dynamics. Golding may have included this to show how fragile civilization is and how faith in something is one of the main reasons society is able to function. The conch was symbolically able to prevent the boys from falling into savagery early, but when it was destroyed they abandoned what was left of society. Golding included this to make the reader feel the importance of the conch and how big of an impact the destruction had.

Another event which demonstrates how power dynamics have changed is how the weather is able to drive the boys to kill Simon. During the dance to kill Simon which they called the Beast, the weather’s actions are described because it says, “again the blue-white scar jagged down and the sulphurous explosions beat down.” This shows how violent the storm is which resonates with the actions of the boys. This is a pathetic fallacy because the weather affects the mood and actions of the boys. The pathetic fallacy is further demonstrated with the rhythmic chanting of ‘Kill the Beast. Cut his throat. Spill his blood,’ in line with the violent beating down of the lightning. This creates the sense that there is a sense of chaos as the boys are turning murderous and are turning against one of their own which they haven’t done before the storm came. The fact that they are turning on one of their own is very important too, as Simon was a part of the Choir, Jack’s group. However, the boys were more than happy to kill Simon under the pretext that Simon was the Beast. Golding might have included this in the story to resonate how on both sides of the Cold War there was unjust prosecution on ideological fronts. For example, in the United States, in the 1950s the McCarthy Trials occurred. This was at the height of the ‘Red Scare,’ where people were being prosecuted for having leftist views, even if they were moderate leftist views. People were liable to them being fired from their jobs, having trouble taking out loans, getting a house or getting prosecuted. This is very similar to Jack and his hunters turning on one of their own, Simon, just as America started turning on their own citizens. What Golding wanted to show with this was that everyone has evil within them and under the correct circumstances people will turn against each other, even their own friends.This shows how pathetic fallacy and the death of Simon has been used by Golding to show the break-down in civilization and the changing of power dynamics.

In conclusion, the main events and characters that have changed the power dynamics are the ones that are seen when the boys are starting to turn into murderous savages. For example, after the death of Simon it was very easy for Jack and his tribe to be able to pass of the murder with him saying that Simon was the Beast in disguise, whilst Ralph and Piggy kept with their moral side and acknowledged that it was murder, with Ralph saying, “That was Simon. – Piggy. – That was murder.” This shows that Ralph still holds on to civilization with Piggy and is able to distinguish reality from fiction, whilst Jack managed to convince himself that Simon was the Beast. Another event which shows that the main power dynamics changes when the boys start turning murderous is with the death of Piggy. His death launches the entire group into anarchy with Jack’s hunters launching an attack towards Ralph to kill him. This is also very important because they want to kill him because they deliberately killed Piggy and had no problem with it.This can be seen when Samneric says to Ralph, “They hate you, Ralph. They’re going to do you.” These events show that the power dynamics drastically change with each savage action. Therefore, the main events which change the power dynamics are the chaotic, savage ones, and the main characters that change the power dynamics are the ones who are able to commit these acts, such as Roger when he threw the stone which killed Piggy.