What are the main events and characters that most influence the power dynamics of the group in Lord of the Flies?

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.