Characters in Lord of the Flies Essay

The power struggle, egocentric and intolerance in society today is ruining human relationships and Golding shows this through his characters in Lord of the Flies. Through the characters Jack, Roger and Ralph, Golding shows this interaction. Jack symbolises the struggle and silent fight for power over other people, Roger represents people who easily gives up in relationships and walk away and Ralph helps demonstrate mans reliance on appearance to create and keep relationships. The island emphasises these relations and shows Goldings view of relations among people. The relationships between humans is emphasised throughout the novel, and Golding has given his views on these relations through characters in the novel. Jack is a very strong, dominant character who feels the need to gain superiority over everyone else to feel power and control. He represents the power and hunger for dominance over others and Jack shows this through scaring others and demanding them to do jobs that put Jack on top which is emphasising the silent fight for dominance in human relationships today. Jack says â€Å"I ought to be chief†¦ because I’m chapter chorister and head boy. I and sing C sharp†. This narcisstic dialogue shows how Jack wants escalate the idea of how important and better he is than Ralph and all the other buys, by saying this he is showing the boys how much better he is and scaring him with his range of talents. This affects the way that the reader understands and develops Jack’s character which then shows his egotistic approach to dominance over the other boys. Golding is using the character Jack and his silent fight for dominance over the boys to show how society is constantly trying to gain superiority in relationships. This is showing how the power struggle in society is ruining human relationships. Roger in Lord of the Flies is a character developed by Golding to comment of how humans too easily give up on relationships. Roger throughout the novel develops into one of the savage followers of Jack, which brings out and dramatises the human characteristics and actions in relationships. Piggy died by being hit by a falling boulder that was pushed from the side of a cliff by Roger. This action of pushing the boulder to stop Piggy talking and complaining is how Golding showed us how human relationships are easily given up. â€Å"storm of sound†¦incantation of hatred†¦Roger, with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever†. This imagery and hyperbolic language emphasises how Roger found the easy way to escape the relationship all the boys had with Piggy as they were in a disagreement. The imagery gives a picture which makes the reader feel the tension and the hyperbolic language helps emphasise the tone of aggression that humans use today to escape relationships easily. Golding has used the character Roger to show the intolerance in relationships in society today, which is running human relationships. There are many purposes to Ralph’s character in Lord of the Flies, one is that he gives a emphasised view on mans reliance on appearance to create and keep relationships. In the beginning of the novel when the boys first arrive on the island they elect Ralph instead of Jack because of his appearance and characteristic demeanour, this reflects the attitudes of humans in society today. Golding describes Ralph through the perspective of the boys by saying â€Å"could see not that he might make a boxer, as far as width and heaviness of shoulders†, this imagery and comparison to the features needed to be an athlete gives the reader an image of what Ralph would look like and why he is looked up to by the other boys. This means the boys would rather have a fit good looking leader that they would aspire to be like, which is close to the way many people decide on their relationships with others. This is what Golding is trying to show through the character Ralph that in society h uman relationships are becoming ruined by creating relationships based on the appearance of others. Golding uses the characters in Lord of the Flies to demonstrate the power-struggle, intolerance and dependence on appearance to create and keep relationships. This is through Jacks power struggle over the other boys, Roger’s intolerance towards Piggy and how through the boys choosing Ralph to be their chief in the early hours of landing on the island it shows how his strong, built appearance was more appealing that Jack which demonstrates how appearances have a big effect on human relationships.