Lord Of The Flies Characters : Analysis and Significance

Introduction to Lord of the Flies

William Golding’s Lord of the Flies (published in 1954) is a dystopian novel that explores the themes of civilization vs. savagery and a loss of innocence within the boys who get stranded on an island and lose contact with society. Several critics consider this Golding’s best work.

Lord of the Flies: A Brief Summary

The Lord of the Flies begins with a group of young schoolboys being stranded on an island after the plane evacuating them in the middle of the war is shot down. The boys immediately try to recreate the civilized society that they know and appoint Ralph as their leader. This decision irks Jack, who is used to being in a position of power.

The boys light a signal fire in order to catch the attention of passing planes and ships. However, except for Ralph, the other boys aren’t much concerned about maintaining the signal fire. Meanwhile, Jack, who is the leader of the hunting group, becomes obsessed with hunting after he fails to kill a pig.

A wild frenzy starts gripping the hunting party after their first kill. And soon, it seems that the little boys, called the “littluns," start having nightmares about a beast on the island. When a dead soldier lands on the island in the middle of the night wrapped in his parachute, the boys believe it's the beast, and panic and fear spread amongst most of them.

The difference in ideals between Jack and Ralph becomes more apparent as the story progresses. Jack declares that Ralph is a coward and distances himself away from the group. The hunters and some of the other boys in Ralph's group join Jack.

Jack declares himself the leader of the hunting tribe and organizes a ritual to appease the beast on the island. They decapitate a sow and place its head on a spike as an offering. Meanwhile, Simon has a nightmare where the decapitated head of the Lord of the Flies warns him that the true beast exists within themselves. When Simon discovers the truth about the dead soldier, he rushes to inform the others but is killed by Jack and his group.

The next morning, Ralph and Piggy approach Jack's group to discuss the events of the night. However, in a tussle between both groups, Piggy dies, and Ralph barely makes it out alive. Jack orders his followers to hunt down Ralph and kill him. The boys decide to set fire to the forest and smoke him out. When Ralph finally reaches the beast, exhausted from running away, he finds a British naval officer who arrived on the island after seeing the fire. When the rest of the boys arrive and are asked to explain what happened on the island, they break down in tears. View Examples

Characters in Lord of the Flies: A Critical Analysis & Their Significance

In the Lord of the Flies, Golding presents the readers with a group of schoolboys who are stranded on an island and left to fend for themselves without adult supervision. Here’s a critical analysis of their characters and their significance to the story.

1. Ralph

Ralph is the representative of rationality, order, civilization, and diplomacy. He is a charismatic young boy, attractive in looks, quite intelligent, and a natural-born leader. After being elected as the leader by the rest of the boys, Ralph doesn't abuse his power or hold himself above the others. He immediately gets to work and thinks up ways to increase the group's survival and rescue.

He takes the prerogative to build huts and suggests they keep a signal fire going to attract any passing ship or plane of their location. While the rest of the boys indulge in fun and frolicking on the island, Ralph never lets his sensible side falter.

Ralph’s exceptional leadership shines when he doesn’t give in to the mass paranoia of the beast and maintains a sense of rationality. He knows that superstitions will reduce their chances of survival and tries to rationalize with the littluns about the existence of the beast.

However, as the story progresses, Ralph starts to lose power over the boys. When his ability to communicate verbally declines, most of the boys lose their faith in Ralph and join Jack's group of hunters. Ralph's civility starts getting frayed due to the excessive savagery he witnesses around him.

Initially, he doesn’t understand the bloodlust and barbaric actions in the younger boys. But later on, he realizes that savagery resides within all the boys. Though he is determined not to let his baser instincts overwhelm him, he succumbs to it momentarily when he participates in Jack's celebration after their first successful boar killing and the murder of Simon after he is mistaken to be the island's beast.

The realization that the true beast lives within themselves disorients Ralph and sends him into despair. However, he doesn't let this consume him and goes to confront Jack's group along with Piggy, the only other rational boy left on Ralph's side. After Piggy dies in the confrontation, Ralph becomes an outcast and is pursued by Jack's group, who wants to completely destroy the only remaining representative of civilization and democracy.

When he finally encounters the British naval officer, Ralph breaks down in tears. But his tears are not of relief at being rescued but at the thought of his "filthy appearance," which indicates the ordeal his civility has gone through on the island and at the newfound knowledge of the truth of human nature.

2. Jack

Jack represents the inherent savagery and evil hidden within every human by the veil of civilized society. Being the head boy of his school and the leader of the choir, Jack has always enjoyed a position of power. However, unlike Ralph, Jack takes complete advantage of his position to intimidate those under him through his militaristic attitude. He is known to be a bully and doesn’t hesitate to violate rules and mak.

When the boys become stranded on the island and choose Ralph as their leader over him, Jack is furious. However, he still retains a sense of the civility instilled in him by society and goes along with Ralph's plans. Ironically, Jack is the one who suggests they should have some rules on the island to prevent chaos. But in the end, he flouts those rules for his selfish desires, for he believes he is above them.

Jack is assigned to the hunting group. After failing to kill the first pig, Jack becomes obsessed with hunting. This overwhelming urge to kill another living creature acts as a catalyst to suppress his humanity and give himself to his baser and more animalistic instincts.

Golding hints at Jack’s violent nature when the young boy procures a knife from his pocket during his first conversation with Ralph. This sets him as Ralph’s antithesis. Unlike Jack, who wants to resolve issues with violence, Ralph chooses reasoning.

As the conflict between Ralph and Jack increases, Jack feels more comfortable letting his savagery dictate his actions. Upon realizing that the little boys in the group are afraid of the beast on the island, Jack uses their irrational fear to manipulate them into siding with him. By the end of the story, only Piggy and Simon remain by Ralph's side, and both are killed by Jack's group.

Jack declares that he is the “chief” of the group and indulges in his impulses to dominate the boys under him. He is partial to all who agree with him. That’s why he doesn’t reprimand Roger for killing Piggy. However, those who disagree with him are subject to his cruelty.

As Jack continues to gain more power over the boys, he abandons all social conditionings and embraces the beast within him. His main priority is not to ensure the survival of the group but to establish himself as the dictator. He uses his rhetorical skills to influence the boys and insinuates that Ralph is not a good leader because he cannot hunt and ensure their survival. He shows no remorse for killing Simon and actively encourages his followers to kill Ralph after Piggy's death. He slowly turns paranoid throughout the story and feeds the boys misinformation to control them.

When they encounter the naval officer at the beach, Jack begins to step forward when asked to identify the leader of the group. However, he stops after realizing that they must return to the old order of civilization, where his lawless dictatorship has no power.

3. Simon

Simon represents the inherent goodness in human beings that is always present, along with savagery. While Jack and Ralph stand on completely opposite sides of the spectrum, representing savagery and civilization, respectively, Simon is the innate spirituality that connects humans to nature.

In the Lord of the Flies, Golding shows how people wear the mask of civility out of compulsion in a civil society. As soon as the boys land on an island away from society and adult supervision, and without the fear of punishment if they do not conform to societal rules, the mask starts to wear off. Even Ralph and Piggy, who try their best to adhere to the teachings of civilized society, fail to keep their mask on permanently as they participate in Jack’s ritualistic dance and Simon’s murder.

However, Simon is a moral character because he is inherently good and not because of fear of punishment if he strays off the moral path. He is kind to the little boys without having any expectations of them to repay his kindness. Moreover, he doesn't let his irrational fear of the beast prevent him from thinking rationally. He is the first among the group of boys to realize the true nature of the beast on the island.

After Jack’s group decapitates a boar’s head and places it on a spike to appease the beast, Simon dreams of the head speaking to him. It identifies itself as the Lord of the Flies and tells Simon that the true beast on the island is the one that resides within the boys.

Armed with this revelation, Simon ventures on to confront the beast and discover its true identity. Upon realizing the truth, he hopes to share his findings with the rest of the boys and quell their fear. However, the boys are not ready to accept the truth. Their unconditional fear leads them to mistake Simon for the beast and kill him before he can share his knowledge with them.

In the story, Golding suggests that human beings are more inclined to violence than rationalism and peace. Simon's death represents the death of the inherent goodness in human beings and the triumph of savagery.

4. Piggy

Piggy represents the scientific, intellectual, and rationalistic side of human beings. The young boy has asthma, poor eyesight, and is overweight, making him the most physically vulnerable of the lot. However, what Piggy lacks in health and stamina, he makes it up with his intellect. He is the brains behind many of Ralph’s plans, but he cannot assume the role of the leader because he lacks the charisma and leadership qualities that make Ralph, and even Jack, stand out from the rest of the boys.

Piggy is heavily reliant on scientific conclusions and rationalism. When Ralph tries to bring up Simon's murder, Piggy does not think about the moral issue behind them killing one of their own but rationalizes that Simon had it coming for sneaking up on them in the dark. When talking about the death of Simon and a littlun, Piggy is more concerned about what civilized society will think of their savagery. Instead of mourning the death of the boys, Piggy mourns the death of rationalism and civilization.

Piggy’s glasses were instrumental in lighting up the signal fire. During the last confrontation with Jack’s group, Piggy’s glasses break, representing the annihilation of rationalism.

5. Roger

Initially, Roger is the quiet one of the group, mostly keeping to himself. But as the story progresses and the veils of civilized society fall away, his true cruel and sadistic nature comes out. Unlike Jack, who wants to control the boys to enjoy his position of leadership, Roger wants to intentionally inflict pain for his own satisfaction.

The first instance of Roger's sadism finds expression when he throws a boulder at Henry and intentionally misses because of the social conditioning that prevents him from taking a life. However, after joining Jack's tribe, that social conditioning begins to falter, and he ends up intentionally throwing a boulder at Piggy to kill him.

In conclusion,

The characters in William Golding's Lord of the Flies present the readers with the bleak reality of what happens when the rules of civilized society vanish. Though characters like Jack and Roger try to adhere to the social conditionings, the attraction of complete lawlessness, chaos, and savagery is like the Forbidden Fruit, which they cannot resist. Meanwhile, characters like Piggy and Simon, who try their best to adhere to the rules of civilized society, are wiped out, with Ralph barely escaping with his life.