Student Essay on Lord of the Flies: Who Stands for What?

Lord of the Flies: Who Stands for What? by William Golding

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Essay

Lord of the Flies: What stands for what"

They elected Ralph, the protagonist, leader against Jack, the antagonist, to maintain order and find ways for life and rescue. Ralph, who strives to establish an orderly society, "The rules!"shouted Ralph,"you're breaking the rules!" (Lord of the Flies: 114), represents the world of "goodwill and commonsense" (The Hot Gates: 89).

Jack, on the other hand, speaks for the "world of hunting . . . fierce exhilaration . . ." "Bullocks to the rules! We're strong-we hunt! If there's a beast, we'll hunt it down! We'll close in and beat and beat and beat-!" (Lord of the Flies: 89,114).

Piggy, Ralph's associate offers the image of reason," None of the boys could have found good reason for this; what intelligence had been shown was traceable to Piggy . . . "(Ibid: 30). Yet, he is looked upon as socially inferior for being overweight and asthmatic. He also lacks the social skills as he belongs to an English lower class that is so manifested in his broken use of English but whose advice can be

Simon is a `Christ-figure'. He is `solitary, stammering, a lover of mankind, a visionary, who reaches commonsense attitudes not by reason but by intuition' (The Hot Gates: 97-98).