Lord Of The Flies Democracy Vs Dictatorship

Jessica Duncan
Mrs.Burrows
Honors English 10
9/15/14
The Clash of Two Governments: A Democracy vs. A Dictatorship
“What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages?" –Piggy (91) In today’s world democracy and dictatorships still square off against one another, for example, the U.S. versus North Korea, Israel vs. Palestine, and Russia vs. Ukraine, just to name a few. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding represents both of these types of governments and leadership styles in the form of two characters: Ralph representing a democracy and Jack representing a dictatorship. The author utilizes many symbols throughout the book to support each. For democracy there is the idyllic setting, the conch, and the fire while in the case of the dictatorship,
there is a dark and foreboding setting, numerous weapons, and the fire representing for Jack's dark reign. Shortly after Ralph, Jack, and the other boys crash on the island, Ralph is chosen to be the leader of the group with the chance to head a new democracy. The setting plays a part of this democratic atmosphere. For instance, the boys find themselves on an“… endless beach with beautiful waters and a coral reef…” (10). It is an idyllic setting, a perfect place for a very open, free, and laid back civilization. It is almost a paradise, a perfect place to begin a new democratic world. One of the first things Ralph establishes when he becomes the leader are rules.
“We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we’re not savages” he tells the group (40). With Ralph as the new leader, he sets rules for everyone to follow, giving order to the island. One of the chief symbols of these rules and orderliness is the conch. Before any rules were set, Ralph would blow the conch to signal a “voting time” or a meeting where "every boy would get a chance to…have a vote” (20). The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution grants the right to freedom of speech, which leads to their participation in free elections. Thus, the conch is a symbol for the First Amendment and the polling booth. When a boy has the conch it’s his turn to speak freely, and “vote.” However, when the conch “exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist,” it signaled the end of the island’s democracy, too
(181). In addition, the signal fire symbolizes the democracy although, as it will be pointed out later, it also comes to symbolize the evil of Jack's dictatorship.
In Ralph's democracy, it plays a significant part, “the fire is the most important thing” (142). The fire represents many different things. It embodies order and responsibility. The boys have to keep the fire going or they think they will never be rescued. As a result, Ralph sets up a plan on who takes care of the fire on what day. Second, the fire symbolizes hope. If the fire goes out they have absolutely no hope in being rescued; the fire serves as a light at the end of the tunnel
almost. On the other hand Jack represents a government and leadership style that is just the opposite of Ralph’s. When Jack breaks away from Ralph’s group in chapter 8, he makes headquarters at Castle Rock, “one flat rock there…and the waters sucking down on the four weedy sides made them seem like cliffs.” (105). Golding creates an eerie, sinister setting for Jacks dictatorship, like many countries under a harsh rule. Many places with a dictatorship are viewed to be not, such as North Korea or Russia. The people tend to “worship” their leader because action will be taken if they don’t. Golding uses this same outlook in his book. The boys put Jack on a higher pedestal than need be. Anything he does or says, the “littluns” and “biguns” will follow. Unlike Ralph, Jack is the only one making the rules, or to even have a say. “See, they [“the painted group”] do what I want,” Jack tells Ralph at one point (179). Moreover, all that was important to his group was hunting and killing. “Which is better? To have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill,” Piggy asks at one point (180). To Jack and his tribe, the choice is obvious. They even went so far that they stuck the head of a swine on a spear in the middle of the forest. In places like North Korea, war and gaining power are important, and a main goal. For Jack, to hold onto power, he must also have weapons to wage war. The author uses weapons such as knives and spears to symbolize war and violence. In the world today many things can represent evil and destruction. Golding in his book chose to use fire, being an easy symbol for both good and evil. In the second half of the book it is used more for evil. They use it almost as a shrine, dancing around it after a kill. So when it goes out it causes them to take action. Jack’s clan raids Ralph’s group to steal Piggy’s glasses in order to start a fire, and causing a clash between the two groups. If Jack would have asked for the glasses, war wouldn’t have broken out because Ralph would have shared the glasses with Jack: “We’d have given you fire if you had asked for it” (176). The glasses come to symbolize a source of power to be fought over by the two sides, just as land and oil are sources of power fought over by different countries in real life. Many countries find these little reasons to go to war with one another, causing many casualties and much destruction. In conclusion, Jack’s form of dictatorship and leadership style leads to complete chaos, having destroyed Ralph’s attempt at democracy: “The world, that understandable and lawful world, was slipping away” (91). Golding uses the island as a mini-representation of the real world to pit a dictatorship against a democratic government and to examine two very different leadership styles. He uses setting and symbols of power (i.e., the conch, weapons, and the fire) to portray elements of conflict. In the end, that conflict leads to destruction on the island among the children just as it does in the adult world. So when Piggy asks the question “What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages?"(91), the answer is based on how you participate in government decisions.