Lord Of The Flies Speech Analysis

The Declaration of Independence was written because people decided they were going to speak up about their rights. Notably, in dire situations no one is to blame but the unspoken. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, a school group of boys stranded on an island, attempting to create order have the same matter of the consequences speech and silence creates. Before the group even begins to know each other two boys, of the names Ralph and Jack, take control over the silence and gain power. Throughout the novel, Golding demonstrates how speech or lack thereof, in a life or death situation influences who the leader is, what the group fears, and who will fall victim to the consequences of their actions.
Throughout the novel, the silence of more
intelligent characters inadvertently allows Ralph and Jack to gain and battle for leadership. Just after the boys’ arrival, they decide to elect a chief. Golding writes, “[W]hat intelligence had been shown was traceable to Piggy… ‘All right. Who wants Jack for chief?’ With dreary obedience the choir raised their hands. ‘Who wants [Ralph]?’ Every hand outside the choir except Piggy’s was raised immediately” (22-23). In this text, Piggy is portrayed as one of the few intelligent characters. Since the group consists upon children who naturally follow who they believe to be powerful, Piggy’s silence make it so the only people eligible to speak are Ralph and Jack. Consequently creating a lack of a voice that is looking out for the greater good of the group since Ralph and Jack’s priority, at this time, is based more off of their want of roguery. Though Ralph’s later actions do also benefit the group, his priority is to see himself get off the island. All the while, Jack’s will to prioritize the hunt shows that he only cares about what he feels in the moment and not about the consequences it will bring the group in the end. This difference in priorities of Ralph and Jack develop and eventually come out in a verbal battle when Jack is making false accusations about Ralph. Jacks exclaims, “‘And the next is that Ralph said my hunters are no good.’ ‘I never said that!’...There was a kind of sigh on the platform as if everyone knew what was coming” (Golding 126). This dialogue blatantly establishes that the group knew that this assembly was going to end up in a big fight, and still none of the boys speaks up to stop it. Considering that nobody intervenes in this fight, it creates a rift between the two chiefs, which promptly affects the leadership because now the group must pick a side which creates a lack of unity. Although the children who remain silent do fuel the battle for power, it is also caused by the monopoly Ralph and Jack hold over speech. The silence of most of the children ultimately causes the power and leadership struggle between the two boys, and the winner will cause either casualties or consolation.
Though the boys fear both Jack and Roger, there is a glaring difference in how they each instill fear.
To the group, Roger is seen as this cryptic figure. He does not speak up as much as Ralph or Jack, though somehow he remains one of the top boys. Golding writes, “Roger stooped, picked up a stone, aimed, and threw it at Henry… Henry turned obediently but always too late to see the stones in the air...Roger had whipped behind the palm again” (62). Roger’s actions here portray how, without any explanation, he feels the urge to pick on the smaller boys. However, when Henry turns around and Roger hides, he demonstrates that he would like to retain his mysterious facade. Roger’s silence is what scares the boys more than anything else because of his lack of reasoning that he gives with all of his disreputable actions. The portrayal of Roger has no real feelings, and he only learns to copy thoughts and actions from Jack without even questioning his rationale, thus making his silence terrifying. His way of implanting fear and retaining his high position is by staying the silent, mysterious henchman of Jack. Contradicting to Roger, Jack uses his confidence while speaking to gain leadership by scaring the boys. Almost instantly he becomes leader of his group because “[Jack] can sing a C sharp”(Golding 22). In the beginning of the novel he was praised for using his voice and currently he is being praised by his hunters for leading hunts and starting chants. These compliments always
coincide with him speaking and lead him to believe that he is more valuable than the others. Eventually, he decides that he should become the “chief”, thus dehumanizing himself by cutting connections to civilization and humanity through the loss of his name. Jack, the boy the little ones used to know is lost with the absence of his name and replaced with a dangerous chief, therefore scaring them into being loyal followers. It is shown later how Jack uses his power over speech to control the group. Jack sets the forest on fire and, “Smoke was seeping through the branches in white and yellow wisps” (Golding 195). Here, Jack, who at this point has taken all authority, decided to smoke out Ralph. This imagery Golding writes describes how Jack’s tribe has followed through with his command to potentially kill their former leader because of the fear they have of him. The combination and collaboration of Jack’s speech and Roger’s silence is what leads the group to fear the both of them.
Because the group gives so much authority to Jack, anybody who tries to change or overthrow his power faces major consequences.
Those who take the backlash from Jack’s authority, were, at the time of their demise, attempting to speak out about conflicts that would enrage Jack. Similarly, Simon’s attempt to tell the group about the beast surrounds his death. Being skeptical about the beast, he goes up the mountain to find the truth. As he finds the beast he comes to the conclusion that it is only a dead body. He travels down the mountain to tell the group and comes out “[C]rying out something about a dead man on a hill. ‘Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood! Do him in’” (Golding 152). Simon’s death was not a complete accident and they did chose to use him for the reenactment. It was Jack’s choice to use his power over speech to force Simon into being the reenactment for the pig’s death, which would satisfy the group and more importantly stop his motive to tell the truth about the beast. Thus Simon’s death benefits Jack’s crusade to kill the beast. With this in mind, Piggy’s death was also essentially caused by him trying to speak to the group and get everyone to return to their previous ways with order and civilization. Golding writes, “ Piggy shouted again. ‘Which is better-to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill?’...The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee...Piggy fell forty feet and landed on his back across the square red rock in the sea.
His head opened and stuff came out and turned red” (180-81). Piggy speaking out for civilization and not barbarity is bad for Jack because that is what he has going to keep the group on his side. Since Jack already has total authority, the choice to go against him and speak up was fatal. Because the group has already given all the power to Jack, when someone tries to speak up they end up getting hurt or killed. The consequence of death falls onto Simon and Piggy because they have decided to finally speak up against the authority of Jack.
During life or death situations, these boys have individually chosen to speak or to stay silent. Their choice greatly affects the wellbeing of the group. Since the majority of the group was silent, it allowed despotic rulers to gain power, while the speech and silence of multiple leaders led to Jack having loyal followers because of their fear of him. By the time Jack is in total power, speaking up is an ignorant decision because it causes multiple fatalities. Consequently, silence allows arbitrary children to gain authority through their speech, and destroy the group's previous balance of civilization and mischief.