Tina Olavarria

                                                                                 English 10

                                                                                 Dr. Schneider

Government in Lord of the Flies

       There are many interpretations of Lord of the Flies. It is a universal story that people all over the world can relate to. Lord of the Flies is an allegory in which each character represents something outside of the literal. The main characters Ralph and Jack are not only young boys, they represent three very different types of government: democracy, anarchy, and totalitarianism, while Piggy represents the ideals of a government.

         I believe that Piggy doesn’t specifically represent a government. Piggy is the ideal, the whisper, and the dream of what a true democracy should be. “We can use this to call the others. Have a meeting,” he says about the conch (Golding 16). Right at the beginning of the story you see his shining belief in equality, his wanting to include all others in the decision making and regain order.   The French philosopher Rousseau writes, “As I was born a citizen of a free state, and a member of the sovereign, I feel that, however feeble the influence my voice can have on public affairs, the right of voting makes it my duty to study them”(1). The conch, which Piggy finds, embodies this ideal, of each member of a democracy having the right to speak his peace.

         Ralph is made chief in the beginning of the story. Ralph isn’t the ideal of a democracy. He exemplifies the actual government. And just like all governments, the theory behind it is much more radiantly splendid than the actual thing. Ralph tries to keep the order and actually succeeds during the first few days, calling meetings regularly and setting up rules that must be followed at all costs. “So remember. The rocks for a lavatory. Keep the fire going and smoke showing as a signal. Don’t take fire from the mountain. Take your food up there”(Golding 81). Ralph desperately tries to keep the fire going, a beacon of light to the outside world. But as the boys begin to ignore their duties and abuse the freedoms that come with democracy, chaos begins to get the upper hand over order.

         Jack embodies both anarchy and a totalitarian state. From chaos comes the absolute order of a people under a dictator.   Jack helps to create this chaos by urging the boys away from their obligations. In the chapter “Painted Faces and Long Hair,” Jack is able to get the boys to let the fire go out to hunt a pig through his use of propaganda, such as having fun, hunting pigs, having feasts, and being able to have their own fort.   Jack is able to convince a large majority of the boys to like him over Ralph.   Rousseau points out, “As soon as it is possible to disobey with impunity, disobedience is legitimate; and, the strongest being always in the right, the only thing that matters is to act so as to become the strongest”(2). The instant that Jack sees his chance to become a leader over the other boys, he acts as quickly as possible, setting up his own tribe at the other end of the island. In Jack’s tribe, unlike in Ralph’s, he answers to no one, bar himself, while all the boys in turn answer to him.

He’s going to beat Wilfred.

What for?

[…] I don’t know. He didn’t say. He got angry and made us tie Wilfred up. He’s been […] tied up for hours waiting.

But didn’t the chief say why?

I never heard him. (Golding 159)

In the above dialogue two of the boys discuss Jack’s rampant cruelty toward a boy who apparently didn’t do anything wrong. But they never question their leader’s decision; they obey him absolutely.

         In this allegory it can be said that each boy represents either an ideal or a form of government. Piggy, with his belief in the conch and equality, easily embodies the ideal of a perfect, democratic system. Whereas, Ralph is that system in action and has to suffer the trial of having to establish the order and ideal that Piggy symbolizes. Jack creates havoc among the order and democracy that both Ralph and Piggy labor to create. When he finally succeeds in demolishing their democratic system, he institutes a totalitarian state whereby the only person that he has to answer to is himself. Lord of the Flies is a story about a group English boys who find themselves cast away on a deserted island. But in truth it is much more. It is an allegory, which will never be completely deciphered.   

Works Cited

Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. New York:            Penguin Putnam,1954.

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Social Contract. Book            1.1762. Constitution Society.12/16/03  

                  < http://www.constitution.org/jjr/socon_01.htm >.