Tommy Brokaw

Hr 1 Mrs.Weber

Acc. LA 10/14/10

Macbeth/Lord of the Flies Essay

There is always a struggle for more in everyday life whether it is better grades, more

money from a job, starting position on a sports team, or countless other things. It is a basic

human instinct to see a person in position of power, wealth, or status over you and want

whatever they have and at times do whatever is necessary to take it. In the novel, Lord of the

Flies, this person is Jack over throwing Ralph for the position of leader of the island. In

Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, it is Macbeth and his wife taking over the Scottish throne by

murdering Duncan. It is human nature to desire more power, position or wealth. Sometimes

people will take drastic and often immoral steps to make it a reality and don’t care who they

hurt in the process.

The common theme of constantly wanting more power and doing anything to get it is

very prevalent in Lord of the Flies. In Lord of the Flies the individual who looked to increase his

power was Jack. He wanted to be the leader of the tribe of children, but Ralph stood in his way

when the children voted Ralph into power instead of Jack. [“I ought to be chief,” said Jack with

simple arrogance,](Golding22). This quote explains how Jack thought that clearly he should

have been chief and begins his path to doing whatever it takes to get what he wants. As the

original group started to fail, it gave Jack the opportunity to take the position of chief he
wanted. When he left to form his own tribe he took most of the children with him, “Who’s

going to join my tribe” (Golding150). While at first the constraints of society that were etched in

the head of all the boys stopped Jack from doing anything to extreme. Near the end of the

novel he beat children to stay in power and even ordered his tribe to attack and attempt to

murder Ralph. At first Jack was content with being the lead hunter; however that wasn’t

enough for him he wanted to be the chief, when he was chief he started to hurt anyone who

got in his way. Proving that people will do immoral things to get what they want.

In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, Macbeth and his wife take a more direct approach to

reaching their goals for power. They would murder anyone who stood in their way, such as

Macbeth’s good friend Banquo. “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my

hand? No, this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, Making the green one

red” (ShakespeareIIii58-61). This quote shows just how many people they had to kill to gain the

power that they craved, saying that if she washed the blood off her hands in the ocean there

would be so much blood that it would turn the ocean red. In both Macbeth and lord of the

Flies there is a position of power that is wanted and someone who will do whatever is

necessary to gain it.

This theme is not only limited to the confines of literature it is shown on almost a daily

basis with wars over seas for control over a weak government or even here with people

scamming each other just to increase their own wealth. One of the most prevalent stories in

today’s news would be the Bernie Madoff scandal. While he did not murder anyone he

defrauded thousands of investors out of an estimated 50 billion dollars. Bernie made a false
wealth management business that had thousands of clients and turned it into the largest

known Ponzi scheme in history. Stealing billions of dollars from investors is a very drastic step

to make his desire of being wealthy a reality despite the amount of people he had to hurt along

the way. There are many stories like this where people do whatever it takes to get what they

want whether it is money, power or even fame no matter who they hurt, steal from or even

murder along the way.

The theme is clearly shown in both stories and countless modern situations. The play

Macbeth and the novel Lord of the Flies show this basic theme perfectly with large power

struggles in both stories. It is human nature to want more but in certain cases people will do

whatever it takes to get what they desire no matter what the cost.