Cassista 1

(Golding)Chloe Cassista

Ms. Bogoff

E period

4/4/22

Lord of the Flies and Community

Lord of the Flies is a classic story that portrays the evil ideology hidden deep within

society and its roots. It touches base with familiar topics and slides along the boundaries of

societal dos and don’ts. Within this novel it is revealed how community and order provide a

strong structure for peace and organization. This classic novel by William Goldings indicates the

ways that community, order, support and higher powers are necessary to have successful peace

and obedience.

Through-out this story it is shown how boys turn into men and the sense of losing

innocence. Men or “grownups” are shown as a higher power to the boys and a sense of safety

and support for them. In the text it is stated that ““Grownups know things,” said Piggy. “They

ain’t afraid of the dark. They’d meet and have tea and discuss. Then things ’ud be all right—"

(Golding) The boys know that they must chose to act like responsible adults in order to keep the

community they formed under control, they make attempts to remodel their behaviors. Later in

the story it is shown that Ralph (who is portrayed as the most responsible one and is the leader)

is struggling to keep the inner child away in the kids on the island. Childish behavior is seen as a

lack of control and responsibility, exactly what the boys cannot have.
 Cassista 2

Leadership and order fall hand in hand, and within this story the conch is a symbolic

representation of both. The conch is what brings the boys together collectively as a group, it has

the power to control people the way that adults and those in higher power positions do (such as

leaders.) In the beginning of the novel, it is stated “We can’t have everybody talking at once.

We’ll have to have ‘Hands up’ like at school.” . . . “Then I’ll give him the conch. . . . I’ll give the

conch to the next person to speak. He can hold it when he’s speaking.’” (Golding) This rule is

created to recreate the power structure of old society, a sense of order and organization. Ralph is

also the first one to use the conch and declare it a symbol of power, causing him to become the

idea of leadership.

Leadership is not the only law of community though; Jack and his group are the perfect

representation of this. Jack’s group is shown as the idea of savagery and disorganization. This is

because Jack only wants to have control and does not value the other topics of order and support.

This is shown when the text states “Bollocks 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 - !” (Golding) He just wants

to have control over life itself, utter power. This shows how he values the idea of control over

contribution, making him unfit to support a group.

The idea of order, support, higher power and community providing peace and obedience

found within this novel is shown through the evidence provided above. These pieces include the

conch and its symbolism toward power and leadership, community and the idea of responsibility,

and how Jack and his group show us that other aspects go into a supported community. It is a key

value to have support and leadership in a successful society.