Ralph

Ralph.

The boy I have chosen is Ralph.  In the novel, he was elected to be chief of the island.  He was supposed to maintain peace and civilization on the island.  However, he was contested as leader by another boy, Jack Merridew.  

Jack Merridew. 

Jack had been in charge for the majority of his life so it was hard for him to just stand by as another person lead.  Ralph instantly saw the confusion and sadness when he was elected as a leader instead of Jack and he decided to let Jack be the chief of his choir.  Jack and Ralph had different priorities.  Jack didn't fully understand the circumstances they were in and felt that hunting was the most important thing they could do.  Ralph on the other hand, fully understood that their only hope of salvation was to maintain a fire so that passing ships might see the smoke.  

Smoke.

There was a constant conflict between the two of them which eventually lead to the separation of the boys.  From this point on, everything took a turn for the worse and the killing began.  Therefore, Ralph contributed to the tragedies by not giving Jack and his choir enough freedom to hunt and personal space.  Even though the fire is obviously more important, Ralph could have maintained it with the help of the other boys.  And Ralph and Jack could have compromised by Jack only taking a few boys hunting each time he went which would leave more boys to tend the fire and help out around the camp.  Also, Ralph could have easily prevented the death of Simon by telling the group that it was simply Simon and not the beast which they believed it was.  However, he killed Simon along with all the other boys participating in the dance.  Ralph could not have done anything about Piggy's death except for maybe keeping a closer eye on him or keeping Piggy closer to himself.  

Ralph could have kept a closer eye on Piggy.

For the most part though, Piggy's death was  an accident.  If I was in Ralph's shoes, I would have handled the majority of things the same way as he did.  However, I would have not have been so focused on Jack and his intentions.  I would have just accepted that he did not have his priorities straight and I would have tried to figure out a way to make a compromise with him instead of fighting him.

Fighting.

Other than that though, I find that Ralph did a good job of handling situations and being a leader in general, especially since he was only twelve years old.

Power Conflict

This picture shows a power conflict between Ralph and Jack.

One time, I experienced a person vs. person power conflict between myself and a co-worker.  Our supervisors and managers had already left but they had not specified where each of us were supposed to work. We both wanted to work in  the grocery department that night instead of the dairy department because there was not much to do in the grocery department, and the dairy cooler was quite full which meant there was a lot of work to be done.  Since we could not work as a pair, we had to decide who would work where.  Instead of starting an argument about the issue, we mutually decided that I 

Compromise.

would work in the grocery department for the night and my co-worker would work in the dairy department.  We agreed to switch roles the next time we worked together.  If we were allowed, we would have worked as a pair and finished the jobs in each department together.  However, this solution would have caused other problems which is why we were not allowed.  These problems could of been too much socializing, too much fun, or we could have developed dependencies for each other.  These problems might have caused us to not get the work done that night or in future shifts due to a dependency for each other.  Therefore, I believe that our solution was the most reasonable one possible for this situation.  If this conflict had escalated, we might have wasted a lot of time trying to decide who would work where instead of just getting the job done.

This picture shows a power conflict between Michael Myers and Pinhead.

Also, the situation might have become violent if it had continued to escalate. If it had escalated to that level, it is possible we would have been fired. Therefore, it was a good compromise to make.           

William Golding (Revised)

• William Golding was a Nobel Prize winning British author who lived from 1911 to 1993.  He wrote many pieces of literature during his life but his most popular, and first, is Lord of The Flies.  He won the Booker Prize for writing the novel Rites of Passage. 
• William Golding lived through a hard time.  He lived through two world wars, the Great Depression, and a time when medicine was still quite primitive.  There were many diseases back then that they did not have antidotes or vaccines for.  Many people got sick and died because of these diseases.  Also, he survived two wars which had a massive impact on the world, World War 1 and World War 2.  Also, he even served in the Royal British Navy during the latter.  The whole world was in turmoil during those wars and William survived them both.  In addition, William lived in poverty for about ten years due to the Great Depression of the 1930's.  The whole world's economy was at a record low and the whole world, William included, was affected.  
• I believe William wrote Lord of The Flies as he remembered the wars he had lived through and served in.  He most likely created the fictional war in the novel in order to channel his feelings about the wars that had played a huge role in his life.  Possibly, the reason he wrote the novel might have been to show children that life without their parents or other adults would be extremely hard and not enjoyable.  He demonstrates to children that life is not all about fun and games, sometimes you have to become serious and make decisions and face the consequences of those decisions.