Comparison Of Doolittle And Higgins In Pygmalion

Essay, Research Paper

William Golding?s ?Lord Of The Flies?:

Tension Between the Enemy?s

It is obvious from the first time that Ralph and Jack meet that there will be a struggle between them. In chapter one when the two meet Jack automatically proclaims himself the leader while Ralph has himself in mind for the position (22).

Although both boys wish to be in charge, they think very differently. Ralph proves himself to be logical and responsible by suggesting the building of a signal fire. He desires order, and rescue is his priority. Jack, on the other hand, sees the situation as a game and becomes obsessed with hunting. He even allows the fire to burn out so that a passing ship cannot see the smoke (67).

As the novel progresses, the two distrust each other more and more, and Jack begins to adopt animal-like characteristics. For example, at the beginning of chapter three, Jack is crawling on the ground looking for pig tracks (48). These differences and confrontations, such as the one where the boys are on a hunt for the beast and Ralph asks Jack why he hates him, lead to the final conflict between the boys. By chapter eleven, Jack’s “tribe” has completely separated from Ralph’s group. Ralph, Piggy and Samneric try to reason with Jack, but the tension that has been building since the beginning of the novel finally erupts into a physical disagreement. Because of the clues that Golding has given the reader throughout the book, this event comes as no surprise.

Following Simon?s death it becomes clear that Ralph and Jack are greatly different. Jack insisted that Simon was merely disguised as the beast and the beast is not really dead. Ralph on the other hand realized that he had taken part in the murder of a human being. It is clear that Ralph had managed to accept that the evil came from within himself and he had learned to control it. Jack, on the other hand, had no idea of what he had done and did not care anyway.

This fact confirms that Jack had been overcome by the evil within him and afterwards, when he stole Piggy?s glasses, it seemed that all hope for Ralph, order and civilized values was lost. This was further emphasized when Roger, whose aggressive tendency developed throughout the novel, savagely and mercilessly killed Piggy. Towards the end of the novel, chaos and anarchy became common. Ralph was hunted down like a wild animal and the imagery Golding uses in this final chapter describes a world where insanity and evil rule. It is even possible that the boys now saw Ralph as the beast, which is why they hunted him down. Secondly, although all the boys were hunting Ralph to kill him, most of them probably did not realize what they were doing or why. This is because Jack had influenced their minds and half of them probably saw killing Ralph as merely a game. In view of the fact that Ralph was being hunted down by everyone on the island, we must accept that he would have been killed had it not been for the arrival of the Navy officers.