Lord of the Flies - Essay 13

The novel Lord of the Flies, by William Golding is a very deviant story. The characters in the story have no heroic qualities. Ralph is not a hero because he relies on Piggy’s advice and stalls on his actions. This results in the eventual downfall of the tribe. Jack is not a hero because he is a murderer and was unfaithful to the others, again leading to the demise of the group. Piggy was a “mama’s boy” and couldn’t stand up for himself. He needed a say in the decisions that were made. There was not a single character that could fulfill the role of a true hero.



Ralph was not a worthy saint because he allowed the group to slowly fade away due to his ungracious ideas and slow pace. When he and Simon were building shelters, he did nothing but complain about how the others did not help and keep fresh water stocked. He did nothing to take any action towards it. His assemblies were unsuccessful because no one listened to his foolish ideas. His efforts to try and organize a successful society were a complete failure. Ralph said to Jack “You hunters! You can laugh! But I tell you smoke is more important than the pig, however often you kill one” (86). Jack and Ralph didn’t see eye to eye, one wanted fire for cooking the other for a signal to be rescued.   Ralph only took into consideration, “law and rescue.” He thought about this instead of hunting and the needs of the others. His orders to civilization were useless because he did not realize that if they did not have food, they would not have energy to build a fire.   He did not understand they would die of starvation before they would ever get rescued. Ralph and Jack were always fighting against each other, the initial incident was when a ship passed and Jack had let the fire out.   Ralph was not capable of being a strong leader himself because he could not stand up for himself, or his beliefs. He also llooked up to Piggy and relied on his advice. The others only voted for Ralph as chief because they did...