Lord of the Flies: the Two Political Forces

In "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding, a group of kids crash lands on an uninhabited island. As the time passes, two rival groups emerge, each having a leader with his own view on how to lead.

Ralph's rule was democratic. He believed that order could be achieved by peaceful negotiations and reasoning. He got the kids to elect him as a chief rather than enforcing his own rule. He attempted to achieve order by performing peaceful talks during his assemblies. For discipline, he relied on his conch: only the person who held it was allowed to speak. He did not force his people to follow the rules, nor did he punish them when a rule got broken.

Jack's rule, in contrast, was dictatorial. He believed that everybody must strictly follow his orders. Since the very beginning, he was very authoritative, and he wanted kids to obey him right away. Once, Jack went hunting and let the fire out right when a ship passed by. Piggy began accusing him of not getting rescued, and in return Jack decided to demonstrate his power by not giving Piggy any meat. During Ralph's assemblies, Jack often attempted to speak out of turn, breaking the rule of the conch. Once, he even claimed that they do not need a conch anymore. He said that everybody knows who has something useful to say and who doesn't. In reality, he just wanted to show that he has more power than Ralph does. One day, Jack demanded to be a chief, and when nobody responded, Jack decided to leave the group. Since kids wanted meat, they started to gradually leave Ralph's group to join Jack's. In his group, Jack restricted the conch use and allowed only selected few to speak, while others could only follow his orders. When somebody broke Jack's rules, Jack punished them by beating them up.

Thus, the two political groups that have emerged on the island were Ralph's democracy and Jack's dictatorship.