Jack, Ralph, and Thomas Hobbes -- How Lord of the Flies and Leviathan Connect by Jack Sugrue

“Hereby it is manifest, that during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in a condition which is called war…” Thomas Hobbes’ concept of bellum omnium contra omnes, or “war of all against all”, states that people will inherently result to war and warlike traits. There is nearly no better model of his ideologies than William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, a story about a group of deserted English boys who resort to savagery and brutality. The lack of a strong authority among the boys of Lord of the Flies leads them to make many savage and uncivilized decisions, which model the concepts of Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan.

Thomas Hobbes and his writing strongly advocated for a system of government that involves a strong central figure. His most famous work, Leviathan, speaks in-depth about this. His beliefs involving the state of a group without a leader are informative: “...continual fear and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” In Hobbes’ mind, a warlike state comes about easily without authority, and society falls apart. However, a strong power would hypothetically balance this issue, and create a system where people act differently. Hobbes’ belief in this warlike state is exemplified in an isolated system where there is no government, such as that of the island.

The final scene of Lord of the Flies is a hunt of main character Ralph. This hunt is brutal and real, until Ralph finds his way onto the shore, where he and the other boys run into the first adult in the book, who is their ticket off the island. The mood suddenly switches: “The ululation faltered and died away… A semicircle of little boys, their bodies streaked with colored clay, sharp sticks in their hands, were standing on the beach making no noise at all (200).” The juxtaposition between this scene and the previous is strong. Where the previous scene featured an intense chase with the savages and Ralph facing almost near-death scenarios, this scene features all the boys frozen and awkward. The presence of an adult, the only real change in the scene, establishes an aura of authority and peace, while simultaneously forcing each boy to question their actions. This strong power changes the state of each of these boys drastically from that of war to that of peace.

Another important belief of Thomas Hobbes, as seen in Leviathan, is his defense of why people who are not in the presence of a greater power fight amongst themselves: “And therefore if any two men desire the same thing, which nevertheless they cannot both enjoy, they become enemies...” This belief not only shows a valid reason for why man will result to a warlike state, but also shows the competitiveness of a group of people. People in contention for the same thing, be it material or otherwise, will immediately spark conflict. This conflict will, in most cases, be single handedly responsible for the warlike state of everyone involved. The connections to Lord of the Flies here run deep.

The largest divide among the boys comes from direct competition between Jack and Ralph over who will become the leader. While Ralph was democratically elected and had his mind set on being rescued, Jack had his mind on hunting and savagery. His envy of Ralph’s leadership is obvious, especially when he finally breaks off from the main group: “‘Hands up,’ said Jack strongly, ‘whoever wants Ralph not to be chief?’ The silence continued, breathless and heavy and full of shame… ‘I’m not going to play any longer. Not with you (127).’” Jack’s constant vying for power creates tension between him and Ralph, the official leader. This fight for leadership is what establishes the main conflicts, and subsequently some of the least humane parts of the book: Simon’s death, Piggy’s death, and so on. Jack and Ralph’s conflict results in the most warlike parts of the entire novel, and affects so many others besides just the two of them.

Much of both Hobbes’ ideals and those of the boys on the island come down to moral code. Hobbes believes, in general, that a moral code is strengthened by an authority figure. The reverse of this is explicitly seen in Lord of the Flies: the morals of each boy fade away as their memories of civilized life do as well. This is, inevitably, what separates Lord of the Flies’ boys from any other group of people:  their distance from civilization. This disparity not only causes them to act the way they do, but also brings out the Hobbesian state of nature. This can prove to humanity that having some tangible sense of civilization is the only way we can avoid Hobbes’ “war of all against all.”

Works Cited

Golding, William. Lord Of The Flies. New York: Penguin, May 2006. Print.

Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan. London: Pelican Classics, 1968. Website.