Lord Of the flies

Jermira Butler

                                                                                                                 SilverStream

                                                                                                                  English 2 ( D )

                                                                                             March 25, 2019

In William Golding’s, Lord of the flies, Golding tells the story of a group of boys who finds themselves stranded on an island and have to fend for themselves. Without a leader for construction there will be chaos. Which causes savaged actions among each other.

Social inequality is something that people now view as inevitable. It happens and we can’t do anything about it. In William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies”, he writes about young English boys who have very clear differences in values. The events that happen are all subsequential to those differences. Golding uses symbolism to show how social inequalities unintentionally began. The beginning of the children’s civilization process began with the conch.  They started to find different things that would allow them to live civilized and with rules. The conch was used to initiate when people speak. “A conch he called it. He used to blow it and then his mum would come. It's ever so valuable--”, Piggy said. A few lines after Ralph replies, “shut up.” (pg.15) The conch became very valuable to piggy without anyone even realizing it. It was an unintentional value that he had towards the conch. He didn’t want anyone to ruin it, drop it, or use it the wrong way or else he would get mad. The difference between Ralph and Piggy became obvious, the very first social inequality began. Ralph’s response to Piggy shows how Ralph doesn’t value the same thing that Piggy values, he clearly doesn’t see the conch how Piggy sees it. Ralph’s response to Piggy was out of ignorance, he didn’t care; just like many would with talking about racism. They don’t see races outside of theirs the same so they make comments out of ignorance. They unintentionally continue to let racism emerge due to the fact that their ignorant. This starts the separation of the group. Ralph is unintentionally creating that division in the group, as well by telling Piggy to shut up. Later on in the story, Piggy shows up with the conch again. He is upset that the other boys won’t let him speak. "The conch. I got a right to speak,” says Piggy. “The twins giggled together.”(pg. 35) This shows how the conch once again is important to Piggy and not important to the others. He begins to get very upset when he notices that there's a difference in a equality between him when he has the conch and when the other boys have the conch. It’s very obvious that when he has the conch he values it and he actually wants to be heard, but when the others have the conch they have it and they are heard. There is a very clear difference in social equality here and it's super unintentional. The boys don’t intentionally say, “let’s not let Piggy speak.” They just don’t care for what he has to say. Once again showing how the social inequality of the value of the conch unintentionally began. Maren, a student in my English class, said “I don’t think they don’t care about Piggy I think it just happens.” This statement opened my eyes to realize that social inequality is not because people don’t care, “it just happens.”

The boys continued to create unintentional social inequality.  Ralph was commanded chief. The choirboys and Jack, were assigned to work hard just as the other boys. However, they decided that they wanted to go hunting. “When the meeting was over they'd work for five minutes, then wander off or go hunting,” said Ralph. He was highly upset on the fact that all Jack wanted to do was hunt while the others had to work hard. There was a very clear difference in values here. Ralph wanted to get rescued while Jack wanted to hunt. Jack isn’t intentionally deciding to not listen to Ralph, he just wants to do something else that he saw best for the group’s interest. There is a pattern of this unintentional pattern in the book; one boy wanting something while the other does another. This very moment is the start of the rivalry between Jack and Ralph.  Thea, one of my classmates, had said that Jack wanted to do it to prove something. This reminds me a lot of ‘Black Lives Matter’ and police brutality. Police don’t care enough to stop, just as Jack doesn’t care enough to stop hunting. They both continue to do it even if it’s actively hurting others. They just wanted to do the “right thing” meanwhile it’s actually the wrong thing. ‘Black Lives Matter’ just wants to make the people happy and actually promote safety, like Ralph. Ralph just wants to be a good chief and have everyone safe by being rescued. It is a very clear difference in social equality.

Despite everything you have read, people think that the social inequality in Lord of the Flies is because they wanted it that way. Others may think that the boys just didn’t want to like each other, or that they purposely had division. I proved otherwise, that the separation was unintentional. It wasn’t because they wanted it to happen, but that they had clear differences in values. The contribution that I make is unique because I provided things that people looked over as not possible because of how simple it is, but in reality it goes more in depth. Golding uses the symbolism to show how social inequality can be unintentional. The boys had very clear different values. Therefore, social inequality was on the island just as it is everywhere.