Another of Ralph’s first decisions as chief was to explore their surroundings to determine whether or not they were on an island. On this exploration the relationship differs little from when they first met due to the short space of time between the two activities. I think, though that Ralph has gained more respect for Jack and showed this by asking to accompany him on the exploration. Golding indicates that at this point in the story the three on the exploration, (Ralph, Jack and Simon) are still very much children from good, strict and civilised childhoods as they mock fight and become “a happy, heaving pile” in the middle of the jungle. Ralph and Jack were joined in effort to roll a huge rock and displayed their mutual respect for each other by helping each other to triumph over the stubborn rock on the cliff face.
The relationship grows strained and wearier as the story progresses. The boys hold more assemblies more issues come into to focus. Jack becomes slightly more antagonistic when in front of the group. In one such assembly one of the littluns spoke to the group through Piggy and spoke of a beast that he saw creeping around in the night. Ralph tried to banish these ideas by claiming that there was no such beast on the island, only “in big countries, like Africa, or India.” The talk of the beast was spreading fear and tension through the group and while Ralph was trying to expel the thoughts by saying, “There isn’t a beast”, Jack was encouraging the notion by saying that if there was a beast, “We’d kill it!” Later in the same assembly, Ralph uses his “new authority” to good effect when he changes the subject from the beast to rescue. It is his idea that they should have a signal fire for any passing ships to pick up on and then to rescue the boys from their tropical paradise island. Ralph decides to burn the fire on the mountain, at which point Jack takes things his own hands with shouts of “Come on, Follow me!” At this, the group completely ignore Ralph waving the conch and follow Jack up the mountain. These acts’ of Jack shows the difference between himself and Ralph. Ralph tries to keep things calm and civilised and Jack is more barbaric and savage ready at any point to kill anything, just for the want to kill. Jack strikes fear into the group by encouraging fearful ideas to blossom and Ralph is against such things. The fear that Jack induces causes tension but Ralph’s idea about the fire unites the group to work towards rescue.
The relationship between them is very bitter when Jack goes off hunting alone and leaves Ralph and Simon to build huts and the choir doesn’t help. Again Ralph symbolises the orderly world outside the island and Jack symbolises the deterioration of man without the civilised world. Jack slips into a completely new world and becomes obsessed by the need to kill hiding behind altruistic views that he hunts for the group and wants them all to have meat and whilst Ralph continues to build huts to get shelter from the beast, he points out that Jack is not doing his bit for the group at all. The difference between the work they do is that Jack wants to hunt, for himself not just the group and enjoys it, but Ralph is stuck building some “ruins” for shelters with only Simon for company. The two characters’ priorities are clearly different from one another.
The relationship reaches a climax in truly dramatic fashion. When Ralph sees a ship from the beach he looks up at the mountain to see that the signal fire that jack’s choir were in charge of was out, he runs up to the fire and finds Jack celebrating the first killing of a pig. This is the final straw so to speak for Ralph who is now tired of Jack’s disobeying orders in order to fulfil his own selfish needs to kill. The ship passed by and they were once again stuck on the island until the next opportunity arises. And because of Jack they didn’t have a hope this time. Jack had taken Sam and Eric from the fireside so that his hunting party could form a full circle in which to trap and kill a pig for meat. This indicates that Jack thinks that savagery and hunting is more important than civilisation, huts and rescue. The tension between Jack and Ralph has now reached its climax and ends with them squaring up to fight. Ralph makes the group see that Jack was wrong to let the ship pass and so Jack attempts to win back favour by bullying Piggy who had now made his way up the mountain.
Once Jack “stuck his fist into Piggy’s stomach” whatever link was left in the relationship between Ralph and Jack, was “snapped”.
The relationship deteriorates because of Jack and his savageness, his selfishness and his greed for power, against Ralph’s intelligence, hard work and ingenuity in trying to build a civilised and orderly environment for the boys to live in. These differences eventually broke the group in two.
