What Personality?

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What Personality?

In the novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding tries to expose the aspect of unsure personalities. One of the characters, Jack, switches his way of communicating with the others many times. "`At the beginning of the novel, he refers to the group of kids as we, we are English"'(Golding 42). "`When Jack says that they got to have rules"' he says it in a tone that tries to express the fact of him trying to fix their "society" in a positive way(42). Then later on in the book he expresses his anger to an extent of trying to get respect. `"Eat damn you! are the negative words he states in front of the littluns."' `"During the death of the first pig, kill the pig! Cut her throat! Spill her blood!, Jack speaks to the hunters as if he were their leader, although he is in a manner, but not their number one leader'" (69).

"fear can't hurt you anymore than a dream. There aren't any beasts to be afraid of on this island...Serve you right if something did get you, you usless lot of cry babies!" (82)

Jack is trying to tell the littuns that they are hopeless. They are being scared of something that does not exist but in their dreams. Golding is trying to show that people are afraid of things, indirectly. Jack uses this to become or try to become a stronger, braver, and tougher person so that the weaker ones could look up to him. At first he would try to give them advice but when he noticed that did not work, he tried to get their respect by force. At the end, jack wins the respect of the littluns through his intrigues of his personality.

In addition to Jack being unsure of the form of his personality, Piggy is also unsure. Piggy at the beginning starts out to become sarcastic. `"For example he refers to a spreading fire as a small fire"'(44). With this sarcasm he refers to himself in third person calling himself "Piggy".After this scene was over, Piggy becomes like a person who gives advice. He tries to tell Ralph that Simon's death was nothing more than an "accident". After this has been said, he turns into a state of anxiety because of fear. He falls into the tricks of Jack and believes the beastie is coming when he says "its come...its real!" (151). Throughout the book, Piggy moves back and forth and can not determine his personality.

"Which is better--to be a pack or painted Indians like you are or to be sensible...or to hunt and kill?"(180).

Piggy has left his shell and speaks through his own mouth. Before he would speak through Ralph's mouth. He is trying to knock sense into the children. The author of the novel is trying to say that people sometimes need force to be shown what is happening. Piggy takes advantage of this to stop being the low life kid that everyone pushes around and tries to keep his feet on the earth.

People change their personalities while under pressure. Before the twin towers were destroyed, people would just go to work and not think about things. After the tragedy people would unite with their family a lot more. Golding uses the book to try to show the world how humans really act. Although to some people it is rather hard to see it, he brings it under light. If people do not understand their own personality, then how are they suppose to understand other peoples personalities.

Ralph blowing on the conch to call an assembly of the people on the island symbolizes order and democracy. The conch holds a sense of authority and leadership. The one who is holding it has the right to speak. It helps maintain order so things will not go out of hand causing chaos on the island. When young children are stranded on an unknown island without any adults to supervise, the situation tends to create problems. Having order is important to survival as well as getting rescued, as it is in the situation in the novel. Symbolizing democracy, the conch organizes a system so it brings the people together. The leader, holding the conch, is important because the person holds together and has the responsibility to manage the community. They tell what each must do to keep things organized. Each needs to obey the leader in order for things to be well.

When Jack and his hunting crew came back from spending all day hunting a wild pig, things got out of control. They began to act immature like savages at their little night feast. The hunters would not help in building shelters or keep the fire alive. All they would do was hunt all day, every day. Ralph noticed things needed to be done such, as shelters needed to be built in case of a storm. "I'm calling an assembly." "With the conch. I'm calling a meeting even if we have to go on into the dark. Down on the platform. When I blow it. Now." (Golding 75). Ralph decided to take leadership, blow the conch and call an assembly to talk about the situation. Ralph tries to talk to Jack, the leader of the hunting crew, about helping out with other survival needs. He tries to keep order on the island and stop the others from acting immature. The conch shows how one little piece of shell can be so powerful and symbolize order.

The difference between Jack and Ralph in the book Lord Of The Flies by William Golding is simply good versus evil. Some the examples of their oppositions are their ideals of social responsibility's, individual personality, and their appearance. Ralph and Jacks have something in common: their aversion to each other throughout the book is very apparent.

Jack and Ralph's first opposition are their ideals of social responsibility. First of all Ralph is very selfless. By this I mean he is generous and helpful. Since Ralph was the leader of the tribe he was always helping people by keeping the fire going and building the shelters even though nobody helped him except Simon. He was also very selfless when at the meeting he let everybody speak including the "little uns". But on the other side, Jack was very egotistical and self-centered. One example of this is when he was supposed to be tending the fire. But instead of being responsible and mature, he went out to hunt and left they fire untended. In result, the fire went out leaving the group without a signal. Another example of Jack being self-centered is when during the meetings he wouldn't accept anybody else's opinions. When "little uns" would propose their opinion about the "beast", Jack would instantly shut them down, because he thought he was always right. My opinion is that Ralph was considerately responsible through the book and Jack retained his self-centered ways.

Another one of Jack and Ralph's differences is their personalities. One of Ralph's personality traits is that he is sensible, or in other words, he puts things into perspective. An example of this is that he knew the only way to get rescued was to keep the fire going. Instead of going hunting and having fun all the time with the others his priorities were keeping the fire going. Another example of Ralph being sensible or rational is, similar to the fire issue: it is building huts. Ralph knew that building huts is the only way to protect the boys from rain and fowl weather. But to the contrary, Jack is impulsive. He is impulsive because he does things without thinking. One example of Jack being impulsive is when he puts down Piggy and the other "little uns" without thinking of what he is saying. Also his impulsiveness occurs when he didn't help Ralph or the others build the huts or keep the fire going, all he did was want to hunt. Clearly the personality differences of Jack and Ralph can be summed up by that Ralph is reasonable and Jack can be very hasty when it comes to opinions.

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The third diversity between Ralph and Jack are their appearances. In the beginning of the book everybody has the same appearance: hair still somewhat combed and neat, their clothes wet, dirty and ripped from the plain crash. Ralph, as he progressed throughout the book, tried to act civilized and take baths. Jack's appearance as he progressed throughout the book was different. He stopped taking baths and was not civilized. Further in the book he and his tribe started putting on face paint when he was hunting. One characteristic that both boys shared as they advanced through the book was the ...

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