Adults In Lord Of The Flies Quote Analysis

Words: 1533
Pages: 7
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Christina Zanella
Ms. Spada
ENG 3UI
May 17th, 2016
Relevance of Adults in Lord of the Flies In today’s society, adults naturally run the world as children stand by their sides watching and learning, only soon to become adults themselves. In the novel Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding, a group of boys have to experience adulthood at an early age. The story unfolds when they crash land on an island and have to survive on their own without the supervision of adults. With all their best efforts, the boys on the island were destined to fail as a society without the supervision of adults on the island. Young children naturally need someone older to learn from and guide them; in addition, they do not understand leadership and the power …show more content…
Once the boys were on the island they tried to form a simple government consisting of a chief, whom had to be elected by the boys themselves. “‘Shut up,’ said Ralph absently. He lifted the conch. ‘Seems to me we ought to have a chief to decide things.’ ‘A chief! A chief!’ ‘I ought to be chief,’ said Jack with simple arrogance, ‘because I'm chapter chorister and head boy. I can sing C sharp.’” (Golding 22). The above quote explains how Jack should be elected chief as he can sing C sharp. In an adult world, the person who would be elected for a position would be someone who has had prior knowledge and/or experience in the position that he/she is to be elected for. Jack believes that since he can sing C sharp and is the chapter chorister that he is fit to hold power and make decisions. This shows the arrogance and immaturity that is present when selecting a chief. Although in the story, Jack, was not elected chief by the boys, Ralph was, due to his physical appearance in which the boys found to be appealing. Thus proving, how different children and adults can be in forming a government and how different the maturity levels can be whilst making these decisions. "...an authentic experience of participation in local government decision making is essential if democracy is to be meaningful." (Alperovitz 44). Alperovitz explains that basic essentials of someone who is …show more content…
They rend to lack the capacity to handle power and develop an understanding of the non-physical religious world. The boys don’t have the same knowledge as adults would acquire. Their life experience does not compare to anything of an adult’s. This causes them to panic and not know what to do in a situation when an adult is not present to control it. Within the government system you do not see children running the meetings, this is a position taken only by adults whom have experience. In the novel, the boys attempted to start a government only to fail as lack experience and cannot understand power and authority to its fullest potential. Lastly, when children are scared they tend to look up to someone and believe what they are told, while adults tend to make sense of it on their own. In the novel the boys worship Jack like a god when in reality, he is no different than anybody else, however the boys are too young to realize this and abide by his orders. Consequently, if there were adults present on this island accompanying the boys, their stay and experience would have been much different and in result,
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