Lord of the Flies, Character Comparison: Ralph Vs. Jack

Lord of the Flies has many meanings to it which are defined through the characters involved in the story and through the items found in the island or carried by the characters. Many of these characters differ from each other a lot but they don't comprehend that. The characters that are the most important would be Ralph and Jack. Ralph and Jack both have different qualities and beliefs that define each of them completely and at times make them both alike in many matters. The reason that I pick both these characters is because they both represent what we are and what they were, Civilized and Savage. I will compare and contrast these two characters to show that they are very different and very alike and that everyone will go savage eventually.

I will start with Ralph to explain his feeling, thoughts, beliefs, and theme he represents. Ralph is a character that believes that they will be rescued by the navy because his father will come looking for him when he notices that his son's plane has gone missing, but Ralph notices he can not manage it without a fire kept going. Ralph thinks of the fire as the way to salvation. Ralph starts as a leader, in the novel, to the whole group of stranded kids and keeps them organized by giving them an occupation that will benefit them all. He assigns Samneric the job of keeping the fire alive, which to Ralph is the most important one, Jack and the choir as the hunters, and piggy as a care-taker of the littluns. Ralph is a representation of civilization and innocence. Ralph believes that civilization is the only way to keep everyone safe. Ralph and the fire are linked together because the fire and him both symbolize civilization while it lasts.

Jack is a character that is very influential. Jack represents savagery and evil in the book, by the way his civilization is canceled out by the bloodlust. Jack starts as a potential leader in the book by keeping the hunters organized, but it all goes wrong when he brings Samneric away from the fire in order so that they could help them hunt. While Samneric are gone the fire starts to diminish while a ship is in view. Ralph seeing this is carried by rage and starts an argument with Jack. In this piece of the novel it explains how little Jack comprehends the meaning of the fire. Jack believes they should have fun and do whatever they want and that they should forget about civilization. When Jack forgets about the fire's meaning of being there when he takes Samneric, he is pushing away civilization for the needs of bloodlust and savagery.

Even though Jack and Ralph are different in the novel overall, however there are parts in the book that they are linked in thoughts and actions. These two paragraphs explain how Ralph and Jack are being carried by the bloodlust after they have killed the pig: "They got his arms and legs. Ralph, carried away by a sudden thick excitement, grabber Eric's spear and jabbed at Robert with it. "Kill him! Kill him!"

"All at once, Robert was screaming and struggling with the strength of frenzy. Jack had him by the hair and was brandishing his knife. Behind him was Roger, fighting to get close. The chant rose ritually, as at the last moment of a dance or a hunt.

"Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in!"

Ralph too was fighting to get near, to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh. The desire to squeeze and hurt was over mastering." Pg.114 -115

These paragraphs clearly describe that Ralph also is losing some of his innocence and is about to fall over the cliff that separates civilization and savagery. It shows that both Ralph and Jack are somewhat savage except that the small difference is that Jack already lost his innocence and is near completely savage, while Ralph is about to as well. Ralph and Jack are also alike because they are easily carried by their excitement. This is showed when Simon crawls out of the forest and everyone is carried away from the bloodlust and excitement and tears, bites, stabs, and kills Simon. This clearly shows that even the most civilized people have a tip of savagery in them.

When the character that represents a theme falls in to the side of the opposing theme everything goes wrong and everyone falls out of place. This is exactly what this book is telling us through the characters Jack and Ralph. It is telling us that no matter how nice and civilized you are; you always have the potential to become the opposite because everyone possesses a small amount of evil in them till it spreads and takes over as it did to Jack and how it was about to for Ralph till he realized he was the only thing left keeping everyone together.