10) Thoughts and feelings about any aspect of the book
Xavier's response
I really liked the Lord Of The Flies as it can portray how young innocent boys can lead to become savage animals. The book shows that anybody can change no matter who you are.
One of the aspect that I like about the book is the characters Ralph and Jack. Ralph and Jack are polar opposites from each other. Ralph represents the civilization while Jack represents savagery. Civilization represents the goodwill and the innocence of the little boys and savagery represents evil and the primal instinct that lurks in every one of us in the novel. Civilization and savagery conflicts with each other and this causes Ralph and Jack to show tension in between them in many occasions as their ideals were opposite. This will eventually lead to the splitting of the group with Ralph leading one group and Jack leading another.
Ralph is a boy that has a strong sense of morality, civilization and tends to maintain his dignity throughout the book but he was not perfect. Golding shows a different side of Ralph in chapter 7. Where he joins Jack and the others in a hunting session. Ralph manages to fling his spear and stuck it through the boar for a while before coming off while Jack couldn't manage to hit the boar. "Ralph was full of fright, apprehension, and pride." This shows that Ralph felt anxious and fearful as he experienced the thrill of the hunt and he was surprised that he actually felt proud to hurt something. HE knew that Jack didn't manage to 'touch' the boar while Ralph did. Ralph felt superior in a sense that he was a better hunter than Jack and he wanted to show off and "felt the need of witness". He felt he did something that cannot be unseen. This also shows that Ralph wanted the boys to respect him as a leader. Ralph was not interested in Jack's hunting and did not understand why he was so addicted to it. However now Ralph understands as he experienced his primal instinct to hunt and kill when he actually did something impressive. Ralph "felt that hunting was good after all". This shows that Ralph is submitting himself to savagery as he had a desire to use his power to grant his desires for his amusement.
Jack is rather different from Ralph. Jack is a person who desires power and strength over people. This can be seen in his countless killing of pigs. He did this to feel strong and he was delusional. He believes that he himself can have power over everything as he has the power to kill. This shows that Jack is very savage as he takes pleasure in killing as he likes the feeling of being overpowered. However, Jack is under Ralph as Ralph is officially the chief if the boys and that makes him very irritated. He feels that if he could hunt and kill pigs when Ralph can't, what makes him have the right to order him around. Hence Jack can be seen challenging Ralph's leadership position as Jack has a hungry desire for power to overthrow Ralph. When Jack splits from the group it symbolizes that Jack breaks away from civilization, rules and morality and submit himself fully to savagery and embrace the violence and his power.