A Power Debate - Lord of The Flıes

                                                                                                                                      Cihan Altınbaş 

Marmara University, Sociology Department

               In this essay, I will talk about the Lord of the Flies which is written by William Golding. I will try to give a summary, character analyses, sociological information from the book. I choose this book because we live in the world which is having rules and specific scheme. We can see the differentiation between two groups, cultures, societies which are barbaric and civilized in a different way. The book tells that if there is no law, you can make new rules or you can destroy everything. We can see the effect of war on children and how they shaped in that years. It gives lots of information about those years and using children is another factor about why I choose this book. I will try to write a reaction paper about the book with my own evaluations and articles which we used in class.

                 First of all, William Golding was born to chaotic environment in England. His mother is activist of women rights and father is a principal of school. He joined the WW2 as a sea soldier and he loves to observe people from his childhood. He can connect myth and realty and he can observe the human in deep. He published the Lords of Flies in 1954 and the book adapted for cinema in 1963 and 1990. He created characters and he connected these characters with institutions, theories and ideologies. We can see the affect of WW2 on the book, he gives lots of information from at that time. Also, he tries to explain human nature with using children who are no parental control. These children try to create their norms, values etc. We can see whole situation of creation.

                 Secondly, the story of book starts with plane crash and children moves to island. These children ages are between 13-15 and we can’t see any adult in the whole story. They were escaping from the war and they felt that nobody will come to island to save them. So, they took a decision and they started to make their own civilization from nothing. On the one hand, there is the image of a society governed by rules, with law-abiding citizens; on the other hand, we encounter the fantasy of violations, potlatch and perversion the ‘’down side’’. It provides the opportunity to see both topologies (Bulent Diken, 2008). We can see two type civilization which are democracy based on seashell and authoritarianism. The firs characters which we see on the book; Piggy and Ralph. Piggy found a seashell and it became a symbol of civilization, you can say anything with this seashell and everybody has to listen to you. As we said, there is no adult in the island so children felt lack of old people authority. Especially small ones feel the fear in night and they called this fear as a monster. They tried to burn a fire for boats, planes because they can see & save them. The fire must be continued and it’s important for their saving. The fire exists in the world and it’s a symbol of civilization, it’s might a requirement for it. Before the whole story, we have to explain the characters and their roles. Before starting, we can see that every child is fit and healthy, because there was a effort to create fit & healthy generation at that years. Ralph is one of the main characters on the book and he is leader of the society. He is 12 years old and he has charisma. He can intervention to power because he holds the seashell so he might look from the high to other. Despite he is the symbol of democracy, he sometimes can be authorities and insensitive to others. Piggy is the symbol of intellectuals and he produces ideas about their future. He connected with the seashell, after broke it, he died. He has glasses and it’s hard to find at that time. So, we can understand the high technology with glasses and he is the only boy who is fat, not fit. He just produces ideas and doesn’t do camp works. Class differentiation is another fact, he always asks, search with his logic so the solution can come with these types of people, not snobs. Jack is the symbol of dictators and he is snob but he has real charisma. He uses this charisma for power. The writer tries to show the dictators at that time like Hitler. He uses the power to create an authority over others (Hunting issue). The evil can be so dangerous and Jack shows this idea to us. Also, we can see the corporate religions and they can turn people to monster. They sign songs like choir and there is no asking in this ritual. He also tries a charisma which he is unique and others are same. Roger is representer of real evil and second man of dictators (Jack), pure evil. Also, he has masculine power and he killed the Piggy with this masculinity. In the war time, we can see the masculine power and violence so it proves that issue with Roger. Simon is Jesus, he is pure, and knowing the information about monster. He knows the reality behind the monster so he became a Jesus role on the book. He is quite kid and he scared of this speech right. When he speaks, he tries to communicate with children to give messages and he martyred. Sam and Eric are only one person, they are half and when they are together, they became a one. They complete their sentences and they aware of everything but they prefer to quite about injustice (They protect each other).  Robert, Bill and Maurice don’t have a specific character but they are follower of evil. The last one is little ones, the younger ones. The population which is under authoritarian regimes, soldiers of war time. They can manipulate easily and they can scare of everything easily. They don’t have any word in the society and they can do anything for their society.

                  The little ones are the mass and they can do everything for leader because they don’t have any idea what they are doing. In this way, individuals can do everything in the group because they can accept the leader’s ideas, values. If these are not fit with their ideas, they continue to accept it. So, the fear is an allegation but it changed their priority and main ideas. We need to fear for creating a society. Jack created the group with this fear and he became a leader of hunters. It started with the pig but it turned to find the monster. As we said, there were two type of power, authoritarian and democratic. Jack and Ralph are pioneer for these powers. At the beginning, Ralph gave a choir to Jack because Jack can be dangerous for his authority. It’s a kind a strategy for protecting own authority and it’s a smart move. Ralph’s authority, he was choosing by others votes and his father’s military level. So, there are two type authority which are traditional and legal rational. His father military level is important because military soldiers can be the most important people in war time. Jack is using his charisma and he became a hero, different of the group. Jack uses the choir to legitimize his power and they try to find fear (monster). Opposite of Jack, Ralph tries to say that it’s not true, there is no monster but it’s not enough. Jack uses the ritual and it creates an effect on others. Jack plans this ritual and he gains power and he increase the violence with these rituals. And he always says that I do this thing for you and he became authoritarian power.  He destroyed the whole rules in time, authority became a rule because of possibility of losing his power. the state of exception is the expansion of the executive power to the point where presidential decrees have the force of law, often invoked during “states of siege” or a “state of war.” Through this expansion of executive power, the separation of powers no longerconstrains the executive branch. It is not the suspension of law but an extrajudicial state where Presidential power works with and above the current judicial system. (Agamben, 2005) These violence and manipulation blocks to ask question so the seashell authority disappeared. But it is an exception and we can see it in Nazi Germany. There was a huge fire and authority blocked the law but it’s also became a law. We have already encountered a limit sphere of human action that is only ever maintained in a relation of exception. This sphere is that of the sovereign decision, which suspends law in the state of exception and thus implicates bare life within it. (Agamben, 1998) But exception must continue, if there is a possibility to turn back, its not a camp. After whole these things, we can turn back to ritual, ritual can affect the children and they can attend to violence more and more. They killed the Piggy without any regret. We can see that they paint their faces and they wear a mask. So, they can behave how they want. In the normal life, they can’t behave like that but it’s an exception and they can do what they want. They have a change to leave their norms, ideas, taboos etc. They killed the Simon in this ritual and they didn’t feel anything. Opposite, Simon became a hero because there is no value for people in these rituals. Authoritarian regimes try to create a society which is not asking so they became a soldier.

                   In conclusion, I tried to explain why I chose this book and what is the main point of this book. Also, I gave information about characters and their meanings. I tried to give my evaluations and I connected the book with readings.

References

Agamben, G. (1998). Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life. Stanford University

Press.

Agamben, G. (2005). State of Exception. Chicago: University of Chicago.

Bülent Diken, C. B. (2008). Filmlerle Sosyoloji. İstanbul: Metis Yayınları.