Lord Of The Flies Part 1 Answers

Questions I chose:

#2 - One of the main points of this book is to look at the effects of authority, or lack of authority on people. The "society" the boys created eventually begins to fall apart; do you think this is because of leaders they chose (Ralph and Jack), or because of the situation they were in (meaning who their leaders were didn't matter)?  


     I feel that even though the situation was bad from the beginning that it was still the matter of leadership and want for power that brought the boys "society" down. Even though they specifically voted for Ralph to be chief, Jack was just as well respected and could easily encourage people to disobey Ralph's orders. Because of the lack of punishment on the island for disobeying or not doing what Ralph asks, the "society" fell apart very rapidly.
     The other boys on the island needed to look up and respect only one person for them to get anything done. When looking up to two people (and having Jack wanting power so much) it lead them in a wrong direction and when Jack finally starts taking authority it's too late for Ralph or Piggy to regain control on something they should have fixed in the first place. A form of punishment.
     Ralph had been doing a fairly good job of keeping things under control until people started to get lazy and there was no punishment enforced to keep people in line. This just made it easy for people to walk off and not care while expecting others get the job done. Even if they respected Ralph, he didn't enforce fear of punishment to keep his power before someone else (Jack) did. Jack had the knife which without a doubt would make them fear him and want to obey him instead of Ralph. With their mental stability low and want for meat higher they turned to Jack and against Ralph.


#3 - Suspend your rationale thinking for a moment and imagine that the place you all know best involving established authority - school - is suddenly without teachers, Ms. Nadeau, etc. for an extended period of time (think weeks). What would happen? 


I suppose that you mean that we don't go home when you say an extended period of time like we are locked inside so, I think that if that were to happen the very first thing would be complete chaos. Everyone would be fighting, running around, pushing people around, hiding etc.. After a while of this someone big in mass, popular and most likely a senior would try taking over or would be voted into power to run the school. If he/she (most likely a he if big in size) were smart he would elect class officials to keep their grade in line and call the shots for everyone. After a week of this he would get a big ego on power and would be pushing people around and abusing the power. People would start to question his actions. I think that is when he would go mad on power and start getting rid of anyone who doubted him. Everyone after a few weeks would be terrified of him and want to rebel against him and overthrow him. When this is done and he is out of the way, (so to speak), chaos for power would break loose again. Anarchy would continue until the next leader rose up, probably just as popular as the first, and they would hopefully find a better system of ruling (if they were smart). That's what I think would happen if there were no form of authority in a school.