Lord of the Flies
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Power and abusive power is seen in Lord of the Flies through Ralph, Piggy, Jack and Simon.
Ralph uses his power abusively and positively. In Lord of the Flies Ralph is the voted leader because he has power over the conch. Ralph uses his power by making all the decisions and trying to keep everyone in line and set rules, so nobody gets hurt or lost. He abuses his power by letting the other kids kill Simon. Ralph relates to some of the other characters like Jack. Both Ralph and Jack are similar because they both abuse their power by fighting over the conch and who should be leader. Ralph is also like Piggy because neither of them tried stopping the others from killing Simon. Later, however, Ralph grows distant from Piggy, the good side, and grows closer to Jack, the anarchical side of human nature. “Theres another thing. We can help them find us. If a ship comes near the island they many not notice us. So we must make smoke on top of the mountain. We must make a fire.”
Piggy also uses his power positively and abusively. During the meetings Piggy takes advantage of the conch, by using the rule that states whoever has the conch gets to talk. Another way Piggy abuses his power is by starting a fire in order to steal the conch from Ralph. Piggy is obsessed with the signal -fire. This is because he wants to return to England where adults are, but also because the fire is one of the only symbols of order on the island. When the fire goes out, Piggy mentally collapses.
Being leader of many kids is a hard job not many would want to have. the job gets harder when you dont have any adults around to help you. it is especially hard when the group of kids are about the same age as you. When jack realized that he could control people with fear, he began to abuse his power even more4. power is only good when you know how to control it.