When read as an allegory, William Golding's Lord
of the Flies's characters, Jack and Ralph, can be viewed as Cain and Abel on
the Garden of Eden of an island. For, Jack represents envy, brute force, and absolute
rule, while Ralph exemplifies good behavior and concern for others, as well as
beneficient rule that exerts nothing stronger than reasonable persuasion. Ralph works
with the others in building shelters and stoking the rescue fire; however, Jack, in
contrast, desires absolute rule, and paints himself like a pagan, demanding service
and obedience at the risk of physical punishment.
When, for
instance, Ralph calls the meeting "put things straight," in a reasonable manner with the
conch to be given to each speaker who is properly recognized, Jack rudely shouts,
"Bullocks to the rules!" He cruelly accuses the littluns of being "useless lot of
cry-babies!" telling them summarily that "there is no beast in the forest," whereas
Ralph says that they should "talk about this fear and decide there's nothing in
it."
When Simon attempts "to express mankind's essential
illness," Jack follows Simon's efforts to explain with "the one crude expressive
syllable," that refers to a bowel movement, mitigating the seriousness of Simon's
intuitive knowledge as the littluns laugh with delight. Then, when Piggy attempts to
restore rational order for Ralph, Jack shouts "Who cares?" telling him that he and the
others hunt, and if there is a beast he and his hunters will kill it. Clearly, Jack is
concerned only with absolute power and brute force, much in contrast to the reasonable
persuasion that Ralph seeks in his leadership, aspiring to make life as comfortable for
the boys as he can rather than intimidating them physically as Jack
does.
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