Lord Of The Flies Rhetorical Analysis

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Lord of the Flies Final Essay In the novel, The Lord of the Flies, both Ralph and Jack relied on elements of persuasion to lead the other boys on the island, but both methods proved to be unsuccessful. Ralph relied on Logos and Ethos to win favor, but this ended with failure. Jack on the other hand relied on Pathos and Ethos to gain the respect of everyone. Both of the methods that Ralph and Jack used failing proves that even if you have the respect of your followers, they can still be easily persuaded to go against you and that there are other elements that can sway a person’s decision to follow someone else. This also proves that even if you are the chosen leader, like Ralph, you can still be usurped by someone who seizes that power…show more content…
His use of these two elements as a means of persuasion was successful at the beginning of the novel because the children wanted a leader who knew what to do and how to survive and eventually get rescued, and be in control of the situation. The children were the ones who believed in Ralph’s logic. For example, when Ralph was voted leader because he had found the conch and blown it to gather the surviving children, it showed his credibility. Ralph was responsible for going through the trouble of retrieving the conch and blowing it to gather everyone together, thus making it a part of their routine. His credibility was also shown by how he was older than a lot of the children, and then eventually elected as leader. His use of Logos was shown when he said that fire and shelters should be built in order to survive and get rescued, and that a leader should be elected. Both of these methods of persuasion proved to be unsuccessful because he never acknowledged how tedious the work of building shelters and maintaining a fire would be. Ralph had his eyes on the prize, but didn’t have camaraderie to go with it or give them a sense of safety and security. For example, when Ralph told them to build

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