In the Novel ‘Lord of the Flies’ Why Do the Boy’s Efforts to Create a Civilisation on the Island Fail?

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! ! ! In The Novel ‘Lord Of The Flies’ Why Do The Boy’s Efforts To Create A Civilisation On The Island Fail? ! ! Once the boys realise that a civilisation must be formed within the island, they start off well by electing a leader but, due to their lack of organisation and communication, their differing priorities and many other factors get in the way of this civilisation from becoming reality. Due to this, their civilisation collapses and crumbles away. But why do the boy’s efforts to create a civilisation on the island fail? ! The boys elected Ralph as the leader. However, Jack still managed to rise to power which was one of the reasons why the civilisation failed. Jack becomes very popular amongst the boys because of his ability to hunt and the courage he has to kill a live animal with his own bare hands. Jack is the only person on that island with a knife and he has the knowledge on how to use it effectively, e.g. for food and other necessities; “He snatched his knife out of the sheath and slammed it into a tree trunk”. This particular action and his ability to hunt, alongside his great strength, frightens the boys, causing them to feel obliged to agreeing with everything Jack requests and demands. This also means that Jack has created a sense of fear and unfairness in the group of stranded boys, which is not was is expected in a civilisation. He has effectively created a dictatorship amongst the group of boys. This can be related to Hitler’s rise to power in the 1930’s. Hitler was very popular amongst the citizens of Germany and was, therefore, loved and chosen by them to be their leader. This was all due to the promises he had made, one of them being to completely eradicate unemployment within Germany. Everyone then feared him and only stood behind him due to all the deaths he caused, which is very similar to Jack and the boys. This is not expected

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