Conflicts – Lord of the Flies

External conflicts

There are several different conflicts in the book Lord of the Flies. There are both external and internal conflicts. To begin with, there is a conflict between Ralph and Jack that starts when all the boys are voting on whether Jack or Ralph should be the leader of the group. When Ralph is chosen as the boss of the group, Jack feels powerless. The only reason to why Jack wants to be the leader is because he feels the need to have power. He needs to have control over others and he wants everyone to obey him. He does not really care about the other boys. The only thing he cares about is to have power and to go hunting for pigs to get some meat. Ralph, on the other hand, is the total opposite. He cares about the other children and he truly wants to help the others. He does everything in his power to help them to be rescued from the island. He has different ideas on how they can be discovered by boats that passes by. For example, by making a fire. You can say that Jack is a bit like a dictator, while Ralph is more like a democrat. The other boys look up to Ralph, and this makes Jack jealous of him. He is jealous of the power that Ralph has as a leader. The tension between the boys is there all the time. There is a conflict between the two of them. A conflict that develops for each day that passes by and becomes even bigger when a ship passes the island and the people on the boat can not see the signal, the smoke from the fire, because the fire has burned out. Ralph becomes very angry with Jack, because it was Jack's and all the other hunters' responsibility to ensure that the fire did not burn out, but instead, Jack chose to go and hunt. They start to argue and scream at each other.

Ralph spoke.

‘You let the fire out.’

Jack checked, vaguely irritated by this irrelevance but too happy to let it worry him.

‘We can light the fire again. You should have been with us, Ralph. We had a smashing time. The twins got knocked over –‘

‘We hit the pig –‘

‘- I fell on top –‘

‘I cut the pig’s throat,’ said Jack, proudly, and yet twitched as he said it. […]

‘There was lashings of blood,’ said Jack, laughing and shuddering, ‘you should have seen it!’

‘We’ll go hunting every day –‘

Ralph spoke again, hoarsely. He had not moved.

‘You let the fire out.’

This repetition made Jack uneasy. He looked at the twins and then back at Ralph.

‘We had to have them in the hunt,’ he said, ‘or there wouldn’t have been enough for a ring.’

He flushed, conscious of a fault.

‘The fire’s only been out an hour or two. We can light up again –‘ […]

’You should have seen the blood!’ […]

Ralph flung back his hair. One arm pointed at the empty horizon. His voice was loud and savage, and struck them into silence.

’There was a ship.’ […]

Ralph brought his arm down, fist clenched, and his voice shook.

’There was a ship. Out there. You said you’d keep the fire going and you let it out!’ He took a step towards Jack who turned and faced him.

’They might have seen us. We might have gone home –’ […]

’I was chief; and you were going to do what I said. You talk. But you can’t even build huts – then you go off hunting and let out the fire –’ […]

’There was a ship –’ […]

Jack went very red as he hacked and pulled at the pig. (s. 74)

This dialogue between Jack and Ralph is a clear example of an external conflict. Ralph becomes very angry with Jack for letting the fire burn out. He becomes annoyed with him, because all Jack cares about is to go and hunt for pigs. Jack becomes very angry with Ralph, because Ralph constantly repeats that he let the fire burn out. Furthermore, Ralph screams at him, but Jack does not care about what Ralph has to say to him. He wants to continue to chase pigs.

Internal conflicts

All the boys on the island are fighting with internal conflicts, because they are all in a situation of high pressure and stress. They are all struggling to survive and be rescued from the island. I think that all the boys are afraid, because they are not sure what will happen to them. However, I do believe that the one with the greatest internal conflict is Ralph, because he is the leader of the group. That means that he has a big responsibility. Ralph is the one who makes all the decisions. In addition, he is the one who comes up with ideas. For example, that the boys should make a fire, so that a ship that passes by can see that there is someone on the island. He does everything in his power to make sure that the boys will be rescued from the island. He really believes that they will be saved, but at the same time, he struggles with the thought that they might never be rescued. Sometimes he looks out at the vast expanse of water, and he feels that the ocean is like an impenetrable wall that is blocking any hope that the boys have of escaping the island. He feels confused. He does not really know what to believe. This is a good example of an internal conflict.