Chapters 4-6: The Development of Ralph's Character

Within chapters 4-6 of Lord of the Flies, the plot development slows down in order to make room for a lot of character development. The children find themselves having to struggle with living on an island and dealing with such issues as who can exert authority, survival, and the emphasis put on attempting to be rescued. Within these conflicts between characters, Ralph emerges as a leader more than ever and his character is developed to a point where he begins to see himself as a leader and begins to take initiative.

Right at the inception of chapter 4, a physical description of Ralph’s size and a description of him as a “bigun” (Golding 61) illustrates an image of superiority over the other boys. When a ship passes on the horizon, Ralph is portrayed as a strong leader and displays a great deal of determination toward setting the fire. Although he fails, he takes it upon himself to make sure that no one ever “let[s] the fire out” (73). While Jack is more worried the present situation and survival on the island, Ralph displays a maturity in working towards a better life for himself and all the others. As such, Ralph is more concerned with being rescued and keeping the fire burning in order to do this. In a way, this displays Ralph’s kindness and sense of responsibility as he works toward more long term solutions and sees his moderation of the boys on the island as only a short term duty. Ralph feels a need to keep a civilized and organized society of sorts and tries to keep this “understandable and lawful world” (98) from “slipping away” (98). Even when all seems hopeless and everything is in disarray and full of conflict, Ralph feels a strong need to hold on to his beliefs and ideas of how the world should work. A lot is revealed about his character when he yells at Jack passionately saying “the rules are the only thing we’ve got!” (99). Ralph is smart and knows that there is more to surviving, but there is thriving. As such, he employs ideas such as rules to appease conflict and create a functioning and civil sense of humanity.

Chapters 1-3: The Impact of the Setting

Throughout the first three chapters, a strong emphasis is placed on setting by the author. In these descriptions and the way the boys react to the setting, two conflicting moods emerge. A sense of hopelessness and isolation as well as a conflicting mood of happiness and pleasure both emerge.

Once the characters have landed on the island, the setting establishes a fear in them and a hopelessness that they will ever escape. Their entrapment is portrayed through the use of setting. When Piggy says that he “can’t hardly move with all these creeper things” (Golding 1) a fear and entrapment is brought about by the setting. The isolation and unfamiliarity of the island is also a catalyst for hopelessness. Piggy’s pessimism displays this as he suggests that “they’re all dead” (9) and that “nobody don’t know we’re here” (9). The immediate searching of the island brings about the shattering of their hope that it “isn’t an island” (20). Once their hunger is realized they resign to the need to “hunt” (27) and “catch things” (27) as it seems that rescue is not imminent.

Although a resignation has been made to the idea that they may not be rescued, a mood of happiness and enjoyment is established through this isolation. The island can be seen as an oasis of sorts from the troubles going on in the world. When Piggy reminds Ralph that the pilot said something about “the atom bomb” (Golding 9) it is evident that chaos and destruction is happening outside of the confines of their island. In this way it is seen as a positive setting by the boys. Along with the realization that there were no older people on the island, the characters get the sense that they can abandon responsibility. “They’re off bathing, or eating, or playing” (51) because of this and are enjoying the freedom the island is providing them with.

Eventually, one of these moods created through the setting will have to overpower the other, and it will be interesting to see which one it will be and how it will impact the characters in the story.