2005, Form B. One of the strongest human drives
seems to be a desire for power. Write an essay in which you discuss how a
character in a novel or a drama struggles to free himself or herself from the
power of others or seeks to gain power over others. Be sure to demonstrate in
your essay how the author uses this power struggle to enhance the meaning of the
work.
Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a
great example of a power struggle between characters. A group of schoolboys get
stranded on an island and are forced to live without their parents and under no
rules. At first it is all wonderful and everyone gets along. But as time goes by,
the boys begin to bicker and fight and everything goes terribly wrong.
Ralph, the protagonist, is a smart young boy who is
first elected to become the leader. Jack, the anotagonist is a power hungry,
jealous boy. Jack is not elected and his need and want for leadership only thrives more. Ralph wants their to be equality and rules. He thinks there should be
rules to help control the actions and believes it will make their situation
better. Jack, on the other hand, is completely against this way of thinking. He
thinks that being obnoxious savages is the way to go and that rules just ruin a society.
The whole novel revolves around these two boys fight for authority. Every action that is made, and all action that takes place is
dependent upon Jack and Ralph's fight. The boys splitting up into two groups and
engaging in war against each other is the result of their everlasting struggle over power.When Simon tries to tell the other boys about the beast within
everyone, he is murdered. And once again this happens because of Jack and Ralph's power struggle. If Jack
had not gotten mad and created a whole new tribe, Simon may have not run off to
find out the truth of all mankind.
Without Ralph and Jack's resistance to get along, the role
government plays in society would not be seen in this novel. Golding is showing
how the government takesplace in real society. Without a government and rules, we would
all become savages. And because we are all savages inside, we would kill innocent people and just create a world with no mercy. Government is controlling the
savage inside all mankind. Without government, the human race would cease to
exist.
Hi Megan!
ReplyDeleteThis is very good. The only thing that I think you should do is mention something about Golding's main motive and message sooner than in the last paragraph. Since that is the "meaning of the work" that the prompt wants, I think you should go into a little more detail and throw it in your thesis, also.
Megan,
ReplyDeleteYou made a great choice choosing Lord of the Flies for this prompt. I would work on making our thesis statement more specific when you are describing what the main points of the rest of the essay are. I also agree with Kenzie that you need incorporate the meaning of the work into your essay, especially in the body paragraphs. For example you could talk about the theme of civilization vs savagery and how the struggle between characters emphasizes that theme. Keep up the good work!
Hey Megan! I pretty much agree with what Nathan and Kenzie had to say. Go back and include how the author uses this power struggle to enhance the meaning of the work in your thesis. Then, I would spend a whole paragraph devoted to expanding on this idea, instead of throwing it into your conclusion. Overall, good job. Just go back and re-structure this writing a little bit.
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