The Power Structure

      In both Lord of the Flies and The Power of One, the protagonist is in control. In Lord of the Flies, Ralph is in control when he decides to not give in to Jack and his group. Equally, in The Power of One, Peekay refuses to give in when the boys are bullying him. Ralph took control at the beginning of the book over the boys, and gradually lost control over everyone but himself. Peekay was in control of only himself at the beginning of the book, and by learning to box he gained the respect of the African men and women; their respect for him gave him some degree of power to persuade and control if necessary. In both stories, Peekay and Ralph never lost the ability to make their own decisions even though they were confronted with certain situation were it was just them versus a crowd. The power structure falters at moment but never completely fails.

Key Passage 2-3, Symbol

Between Key Passages 2 and 3, Golding writes an important paragraph about a littlun, Henry, and his footprints on the beach. "He became absorbed beyond mere happiness as he felt himself exercising control over living things. He talked to them, urging them, ordering them." The footprints symbolize the lack of control that Henry feels about his new life. By controlling "them", the creatures that were trapped in his footprints, Henry is relating to his old life and how much he misses it. His feelings are echoed by all the other boys.

Key Passage 1

Golding uses alliteration near the beginning of page 31 to emphasis a crucial sentence. "They found a piglet caught in a curtain of creepers, throwing itself at the elastic traces in all madness of extreme terror." The repetition heard is so prominent that skimming the sentence becomes hard to do. He chooses to accentuate this sentence specifically because it is the boys first encounter with a pig. The pigs situation is very similar to that of the boys during the course of the book, they are trapped and unable to escape and eventually go crazy from fear of the beast. Also, hunting pigs is a primary cause in Jack's downward spiral to a much more primitive and uncivilized nature than Ralph's. The difference between the boys is what makes up much of the books conflict.