![]() Key transition: As the novel continues a rivalry emerges between the antagonist Jack and Ralph. Golding identifies a paradox within civilisation by suggesting that all of the best qualities of civilisation are also what makes it vulnerable to attack. It is ironic that the very qualities which mark him out as a natural leader at the beginning of the novel are also the weaknesses which will bring about his downfall. This polysemous description foreshadows both Ralph’s rise and fall from grace.The child Christ is often described as “mild” and the fact that is “eyes proclaimed no devil” could suggest innocence and innate goodness. Both “mildness” and “no devil” have religious connotations. ![]() ![]() It suggests that he has a good soul but might also suggests that he’s boring or no fun. The aphorism “proclaimed no devil” also has two meanings.The noun “mildness” suggests kindness but also weakness.Key quote: “there was a mildness about his mouth and eyes that proclaimed no devil.” He represents all that people believed to be good about England: Ralph is an idealisation of British boyhood, instantly recognisable to a 1950’s reader – the Romantic child filled with innate goodness and nobility who will find strength in the purity of his soul to triumph over adversity in the benevolent light of a supportive, Christian God. By not naming Ralph for the first few pages, he is immediately recognisable as a Romantic paradigm of boyhood lifted from the pages of Boys Own annuals and The Coral Island: alone and abandoned by civilisation, the story arc that Ralph is destined to follow is one of bravery and English pluck. Golding said that he intended for Lord of The Flies to have a mythic quality, like a fable or Bible story. At first, he isn’t even given a name, instead he is referred to repeatedly as “the boy with fair hair”. Ralph: The Hard Stuff (Grades 8 – 9) Ralph is the “boy with fair hair.” He is the protagonist.Īt the beginning of the novel Ralph is presented as an archetype of a boy hero.
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