Skip to main content

What are some quotations about Ralph being courageous in Lord of the Flies?

Although Ralph is just an ordinary boy, he has "greatness thrust upon him" when the boys vote for him to be chief. He rises to the occasion and shows outstanding courage on several occasions. The first time he shows inner courage is when he faces down Jack and confronts him with his grave error when Jack has allowed the fire to go out just as a ship was passing. He refuses to give in to the euphoria of the hunters over having killed their first pig. He commands Jack to light the fire again, and then remains silent, requiring the boys to work around him:



"No one, not even Jack, would ask him to move and in the end they had to build the fire three yards away and in a place not really as convenient. So Ralph asserted his chieftainship and could not have chosen a better way if he had thought for days."



At one point, Ralph displays courage in honestly voicing his fear rather than using false bravado like Jack does. After Samneric see the "beast" in person, Jack sneers at Ralph when Ralph suggests wooden spears are not enough to slay such a formidable creature. "Frightened?" Jack asks. Ralph replies, "'Course I'm frightened. Who wouldn't be?"


Ralph and Jack take a party to go search for the beast. Jack gets distracted by the Castle Rock area that he later makes into his "wizard fort." Ralph insists they must continue their search: "I say we'll go on! ... We've got to make certain. We'll go now." He asserts authority over the rebellious boys again and leads them onward.


Although Ralph is very afraid to go up the mountain in the dark to find the beast, he keeps going. At one point, however, Roger and Jack pass by him when they get very near the dead paratrooper. Still, Ralph does show courage; despite being so afraid that his teeth are chattering, he "bound himself together with his will, fused his fear and loathing into a hatred and stood up. He took two leaden steps forward." 


In chapter 11 when Piggy wants Ralph to help him get his glasses back, Ralph agrees, even though he knows Jack has become dangerous. When Samneric say they should paint themselves because Jack and his tribe will be painted, Ralph insists, "Well, we won't be painted ... because we aren't savages." He has the courage to face Jack in their true condition. Ralph confronts Jack courageously, clearly calling him out on his wrong behavior: "You played a dirty trick--we'd have given you fire if you'd asked for it. ... You came sneaking up like a thief and stole Piggy's glasses!"


Despite Ralph's courage during this confrontation, he ends up running for his life after Piggy's murder. He has the courage to sneak up to Samneric and ask them what Jack intends to do, and when he learns that Jack intends to kill him, he uses good sense in hiding and fleeing from the boys.


Although Ralph does not always display perfect bravery, overall he displays a great deal of courage in the novel.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

A man has a garden measuring 84 meters by 56 meters. He divides it into the minimum number of square plots. What is the length of the square plots?

We wish to divide this man's garden into the minimum number of square plots possible. A square has all four sides with the same length.Our garden is a rectangle, so the answer is clearly not 1 square plot. If we choose the wrong length for our squares, we may end up with missing holes or we may not be able to fit our squares inside the garden. So we have 84 meters in one direction and 56 meters in the other direction. When we start dividing the garden in square plots, we are "filling" those lengths in their respective directions. At each direction, there must be an integer number of squares (otherwise, we get holes or we leave the garden), so that all the square plots fill up the garden nicely. Thus, our job here is to find the greatest common divisor of 84 and 56. For this, we prime factor both of them: `56 = 2*2*2*7` `84 = 2*2*3*7` We can see that the prime factors and multiplicities in common are `2*2*7 = 28` . This is the desired length of the square plots. If you wi...
Post a Comment
Read more

What warning does Chuchundra issue to Rikki?

Chuchundra, the sniveling, fearful muskrat who creeps around walls because he is too terrified to go into the center of a room, meets Rikki in the middle of the night. He insults Rikki by begging him not to kill him. He then insults him by suggesting that Nag might mistake Chuchundra for Rikki. He says, "Those who kill snakes get killed by snakes."  He issues this warning to Rikki not to help keep Rikki safe but as a way of explaining why Rikki's presence gives him, Chuchundra, more reason to fear.  Chuchundra starts to tell Rikki what Chua the rat told him--but breaks it off when he realizes he might be overheard by Nag. He says, "Nag is everywhere, Rikki-Tikki." Rikki threatens to bite Chuchundra to get him to talk. Even then, Chuchundra won't overtly reveal any information. But he does say, "Can't you hear, Rikki-Tikki?" This is enough of a clue for the clever mongoose. He listens carefully and can just make out the "faintest scratch-s...
Post a Comment
Read more