Exploring the Dichotomy between Insanity and Sanity

Categories: Lord Of The Flies

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The two boys think in very different ways. One is desperate for power and will do whatever it takes to get it, the other tries his very best to hold onto his sanity. Throughout the novel, Golding productively shows the process of how each Jack and Ralph lose their sanity, and attempt to keep it.

Lets begin with Jack, Jack is your typical teenage boy except he is desperate for power.

He is hungry for power the second he wakes up on the island. “I ought to be chief, said Jack with simple arrogance,” (Golding 22). This automatically puts everyone on the island in trouble because Jack will stop at nothing to gain power and respect. Throughout the rest of the story, his hunger for power never simmers.

As the story continues, Jack does more and more in order for others to see that he should be chief. Eventually he goes fully insane by the end of the book and kills multiple camp members because his hunger for power overpowered his reasoning for sanity.

“[Jack] tried to convey the compulsion to track down and kill that was swallowing him up. 'I went on. I thought, by myself—' The madness came into his eyes again. 'I thought I might kill.” (Golding Chapter 3). Golding does a fine job of showing Jack at his worst point. At this point, Jacks insanity has taken over his reality and he is unable to control his ability to not kill. His inability to control his craving for killing, in itself shows how he has lost his sanity and is now insane.

Time to shift characters, Ralph. Ralph first off shows how he is attempting to hold onto his sanity because he uses the conch. As said in the novel by Ralph himself, “Seems to me we ought to have a chief to decide things.”(Golding Chapter 1). At this point in the story the boys are now on the island and while Jack was trying to convince everyone that he should be chief, Ralph decided to try and hold onto the government that the boys were raised in by using the conch. This shows that Ralph is trying to keep everyone sane because he is trying to ensure organization and leadership in order to have a well-tuned society.

Even the best eventually slip. Ralph does a fair job of keeping his sanity and reality leveled unlike Jack, but eventually you could lose your mind. “ The tears began to flow and sobs shook him. He gave himself up to them now for the first time on the island; great, shuddering spasms of grief that seemed to wrench his whole body. His voice rose under the black smoke before the burning wreckage of the island; and infected by that emotion, the other little boys began to shake and sob too. And in the middle of them, with filthy body, matted hair, and unwiped nose, Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy. (Golding Chapter 12). Goldings use of adjectives has fairly explained the moment where Ralph genuinely lost himself. As Ralph witnesses the death of a friend, he finally lets go. He lets the darkness and insanity of the rest of the boys take over him. Although he eventually let his sanity turn to dust, he throughout the novel represented sanity in a very productive way. As hard as Ralph tried to keep his sanity and maintain a well-tuned island, even the best fail sometimes. But he managed to stay sane all the way to chapter twelve of the book, whereas Jack let his sanity go in the very beginning. Golding did a very good job of giving the audience and insight of how being stranded on an island with a bunch of other savages, eventually everyone will lose their sanity, no matter how hard they try to keep it.

Sanity and insanity are very different, and Golding has shown that through his story Lord of the Flies. Although by the end of the book both Jack and Ralph lose their sanity, Golding did a good job of representing both sanity and insanity through each of the characters. Jack being someone who craves power will do anything to get it, sometimes that even means killing others to gain it or at least gain the fear of others. Jack craves fear out of other people and even at some points of the book feels like he requires it. Jack has shown that he needs power and is not afraid to do what it takes to get it. Ralph doing his best to keep his sanity and keep a society that is normal has represented a fair idea of sanity. Ralph is not only trying to keep himself sane but also the community, and trying to have things to help keep a good society.Throughout Lord of the Flies you see many different forms of sanity and insanity and it depends on what you're interpretation is, which is believed to be the reason William Golding wrote the story.

The terms insanity and sanity are complete opposites of each other, the dictionary definition of insanity is “the state of being seriously mentally ill; madness”. One could assume what sanity means off the definition of insanity. Sanity being the complete opposite means, “the ability to think and behave in a normal and rational manner; sound mental health”. To put these two completely opposite states of mind into perspective, Lord of the Flies by William Golding serves as a terrific example. In Lord of the Flies, Jack represents insanity and Ralph represents sanity. The two boys think in very different ways. One is desperate for power and will do whatever it takes to get it, the other tries his very best to hold onto his sanity. Throughout the novel, Golding productively shows the process of how each Jack and Ralph lose their sanity, and attempt to keep it.