Lord of the Flies Group

Question:

becca21
becca21
Student
High School - 10th Grade

In Lord of the Flies, what are some quotes that support Ralph's desire to leave the island?

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Posted by becca21 on Thursday January 29, 2009 at 4:32 PM and tagged with characters, lord of the flies, quotes, ralph.

Answers:


  1. robertwilliam

    eNotes Editor

    Though Ralph is sometimes distracted by the glamour of hunting, or by having fun, he fundamentally believes that the most important thing is that the boys have to be rescued from the island.

    “This is our island. It’s a good island. Until the grownups come to fetch us we’ll have fun.”

    “Now we come to the most important thing. I’ve been thinking. I was thinking while we were climbing the mountain... This is what I thought. We want to have fun. And we want to be rescued.” (Chapter 2).

    And, it's made clear, the beginnings of the tension between Jack and Ralph comes when Jack allows the signal fire to go out. Their polar attitudes can clearly be seen in their opposite objectives: Jack is obsessed with hunting, while Ralph is focussed solely on going home:

    “There was a ship. Out there. You said you’d keep the fire going and you let it out!” [said Ralph] He took a step toward Jack, who turned and faced him.
    “They might have seen us. We might have gone home” (Chapter 4)

    You could keep listing tens of tens of quotes like this. But Ralph's desire is definitely to get the boys off teh island.

     

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/flies/character-analysis
    http://www.enotes.com/flies/summary

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    Posted by robertwilliam on Sunday February 1, 2009 at 12:06 PM