In Lord of the Flies, Golding uses his characters to convey the main theme of his novel. The story begins with a war, and nuclear bombs being dropped in Britain. A plane carrying several young boys, who are being evacuated is shot down from the sky. There are no adult survivors, but the boys are brought together, and form a tribe to stay alive. Slowly the condition of the group starts to deteriorate. They are now not only hunting animals, but they are killing each other like savages in order to stay alive. Golding uses his main characters: Ralph, Jack, and Simon to portray how their desire for leadership, combined with lack of compromise eventually leads to the fall of their society.

Ralph, who is the son of a naval officer, is seen as a good looking kid, and likeable to everyone. He is almost immediately elected as...