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who was voted leader at the outset of the story and who tries desperately to maintain
the rules and the social order, is being hunted down by the boys who ceased to value his
leadership and the old system.
He [Ralph] stumbled over a root and the cry that pursued him rose even
higher. He saw a shelter burst into flames and the fire flapped at his
right shoulder and there was the glitter of water. Then he was down,
rolling over and over in the warm sand, crouching with arm up to ward
off, trying to cry for mercy.
He staggered to his feet, tensed for more terrors, and looked up at a
huge peaked cap. It was a white-topped cap, and above the green shade
of the peak was a crown, an anchor, gold foliage. He saw white drill,
epaulettes, a revolver, a row of gilt buttons down the front of a uniform.
Golding, 1954, p. 213
In his description of the naval officer, Golding recognises his readers’ collective
understanding of what the uniform symbolises; the power and authority of the laws,
rules and conventions of British society. The description of the officer is sufficient to
communicate that his arrival signals the re-instatement of social order. He
encompasses in this description the influence of our social conditioning and collective
understanding of why we value the laws, rules and conventions sufficiently for the
maintenance of social order.
Whilst rules are a part of our objective realities, it is our individual subjective response
to them which renders them effective. This translates to the collective valuation by
enough members of society sufficiently to maintain stable social order. If we cease to
value society’s rules sufficiently as individuals, we break them. If some members of
society cease to value societal controls sufficiently, pockets of civil unrest result. If
collectively we do not value law sufficiently, the break down of social order ensues.
These are the concerns of part two of this chapter.
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