Freedom Of Speech In Lord Of The Flies, By William Golding

In nowaday societies, a functional government is necessary to maintain order in the society and to ensure that everybody is protected by the laws. In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the author demonstrates the failure of a governing system through a group of boys on a deserted island. The English school boys were going on a field trip while their plane got shot down and landed on an unknown island. They had to establish a new community to survive and wait until adults come to rescue them. However, the situation did not turn out as well as expected, the boys failed to govern themselves and the island was destroyed amidst a massive fire. The boys on the island failed to govern themselves effectively because they did not establish any form …show more content…
The freedom of speech is an essential part in modern society because it gives people the rights to freely express their opinions. The philosopher who introduced the idea of free speech was Voltaire. Voltaire advocated for the freedom of speech since he believed that everybody should be able to express their thoughts without being criticized or punished. He believed that an effective government would protect the people’s rights to the freedom of speech and accept the differences between these ideas (“Biographical Briefing on Voltaire”). This component is a crucial part of a well established government. By giving people the rights to free speech, it can prevent the abuse of power in the government and allow for new ideas to spread. However, the boys on the island did not implement this idea into their government, and this caused their society to fall apart. Jack, who ignores the power of the conch, is not pleased to see everybody speaking, especially Piggy, whom he despised. When Piggy is holding the conch and sharing his ideas, Jack breaks in indignantly, “We don’t need the conch anymore. We know who ought to say things. What good did Simon do speaking, or Bill, or Walter? It’s time some people knew they’ve got to keep quiet and leave deciding things to the rest of us” (Golding 102). Jack tries to prevent some people from speaking and sharing their ideas by minimizing the power of the conch, which gives the boys their right to speak. He does not believe that the others would do any good speaking, except for himself. Jack does not let any of the boys contribute their thoughts to help make decisions, and he makes all the decisions by himself instead. However, the narrow-minded Jack is unable to realize that Piggy and Simon are the most intelligent ones on the island, and they have the ability to come up with effective plans that can contribute