In Lord of the Flies, William Golding experiments with what could happen to a group of young of boys left in new surroundings with no adults present. The main characters of this novel are quickly established and are the oldest or tallest of the boys. All the characters change and develop enormously over the period of time when they have to adjust to living on the island.

The reader is introduced to Ralph first, as the 'boy with fair hair'. Ralph enjoys standing on his head and shows how impulsive he is when he dives straight into the water. This suggests that he has little common sense and so may be irresponsible. He also appears to be a daydreamer and is convinced that his father will rescue him so does not face the reality of what has actually happened.

'how does he know were here?'...because, thought Ralph because because.'

Ralphs' father being in the navy could mean that Ralph has had a privileged upbringing which might be why he feels superior to Piggy and doesn't think much of him. This is shown when Ralph orders Piggy to 'get my clothes', and when he broke his promise by telling the boys his nickname was Piggy. Ralph had possession of

The boys think Simon is 'queer' and 'batty', and so he is a bit of an outsider, similar to Piggy. At first Golding describes Simon as being

The decline in order, Jack beginning to gain more power, no-one following the rules or helping with the shelters and fire, the continual rivalry of Jack and the savagery in Jack himself are factors which contribute to Ralph changing. He begins to appreciate Piggy more and appraises what he says according to how practical it is. He also wishes for help from the adults as this quotation shows.

This comment from Jack shows that he is becoming more interested in hunting than building shelters or being rescued. Jack realises he can do what he wants because there will be no adults to punish him. The reader can easily see the drastic change in Jack, for example earlier on in the novel he says 'we've got to have rules and obey them', but when his 'dark' side is showing more he says 'bollocks to the rules'. Jack also appears to become more bloodthirsty, as this following quotation implies

All the characters in the story develop, in general the evil side of the character is unleashed, like in Jack or the characters become better, like Simon. Either way Golding developed each character in their own individual way so that they represented different types of people in the supposedly civilised adult world.

Similar to most other boys, Ralph enjoyed the absence of adults on the island and the island itself. Everyone wanted to have fun, but Ralph also wanted to be rescued so understood the importance of the fire. By the third chapter Ralph feels depressed because he cannot convince the boys of the necessity of the shelters.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Piggy Ralph, Ralph Jack, Piggy Golding, William Golding, Jesus Christ, Simon Golding, Ralph Piggy, Lord Flies, build shelters, lord flies, leader 'i, essential illness', golding describes, boys simon, main characters, boys ralph, civilisation jack,
Approximate Word count = 1558
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)