LOTF Response

The world, that understandable and lawful world, was slipping away.  Once there was this and that; and now--and the ship had gone. [... Jack refusing to give Piggy the floor when he has the conch...]

"The rules!" shouted Ralph.  "You're breaking the rules!"

"Who cares?"

Ralph summoned his wits.

"Because the rules are the only thing we've got!"

But Jack was shouting against him.

"Bollocks to the rules!  We're strong--we hunt!  If there's a beast, we'll hunt it down!  We'll close in and beat and beat and beat--!" (91)

This snippet of LOTF speaks to me in a certain way. I would relate myself to Ralph in this situation. My brother always breaks the rules in video games. Anyway, personal life and this book are 2 totally separate topics, so let’s focus on the book. This is an example where the island is plunging into chaos and is losing order. When jack says the words, “Who cares” the savage in him is exposed and is visible for everyone to see, however most people on the island (little uns) are too blind to see that. After all, love is blind and they could love jack, who knows?!?

When Ralph counters with, "Because the rules are the only thing we've got!" it starts an argument that represents the whole book in a nutshell, so why is this portion significant to the book’s overall plot and story line. Well, this is can be complicated and simple at the same time, so I am going to take the simple approach. This passage references the core problems of this book, Ralph and Jack. More specifically, the different personalities of the 2. You get these 2 completely different outlooks on what they should be doing and that drives the conflict of this story, or one of them anyways.