The Consequence of Success

The more successful or powerful a person gets, it seems they will forget about the people/person that helped them along the way. As the value of their appreciation decreases, they either choose to stick around and fade to the background, get kicked out by new help or, leave in hopes that someone else will appreciate them more. What seems to happen is that the  successful person ends up needing the person that got them to where they were, but they already left. Sometimes, when a person forgets about someone who helped them succeed every step along the way, for someone or something else, the effects are not beneficial. It can backfire and hurt more than it can help it. Without realizing, it might be a little too late to fix. As people become successful, their best advisors are those who knew them before they hit it big, but they often cast those people off because once they gain success, there is no longer any use for their advisors.


In the book ‘The Lord of the Flies’ by William Golding, Piggy is the most important character of all. The author shows his personality by interacting with other characters; the other character (Ralph) seems annoyed by him. Piggy seems very talkative and not really sensible at first. When first encountering a character named ‘Piggy’ you don’t really think much. He is concerned with no being without adult supervision and wants to go home. Piggy just wants to find ways to get everyone and himself home. Leading up to this point, Piggy just spoke on and on about how his Aunt had told him about a conch and how it was used as a device to call people with the sound it makes when you blow into it. Suddenly he remembers a piece of information that can help them, “Ralph looked up. ‘We can use this to call the others. Have a meeting. They’ll come when they hear us--””(16) Looking at this excerpt from the text, Piggy reveals very helpful information to Ralph. His recollection of his memories that pour out of his mouth like a waterfall helps bring all of the boys on the island together. Ralph instead of thanking Piggy, does not fully appreciate his talents or his efforts to try and unify the boys and tries to take control of everyone. Ralph just looks at Piggy as though everything he does is wrong. Piggy feels this but still sticks around hoping that Ralph will appreciate him in the long run. Having hope that maybe he too will help all the boys that are stranded on the island. He will try to help Ralph as much as possible only to find that Ralph forgets about him.

An example of forgetting who has helped along the way is also found in the real world. A popular kids tune, ‘Ring Around the Rosies’ can show this. In this example it shows it in a more analogical way. Historically, it is believed to be song about how people in the 1300’s died of the Bubonic Plague; also known as ‘black death’. It was so bad barely anyone survived from this wave of sickness. The meaning of the song is very morbid but, it describes the process perfectly.  This will happen over and over again until the person that has been forgotten about gets sick of it. Think of Ralph’s behavior as a ‘disease’; the more power he earns the more he neglects Piggy. This ‘disease’ of forgetting about the people who help you most is contagious. It is used again and again to help one gain. “Ashes, ashes, we all fall down.” Figuratively, it could mean the fall of power or career. Looking at it in a literal sense, it could mean death or something terrible to happen to the person who helped them most. The main point is, it becomes a sad story told over and over again like, ‘Ring Around the Rosies.’ They will reminisce on the events and how it affected them. Feeling guilt, regret and, sadness about how the treated the person who helped them the most.

In realization that he is trouble, Ralph is hiding. He is hiding from everyone who betrayed him up until this point. All the boys, including Ralph, have gone absolutely crazy. Turning on one another and losing people left and right had become the norm on the island. Without Piggy there to count and give suggestions, the boys had turned into ultimate savages. Ralph never really had thought about Piggy’s contributions to their civilizations until now. “What was the sensible thing to do? There was no Piggy to talk sense. There was no solemn assembly for debate nor dignity of the conch.”(196) The feeling of regret and guilt that was mentioned earlier, has settled in for Ralph. Now that Piggy is gone, the sensibility went with him. Piggy didn’t help the civilization, he was the civilization. Without him all the boys had become complete savages. The idea of a “solemn assembly...dignity of the conch” would not even be a thought if it weren’t for Piggy. It had happened over and over again until it did not benefit Ralph anymore. He was all alone and the one person who always had his back had left. Now, he needed Piggy more than ever. In turn, these actions backfired and became unbeneficial.

Ralph realized that he no longer needed Piggy, but when it was too late, that’s when Piggy was needed the most. Ralph was gaining more power, but pushed away his advisor without realizing the help he was going to need from him. In The Lord of the Flies, William Golding does a good job at showing that, sometimes, when a person forgets about someone who helped them succeed every step along the way the effects are not beneficial. Also, he showed that Ralph was wrong for letting go of Piggy because he was the one person who helped him the most.



WORKS CITED


"Ring around the Rosy Rhyme." Ring around the Rosy Rhyme. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Apr. 2016. <http://www.rhymes.org.uk/ring_around_the_rosy.htm>.


Winick, Stephen. "Ring Around the Rosie: Metafolklore, Rhyme and Reason." Ring Around the Rosie: Metafolklore, Rhyme and Reason. Library of Congress, 24 July 2014. Web. 07 Apr. 2016. <https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2014/07/ring-around-the-rosie-metafolklore-rhyme-and-reason/>.



Keko, Don. "Ring Around the Rosie and the Black Death." Examiner.com. Examiner.com, 15 Oct. 2010. Web. 07 Apr. 2016. <http://www.examiner.com/article/ring-around-the-rosie-and-the-black-death>.

















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