The influence of conflicts to Ralph’s character development in Willwam Golding's lord of the flies

ABSTRACT

As long as we live in the world, we are not able to avoid conflict although we never invite it. ٨ conflict comes to us unconsciously and usually we do not realize that our attitude causes a conflict. Conflict is a contradiction between two persons, each of which has his own idea or principle.

Good character is defined in one’s action. Character development traditionally has focused on those traits. Character development bringing the characters to life in the reader's mind. They can range from thumbnail sketches to deep, wordy, highly detailed biographies of each character. It is important to note that different genres and stories require different types of character development.

This study is aimed at answering the following three research problems and gain better understanding on the content of the novel. The first is what the original attitude of Ralph is. The second is what are Ralph’s conflicts, and the last is how does the conflict influence Ralph’s character. The objectives of this study are based on three items. First of all to identify the original attitude of Ralph. 'The second is to explain Ralph's conflicts. The third is to describe how the conflict influences Ralph's character.

The research design used in this study is descriptive qualitative research. This is used because there is no treatment as in experimental research. This research describes or interprets what exist with respect to conditions in a situation; describes the original attitude of Ralph, types of Ralph's conflicts, and how the conflict influences Ralph's character.

٣ne result of this study shows that the original attitude of Ralph is the athletic, charismatic protagonist. Three types of Ralph's conflict are psychological conflict, physical conflict, and social conflict. Psychological conflict for example when Jack slaps and breaks Piggy’s glasses, Ralph is angry with himself for giving way. Ralph feels that it was a dirty trick. Physical conflict takes place when Ralph and Jack fight. Jack throws his spear at Ralph, and the other boys quickly join him. Social conflict takes place when Ralph wants to make shelters to keep and protect all of the boys from rain and beast. While Jack just think about killing pigs and eating meat. And the last all of the conflict that happen to Ralph, apparently changes Ralph's character. For the first time he is good, kind, and not emotional, but after he faces conflicts, Ralph becomes wild and grows to the bad side. In the end of the novel, Ralph realizes it and grows to the good side.