Ralph

Outer characterization

Ralph is the main character in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. In the opening lines of the novel, he is described as having “fair hair” and wearing a “school sweater” (p. 1). He is apparently a typical British schoolboy: “The fair boy stopped and jerked his stockings with an automatic gesture that made the jungle seem for a moment like the Home Counties.” (p. 1). He is “twelve years and a few months” (p. 5) and he is somewhere between childhood and adolescence: “he might make a boxer, as far as width and heaviness of shoulders went, but there was a mildness about his mouth and eyes that proclaimed no devil.” (p. 5) 

By the end of the novel, however, Ralph’s outer characterization has changed: after weeks on the island, his clothes are torn, and his hair is long ...