Power in the wrong hands

Power in the Wrong Hands by William Golding, A Tale of Two Cites by Charles Dickens, and Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer people in power use their position to corrupt others. This suggests people should be mindful who they put In power. In these novels the authors show that no matter what age, race, social status, or even gender a person is, if given some-kind of power and competition they have the potential to become corrupt. Also, these three writings demonstrate that fear gives the ability to control people or a person.

In A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, Madame Defarge knits registry of all the people who are against her and the revolution. As Madame Defarge adds names to the registry the Jacques or revolutionaries follow by her orders and kill each person on this list. Defarge states “It would be easier for the weakest of poltroon that lives, to erase himself from existence, than to erase one letter of his name or crimes from the knitted register of Madame Defarge” (Dickens 212).

The more people the revolutionaries kill for Madame Defarge the more names she knits into the registry. Therefore, each time a Jacque kills a person it adds to her ower and gives her more authority over the rest of the people. Madame Defarge feeds off of and gains her power and position through installing fear into the eyes of those who are opposing to her. Now she does not only add those who are against her and are aristocrats, she knits names of those who she simply Just wants dead. Madame tells “then tell the wind and fire where to stop..

But dont tell me” (Dickens 419). By the end of the novel, Madame Defarge ultimately becomes terrifying in her unwillingness to deviate from her plan of revenge against the aristocrats. In Lord of he Flies by William Golding, Jack wants nothing more than to be the absolute ruler of the island. Jack explains “Next time there will be no mercy” (Golding 31). Golding added “he looked around fiercely, daring them to contradict” (Golding 31). Jack tells that next time he will stop at nothing to prove to the rest what he is capable of.

As a game all of the boys start playing that they are killing a pig; however, when the kids become overwhelmed they end up killing Simon. The boys chant “kill the beastl Cut his throat! Spill his blood! ” (Golding 152). The boys chanting in the circle gradually ecome blood thirsty as they pretend to kill the “pig”. They kill Simon when he crawls Into the circle for his turn to be pig. Because Jack has a desire for blood he shows no attempt to stop the boys from tearing Simon apart.

Once He killed Piggy, Jack realized that he had the ultimate power of the island. Jack then screamed “see? See? That’s what you’ll get! I meant thatl There Isnt a tribe for you anymorel”(Goldlng 181). Warning Ralph that he is next to die and that the hunt for him is on. It is very clear to Roger and Jack that they can eliminate their threat, Ralph, from the island due to heir power over the tribe of choir boys. In Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, the leaders of the groups become corrupt as they endure fear of dying on the mountain.