In lord of the flies what leads Ralph to stand on his head?

Answer 1

He does it as an expression of feelings of pure pleasure and joy that he is unable to express with words.

Answer 2

He sees it on his way back to what's left of his camp after being attacked by Jack and the hunters. In anger and hatred he knocks it over and uses the stick it was on to fight Jack.

Answer 3

To quote directly from the book... "But there was a stillness about Ralph as he sat that marked him out: there was his size, and attractive appearence; and most obscurely, yet mosty powerfully, there was the conch. The being that had blown that, had sat waiting for them on the platform with the delicate thing balanced on his knees, was set apart."

Answer 4

Ralph seems to have a problem with expressing his feelings in words. Sometimes when he is speaking a 'veil' or a 'curtain' descends in is mind and he loses track of what he is saying. Perhaps he suffers from petit mal epilepsy or perhaps it is a psychological condition resulting from the loss of his mother, at one point in the story Ralph remembers in a daydream a time when 'mummy was still there.' Essentially, perhaps because of his difficulty with words, Ralph understandably expresses his emotions in another much more different manner, by standing on his head to demonstrate the joy and bliss which he can't express in words.

Answer 5

Pure and simple joy. The sudden realisation that he is on a beautiful tropical island with a sandy beach and an inviting sea and that there are no adults to stop him from enjoying himself.