Essay On Savagery In Lord Of The Flies

In William Golding’s novel, “The Lord of the Flies”, he displays human nature in an animalistic viewpoint that is not seen in “normal” people. He describes the unknown savagery of human beings, without missing the good nature found within us, which allows us to work as a well-organized group. World War Two is also used effectively as a backdrop, since it shows that the violence is found in everyone.

“There are too many people, and too few human beings.” (Robert Zend) Even though there are many people on this planet, there are very few civilized people. Most of them are naturally savaged. In the book, Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, boys are stranded on an island far away, with no connections to the adult world. These children, having no rules, or civilization, have their true nature exposed. Not surprisingly, these children’s nature happens to be savagery. Savagery can clearly be identified in humans when there are no rules, when the right situation arouses, and finally when there is no civilization around us.

The human mind is made of up two instincts that constantly have conflict: the instinct to live by society’s rules and the instinct to live by your own rules. Our civilized will has been to live morally by law and order, and our savage will has been to act out for our own selfish needs. We each choose to live by one or the other depending on how we feel is the correct way to live. In this allegorical novel, William Golding represents the transformation from civilization to savagery in the conflict between two of the main characters: Ralph who represents law and order and Jack who represents savagery and violence. Lord of the Flies has remained a very controversial novel to this day with its startling, brutal, and truthful picture of the

The struggle between humanity and savagery portrayed through the events of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies demonstrates how simple it is for one to succumb to the mannerisms of depravity. This is impossible with the implementation of structure and order, as such concepts provide boundaries and keep man sane and behaved. Once the boys arrive on the island, isolated and expelled from society, they look to a shell to relieve them of this hardship, and to institute a form of government that will keep them from acting out. Despite the trust they put in the shell, it fails to hold them from corruption, only adding to the growing tension between all of the boys inhabiting the mysterious island. Through the escalating tension surrounding the

In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Ralph and Jack’s power struggle is observed throughout the book. Ralph’s democratic leadership sharply contrasts Jack’s tyrannical and uncivilized rule. Ralph is stripped of everything and the line between him and Jack is blurred near the end because he gives in to savagery. Though all men will ultimately revert back to animalistic instinct and savagery in the absence of civilization, Ralph only succumbs to this when he loses his friends and when he is hunted; Jack succumbs all on his own.

In William Golding's Lord of the Flies the central and recurring theme, civilization vs savagery, is very evident and obvious. Throughout the novel, Golding associates civilization with good, while associating savagery with dark and evil. Due to the intense and driving force of the novel, civilization and savagery clash against each other as the novel progresses. Golding also lets the two main characters represent this theme. Ralph, the protagonist, represents leadership and has a civil wellbeing, while Jack, the antagonist, stands for the desire of power and savagery. “We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we’re not savages. We’re English, and the English are best at everything” (Golding 42). Jack agrees with Ralph in this statement about how the boys must obey and follow the rules given, however, as the novel progresses, Jack starts to become a savage and butts heads with Ralph. Nonetheless, the novel moves forward and the boys still retain their civil sides. In Chapter 3 the main conflict intervenes and the first verbal conflict takes place. As Jack and Ralph argue it is apparent on which side each of the boys take and the division of the boys starts to take action. Ralph advocates to build huts, while the bloodthirsty Jack, demands that the boys hunt for food. But because Jack and Ralph are children they are unable to successfully express their feelings and ideas during the debate. Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 present a new challenge that the

William Golding’s lord of the flies is powered by the ideal that savagery is imbedded within our human nature. Throughout the entirety of this novel Golding outlines the ways that savagery is an innate factor of the human condition, one that when given the opportunity, any human even the most innocent of little boys is forced to revert to. Simon’s death,Piggy’s death as well as the Lord of the Flies all display the unique ways in which the young boys descend into savagery.

In William Golding’s, The Lord of the Flies, a group of boys traveling across the Pacific, suddenly find themselves on an island with no adult supervision. Throughout the book many challenges arise. Boys who were once civilized all of the sudden have to make their own form of government, along with rules and disciplinary actions. An older boy named Ralph is chosen to be chief. His first order of business is setting up to survive.

William Golding, author of Lord of the Flies, changed the lives of many. I believe his main purpose was to show his readers the contrast between savagery and civilization. Supporting this hypothesis, Golding has placed the boys on an uncharted island without any trace of society. Most boys quickly become undomesticated while a few fight this feeling. The two sides begin to battle by a largely unequal number. The most civilized boys struggle or perish before the end of the novel while the barbaric flourish..

The line between civilization and savagery is thin and even the best people can cross over depending on life’s circumstances. When a group of British boys survive a plane crash that kills all of the adults, they become stranded on an unfamiliar island with no supervision and no way of getting home. They are forced to create their own society and civilization using the leaders within their group. Two prominent figures are realized from the creation of society and rules. Ralph is a level headed and kind hearted boy set on getting the group rescued and creating rules for the boys to follow. Piggy is Ralph’s friend and the source of his clever leadership ideas which initially brings the group together. Ralph becomes chief through a vote that the boys on the island take. The loser of this vote is Jack, an overconfident and aggressive figure determined to survive on this island and keep himself alive in any way possible. Tension grows between the two boys and overtime the civilization they built together slowly falls apart and

Finally, the English boys’ fail to resist being in fear of what could be possibly roaming the island. When the boy’s first approached the island, a younger boy of the group explained that he saw a beast at night. No one besides Piggy took his explanation into consideration. In fact, most of the boy’s just laughed as if it was a pathetic joke. In the text it states, “He still says he saw the beastie.

In Peter Brook’s movie “The Lord of the Flies” based on William Goldings novel we evaluate civilization vs. savagery and loss of innocence in a group of boys that are stranded on a deserted island without any adults nor rules and how it drives them mad to the point to where they are killing one another. Humans for the most part have 2 competing sides: Good civilized person which goes by a set a rules and acts peacefully and the other side which is to act violently and enforce ones will or evil if we must say. In this particular film we are portrayed good as civilized and evil as savagery and as time goes by on the island, we find the boys divided into two groups: the first group which is led by Ralph and Piggy, the ones that believe

Civilization is like a thin layer of ice upon a deep ocean of savagery and darkness. Once it begins to crack, the entire thing will eventually break and fall through. In the novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding raised themes that there is a thin line between civilization and savagery and how it doesn’t take much to uncover the human heart of darkness because without a system of control, the effect is loss of innocence, which relates to the modern day issue of the disaster of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and the events in the Middle East. Civilization is an advanced state of intellectual, cultural, and material development in human society, marked by progress in the arts and sciences, the extensive use of record-keeping, including writing, and the appearance of complex social and political institutions. It’s cultural or intellectual refinement.

“Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” these were the words chanted as a boy was cut and bitten to death by other kids his own age! A point of uncivilization comes to a certain degree, and to say that the boys in Lord of the Files have met this degree would still be considered an understatement. These boys have passed the class of uncivilization and have reached an even worse classification of one’s self: savagery. As things get tough and decisions become harder to make, savagery seems like the only thing the boys could regress to… and they most certainly do. William Golding, the author, clearly demonstrates this regression to savagery in a timely but certain manner. As William makes this demonstration,

It is so extraordinary, how nature and humanity have conjoined together. Well the connection of the two construct a view that all men are capable of having evil rage or likewise becoming savage. In lord of the flies, Golding pervades to us that everyone is capable of savagery. Golding uses, the scar, the island, and the lord of the flies, and the beast to come together and form his theme.