Evolution Of Uniforms In Lord Of The Flies By William Golding

“All human beings are commingled out of good & evil” was a quote once said by notable Scottish novelist Robert Louis Stevenson. This quotation discusses and supports William Golding’s, the author of Lord of the Flies, belief that all humans have a distinct character flaw that, when left unchecked by morals and laws of society, will eventually corrupt the individual. In Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, it’s shown how due to their environment and lack of supervision, the young boys slowly progress and evolve into barbaric, bloodthirsty individuals.

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.

In the early ages, mankind was savage. William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, proves that humans are savage still today. Golding does a good job of showing the readers that without civilization, people go mad. Jack shows savage ways early in the book, and it is obvious that things will only get worse. Lord of the Flies shows that when left alone, even the most unlikely people will resort to savage ways.

It may have taken millions of years for humans to evolve enough to create the sprawling civilizations known today, but it only takes a few months for a group of civil, educated boys to regress back into savagery. In his novel Lord of the Flies, author William Golding depicts a group of young British boys getting stranded on a deserted island sans adults. The boys must look out for themselves, forming a basic governing system and trying to survive. But the challenge soon proves too much to handle, and order deteriorates. William Golding conveys the universal theme of civilization vs. savagery in his novel Lord of the Flies using the literary elements of plot, setting, and characterization.

In our society, people are often cruel to one another in the want for personal gain, but this is restrained to mere social interactions and online in our industrial world. However, when we are separated from civilized society and the pressures that it places upon us, we are quick to turn to savage, cruel behavior to survive. Golding understood this idea, that we are only civilized when others are watching, and showed the possibility for even the purest to become affected by societal pressures in his novel, the Lord of the Flies. In order to show the role of cruelty in shaping the novel Lord of the Flies, Golding uses character archetypes, the idea of cosmic irony, and extended symbolism to highlight the inherent flaws of human nature and the potential for even the purest individuals to turn to cruel ways due to societal pressures.

Humans are a sophisticated and advanced race, one which possess the ability to affect their environment, and one another, in significant and often destructive ways. War is a catastrophic event created by humans, who upon creating it neglect to comprehend its far-reaching effects. The novel, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, places a group of prepubescent males into one of these situations. After an evacuation aircraft crash-lands, the boys are left upon a deserted island to manage and fend for themselves. As Golding details the trials and tribulations of the young men on the island, it becomes increasingly apparent that the children respect authority and require an organized leadership. The failure to manifest such a system will result in a de-evolution into savagery.

Everyone likes to think of themselves as a “good” person. We believe by putting our change in the tip jar or letting someone cross the street, we have a decent sense of morals. But in reality, humans take pleasure in succumbing to their id, the primitive sense of desire and aggression in all of us. We satisfy our id by yelling at a sibling for trivial reasons or lusting for someone because of their attractive appearance. By tracking the condition of the boy's’ hair in William Golding’s allegory “Lord of the Flies,” Golding’s criticism of the civilized and savage manner is revealed.

There is a quote by Edmund Burke, “man is the cruelest animal”, that perfectly describes the truth about human nature; that humanity, at its core, is an evil species. William Golding acknowledges this fact in his 1954 novel, Lord of the Flies. Throughout the novel, Golding highlights the cruelty of children, the carelessness of their actions, and the evilness present in the very fabric of society.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding highlights humans’ descent from civilization into savagery. Although savagery overcomes some of the boys so easily, it is not as easy for others to escape their conditioning from society and go completely savage. In the beginning, the majority of the boys try to bring order to the island while others show signs of savagery very early on. Eventually when hardship and tensions increases, there are still a few boys who keep resisting savagery. Also, even when the savagery and evil start to become prevalent in the boys’ actions, they continue to resist the rejection of social rules and guidelines. It is hard for the boys to abandon the only thing they know.

    Despite the progression of civilization and society's attempts to suppress man's darker side, moral depravity proves both indestructible and inescapable; contrary to culturally embraced views of humanistic tendencies towards goodness, each individual is susceptible to his base, innate instincts. In William Golding's Lord of the Flies, seemingly innocent schoolboys evolve into bloodthirsty savages as the latent evil within them emerges. Their regression into savagery is ironically paralleled by an intensifying fear of evil, and it culminates in several brutal slays as well as a frenzied manhunt. The graphic consequence of the boys' unrestrained barbarity, emphasized by the

(T) Jack rules the boys with meat, freedom, and fear, which the boys gravitate towards. (E) Jack likes to taunt the boys with killing and hunting, which makes him look like a bully, especially when “ [Jack] giggled and flicked them while the boys laughed at his reeking palms. Then Jack grabbed Maurice and rubbed the stuff over his cheeks . . . Right up her

The true nature of man is something that has been debated constantly throughout both literary and philosophical history. Many exceptional individuals have argued both man’s innate innocence and his savagery. In the award-winning novel, Lord of the Flies, author William Golding expertly establishes that man’s nature is to behave malevolently when afraid through his effective use of symbolism, archetype, and allegory. One way that William Golding demonstrates that man behaves maliciously when frightened is through his application of symbolism.

Once these boys join Jack’s tribe, they are forced to follow his orders, committing heinous atrocities against their former friends in a desperate attempt to avoid the physical punishment Jack inflicts on those who disobey him. Jack rules his subjects through fear and intimidation, and yet lures them in by playing on hidden desires unbeknownst to them. Jack is often shown acting cruel and menacing towards the other boys, however is he also shown as being self-conscious and a bit insecure: “Boys are desperate to distract from their own helplessness and do so by projecting their fear of subjection onto an even weaker

The most immanent form of savagery is coded into human genetics. In 1954, when Lord of The Flies was released, Golding stated the theme of the story as, “an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature,”. This implicitly states how the defect of barbarism isn’t learned but rather innate in all beings. Simon also realizes this when discussing the true meaning of the beast. The novel states, “What I mean is… maybe it’s only us.” Simon became inarticulate in his effort to express mankind’s essential illness” (Golding, 96). This quote suggests that Simon is comprehending what is going on and foresees the consequences, which is the dominance of savagery. He refers to savagery as “mankind’s essential illness”. Although savagery is associated with negative aspects, the sole purpose in human genetics is for protection. However, as humans evolved and became civilized, this instinct was cut out from life. Despite this, savagery still exists within humans. In Lord of The Flies, a group of boys are stranded on a desolate island that forces them to behave abnormally and they

“Isolation is a dream killer” (Barbara Sher). In the novel Lord of the Flies written by William Golding, kids stranded on an island must figure out how to survive. By hunting pigs and building shelters the kids tried to subsist on the island. Through the process of hunting, the kids became cruel, evolving to the point of being barbaric. Thus, through the barbaric actions of the boys and the outside world, Golding shows that savagery exists in all people.