Human Nature Being Savage Analysis

Ralph is a character whose actions make him represent democracy. In chapter 2, Ralph establishes a rule that whoever holds the conch may speak at the assembly. “That’s what this shell's called. I’ll give the conch to the next person to speak. He can hold it when he’s speaking”(31). By establishing this rule, Ralph planted the foundation of democracy for the boys. Later in the story, even though Jack draws most of the boys into savagery, Ralph still held onto the belief

Ralph is an insufficient leader, which causes his society to greatly decline. Ralph creates the policy of only speaking when one holds the conch in their hands; only Ralph is allowed to interrupt since he is the leader. The boys are at the top of a mountain, defeated, because their fire didn’t stay lit. When Piggy tries to explain why it didn’t work, Jack interrupts him.

The final push that drives the young boys over the edge is when the hunters kill Piggy. Ralph, Piggy, and a few others try to reclaim Piggy’s glasses at Jack’s camp. When Ralph arrives he is met by Jack and his hunters. The boys start to argue and a fight breaks out. Roger, one of Jack’s violent hunters, shoves Piggy over the cliff side. “Piggy fell forty feet and landed on his back across the square red rock in the sea” (Golding 181). Roger had not shown Piggy any mercy. They all used to be good boys until the island took their innocence away from

“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.

He is physically weak and suffers from ‘ass-mar.’ However, Piggy is intellectually smart and is a fat orphan, who extremely fears Jack because of the nicknames he made. As mentioned in the story, when Piggy’s parents died he went on to live with his aunt over the years. In the story, Piggy plays an important role because he taught Ralph how to use the conch and the main uses for it. In the story, the conch symbolizes loyalty, law, order, and respect. Roger, a hunter from Jack’s tribe, pushes a giant rock with smashes Piggy, and rolls him down forty feet into the

First Ralph was voted to be the leader or chief on the island for the time being. During the vote for chief Golding points out the fact that Ralph shows the qualities of a leader out of all the boys. “But there was a stillness about Ralph as he sat that marked him out. . . and most obscurely yet most powerfully there was the conch” (Golding 22). Ralph was seen as the best fit for the new role based the current circumstances. After all isn’t a leader supposed to create a sense of unity? Once the so called “beast” has been discussed, Ralph to restate the plan to be rescued. During a meeting that is then called, Golding talks about how Ralph has to actually wave the conch to grasp everyone’s attention. “The simple statement, unbacked by any proof but the weight of Ralph’s new aurhority, brought light and happiness. He had to wave the conch before he could make them hear him” (Golding 37). The conch has shown much more power of leadership and control than Ralph. If he were to call a meeting without the conch little to nothing would happen, but more frustration of Ralph. Coincidentally this starts to happen when new

The thing is, the situation the boys are in is a life or death situation and it seems that only Ralph and Piggy are the ones that realize this. When jack left the group the rest of his understanding of survival where all lost except for hunting . Throughout, the story Jack becomes more and more power hungry, but now that he has gone wicked all he can think about is revenge toward his rival leader Ralph. “He’s going to beat Wilfred.” “What for?” Robert shook his head doubtfully. “I don’t know. He didn’t say. He got angry and made us tie Wilfred up. He’s been”—he giggled excitedly—“he’s been tied for hours, waiting—”(Golding, 159). From killing other striving animals, physically hurting piggy, and to tieing up wilfred to beat him. Jack is wicked in every way shape or form. Jack took advantage of his new position as leader on his group and went bloodthirsty. Then the monstrous red thing bounded across the neck and he flung himself flat while the tribe shrieked. The rock struck piggy a glancing blow from the chin the the knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist. Piggy, saying nothing, with no time for even a grunt, traveled through the air sideways from the rock, turning over as he went (jack signals the boys to roll the boulder to go pummel the boys and ends up killing piggy) (Golding, 181).

In the novel, Ralph, the elected leader of the group of boys in Lord of the Flies, creates a democracy among them all, using the conch as an effective method of maintaining order and calling meetings. The conch, representing order and civilisation, is idolized from first sight, one child exclaiming, “Let him be chief with the trumpet-thing” (Golding 22). It’s fairly obvious the reasons why Ralph was elected leader aren’t well supported, emphasizing society’s shallow nature and ignorance for knowledge (shown in their choice not to elect Piggy as chief).

At the beginning of the novel, Golding depicts Ralph as the natural leader. However his only claim to leadership is his good looks, and that he, first blew the conch. From the start of the novel Ralph is forced to take responsibility through the symbolic conch, being voted “chief”, and possessing a natural propensity for leadership as he is confident, eloquent and attractive. Additionally, on page 31 Ralph progresses to the realisation that the boys need order. ‘There aren’t any grown-ups. We shall look after ourselves…We’ll have to have ‘hands up’ like at

“We are all ready to be savage in some cause. The difference between a good man and a bad one is the choice of the cause.” -William James (https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/williamjam157170.html?src=t_savage)

The character Ralph is introduced , explained developed over the course of the of the text it reveals his attitude. At this point now in the novel “Lord of the Flies” Ralph confronts Jack which starts a fight for authority, he says that Jack is a beast, confirming what Simon learned earlier, that the beast is inside us. He also keeps accusing Jack of stealing stuff,although this accusation means nothing in the absence of civilization. Then in the novel it states ,”By him stood Piggy still holding out the talisman, the fragile, shining beauty of the shell. The storm of sound beat at them, an incantation of hatred. High overhead, Roger, with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever.” at this point in the passage, Piggy makes one last attempt to restore order. The conch that once had full of power, is now nothing but an object. Roger prepares to let go a large rock upon the enemies of the tribe. Piggy stands directly in the rock's path and is killed.“We saw your smoke. What have you been doing? Having a war or something?" (207) In the final chapter, Jack sets the jungle on fire to smoke Ralph out of hiding ,Just when Ralph is surrounded by savages on the beach then they are interrupted by the arrival of a naval officer. Jack's act of savagery is the cause of

In addition, the boys use the conch for power. When Ralph had the conch in his hand everyone assumed that he should be the leader, and everyone started chanting

During this, all of the boys on the island gather to hunt and release their inner manliness. Simon is the only one who is not participating in the celebration because he is in the mountains searching for the beast. When he returns, he is mistaken for the beast and is ripped into shreds by all the other boys. “There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws” (Golding 169). During the attack, the boys lose all sense of civilization because they become swept up in the frenzy, including Ralph and Piggy. The lack of authority results in Simon’s death, which becomes a destruction point in the boys as this unleashes the primitive cruelty in them. In result, his death becomes a symbol of the boy’s downfall in innocence. This is because unlike the other boys, Simon is a sensitive character. When he dies, all hope of morality dies with him, since he is seen as a Christ like figure in the novel. Secondly, Piggy is murdered in chapter 11 by Roger when he is hit with a boulder and falls off the mountainside to his death during an argument between Ralph and Jack. “The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist. Piggy, saying nothing, with no time for even a grunt, travelled through the air sideways from the rock, turning over as he went” (200). Piggy’s death is particularly violent, which shows the savagery

The discovery of the conch led to Ralph taking on the role of leadership. From the very beginning of the novel when Ralph meets Piggy and they find the conch, Ralph decides that he should be the one to blow the conch. “Ralph took the shell from Piggy” (Golding 16) without asking and proceed to attempt at blowing the conch. Ralph does not give Piggy a chance to try new things. Piggy had explained to Ralph how he was unable to blow the conch back home because his auntie did not allow him to on account of his asthma. In this instance Ralph was being a poor leader by not encouraging Piggy to try new things and reach out of his comfort zone. When Ralph does not have the shell in the beginning of the novel he is not responsible, but when he does obtain the shell he gains the leadership qualities that he needs to lead the group of boys. When Ralph exclaims "Seems to me we ought to have a chief to decide things" (Golding 22) to the boys, is when Ralph decides that he is going to be taking on responsibility as leader to keep the island in order. What Ralph signs up to do is proven to be a much harder task than he perceives later on in the novel.

In Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes lays out the hypothetical principal of the state of nature, where human it-self is artificial. It is human nature that people will not be able to love permanently, everyone against everyone power between the strongest. In this nation-state you must be the strongest in order to survive (survival of the fittest). In order to survive there are laws we must follow, to insure of our security because of fear. We were able to suppress our fear, by creating order, to have more order; we must have security, so the social contract appeared.