Lord Of Flies Civilized In Lord Of The Flies

Within Lord of the Flies, we see firsthand the tendency toward violence and destruction that lies within humanity, and boys in particular. Without society, they fell apart. They committed atrocities that go against every rule, every social expectation, we see in humanity. Although Lord of the Flies shows important ideas about boys’ place in society, it also allows the reader to form unrealistic views on ideas such as death, violence, and conflict.

The boys don’t put into practice their teachings from church/school on the island, but become savage beasts. This shows us that man is civilized in our society, only because of the fear for higher authority, not because that’s their nature.

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

There are many laws and unspoken and logical rules that keep society civil. In the beginning of Lord of the Flies, Roger finds himself throwing minuscule stones at the younger boys, however missing them, due to the conditioning of society. This is a result of the little boys being protected by policemen, parents, school and the law. It is also evident and true that there are other factors that allow for civility to prosper in humanity, some of which are present on the island with the boys, but some factors are extremely scarce. But it is when these factors are mostly absent or diminish, that the idea and foundation of civilization will weaken or fade. William Golding allows symbols to show a complex, yet beautiful and convincing transition from a theme of civility and order, to one of savagery and also moral depravity. The reason for this new theme being that the boys are faced with an internal danger; the true nature of humanity, which fuels the drastic change from innocent boys who abide by rules to rabid animals. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, while the conch symbol best conveys the influence of the adult world on the boys, the conch symbol, paired with the pig hunt motif best conveys the theme of regression into savagery.

In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, a group of British boys suddenly become stranded on an island, all alone, forced to form their own social system. Throughout the novel, William Golding reveals his main character 's strengths and weaknesses in their attempts to lead. The character Piggy demonstrates the benefits and limits of intelligence in maintaining civil order.

Will Durant, an American writer, historian, and philosopher, once said, “Civilization begins with order, grow with liberty, and ends with chaos.” If civilization is lost within a community, all order can vanish. Every community has some sort of civility and order in place. Without out it, the community would crumble and conflict would break out. Although all communities are flawed, most have something to keep peace. In William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, Golding gives several examples of various things that keep civilization in order, when a group of boys get stranded on an island. Golding uses a conch to symbolize the boys’ civilization and order and as the time spent on the island increases, that order slowly disappears.

In many parts of the world, humans live in a civilized society where law and order are organized and enforced. But within a lawless society, savagery surfaces in an ungoverned setting of bloodshed and harm. In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Civility and Savagery are differentiated with Ralph and Jack, Ralph establishes a community compared to Jack who damage and divide civilization. Because of how Jack and Ralph use their democratic and dictatorial authority, through the examples of the declined civilization, the increase of savagery and the different ways of power by Ralph and Jack.

The two boys together find a conch shell which comes to represent democracy and order, and the high hand of authority. Ralph blows it to bring together any other people that might be on the island. Soon a crowd gathers. The boys are made up of bigguns and littluns, the bigguns being around twelve years old, and the littluns being around five or six. Immediately the conch is seen as a token of respect, so it is always used to call meetings. We are now introduced to the rest of the main characters.

After the boys were marooned on the island, each was alone and unaware of the presence of the other boys. Ralph discovered the conch shell along with his new companion, Piggy. They identified the conch and blew it to bring forth any boys surviving the crash. He continued to blow the conch until, “The sand...concealed many figures in its miles of length” (Golding 18). As the newly discovered children gathered together, order was established throughout the tribe due to the effectiveness of the conch, and the leadership of Ralph. At this point, people obeyed the conch and followed the rule that allows the holder to speak freely. Grudgingly, the people listened to the chief to keep themselves alive, because he was a person of confidence and leadership. However, over time, this motivation slowly started to decrease and the rules were less obeyed. Therefore, the discovery of the conch symbolizes the discovery of order on the island. This is shown because once society starts to fall apart, so does the obedience to the conch.

From the minute they arrive on the island, Ralph and Piggy are searching for some semblance of the glue that held their lives together: authority. Within the first chapter, the conch shell that Piggy stumbles upon becomes a symbol of leadership and community, like the “men with the megaphones” it is used to bring the community together, and “most obscurely, yet most powerfully” determines Ralph being elected as leader over Jack’s blustering

For the boys in the novel the conch was an empowering movement that made them be civilized for a while. The conch showed leadership to the boys, for example Golding states “’Him with the shell. Ralph! Ralph! Ralph! Let him be chief with the trumpet”’ (Golding 22). This quote is showing the boys saw the shell as an entitling necessity. So far, the boys maintain civilized and try to create rules for themselves as Ralph leads them. As the story progresses, Jack starts to separate from civilization the boys are starting to forget about their main purpose for creating the fire which is to be rescued. Jack and almost all the boys forget about being rescued they then start to follow Jack as leader and stop listening to Ralph, who is more civilized

The boys use it to get everyone on the island together after the crash separates them. The conch shell becomes a symbol of civilization, power and order. The shell is the biggest part of the boys meetings, whoever holds the shell has the right to speak. They agree that only the boy holding the conch may speak at meetings to and voice their opinion. The conch also brings the boys together for an assembly when blown. Ralph becomes the leader of the conch and the boys on the island when he is elected by the other boys. The boys deciding on a leader shows their humanity. However, Jack starts to challenge Ralph for the power which leads their society to fall apart. When the boys start to lose their humanity, they begin to act like savages. As the islands civilization is being destroyed, the boys begin to

“Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals.” The posed question is if society is controlled by people, or are people controlled by society. Some may argue that society is controlled by people, but if you step into the light is that really the case. If you were to look at society, really look at it, who is being controlled. Its not society itself, sure people affect the directions society turns, but that is a small group of people who represent societies movement and trends. People do not really affect what society truly is. Society is, as said before, a mental concept, the popular, important figures in the world are the physical representation. The world is full of unique individuals, although everyone is under influence of society. It is subconscious, but always there. These next paragraphs will express how society controls people by elaborating on three main ideas that show up in the book Lord of The Flies. Society controls our actions, we learn from society and use it to try to be in control of others, and it is always there and so we have no idea what to do apart from it.

Civilizations come in many different forms but even the best of them can descend into savagery. The boys being stranded on an island made civilization very hard to keep, thus making it not very difficult for them to descend into savagery. The first time the boys started to show signs of savagery was when Jack and some other boys split off and made a “tribe.” They put on face paint and hunted the pigs religiously not caring for their rescue, as all of them had already assumed they weren’t going to get rescued. Killing Simon and Piggy showed the true evilness in humanity when civilization falls. Jack and his tribe went mad after that going on a rampage and to do whatever pleased them. The tribe did not care for the well being of other and only focused on themselves. Lord of the Flies by William Golding clearly displays the evil in humanity through the loss of civilization to the descent into savagery, showing that even the best of people can fade into savagery.

Civilization today has become almost completely reliant on technology. Almost the entire planet is connected by phone lines, roads, air travel, or the internet. People converse with others thousands of miles away through modern connections, watch live broadcasts of news in foreign lands, or talk on wireless phones by use of satellites. We are governed by laws designed to protect us. We live in heated homes with fresh water and electricity. We commute to work by car or mass transit. We live by rules, values, and ideals that keep the peace. Our world is organized, convenient, and technologically advanced. What would happen if suddenly our civilization