Lord Of The Flies Civilization Vs Savagery Essay

“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.

Throughout Lord of the Flies, Golding shows his views of the inherent evil of humans. He shows how humans can be in such a savage state, practically mimicking the way of life of their prehistoric ancestors. He exemplifies this with acts of carnage carried on by the young stranded children. It all started with a slight urge to hunt down a pig and then continued on to murdering another human being. Golding shows his views best at the end of the book with the boys being rescued by a Navy crew, which would go on to war it self.

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

Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a classic novel and portrays just how the society surrounding us can corrupt our once pure nature No one is born a killer, no one is born with an intense compulsion to kill, the island that the boys are stranded on has a very unusual, corrupting society; A society that erodes the boys innocence through the power struggle between Jack and Ralph, readers see the transfer from innocent to savagely through the hunting and Piggy’s death.

Thesis Statement: The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding portrays the theme that regardless of each person’s different background and characteristics, every individual has the ability to commit brutal acts. While this book depicts Ralph and Piggy as the most civilized characters, and Jack and his hunters as young English choir boys, their actions reveal that they all have the capability to act violently.

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.

Golding uses the characters from Lord of the Flies just as Shakespeare did to prove that man is turned to evil. The narrative illustrates a story about a group of British boys who get stranded on a deserted island without any adults. This lack of a stable society and presence of leadership forces the boys to create their own, and this works for the boys for a while. The boys turn themselves into savages and begin to do evil deeds which continue to get worse until they are rescued. In the time between their rescue, the society the boys create devolves and turns them into savages although this was not always the case. When the boys first arrived, Ralph, the fair haired boy, attempts to lead them in a civilized manner, but through the influence of Jack, many of the boys become evil. Jack mutants against Ralph saying, “ I'm not going to be a part of Ralph lot... I'm going off by myself. He can catch his own pigs. Anyone who wants to hunt when I do can come too,” (Golding 127) in saying this Jack has made most of the boys on the island betray their leader which proves both Jack and his followers to be evil. The society the boys created glorifies violence and death:“... the boys… found themselves eager to take part in this demented… society.” (Golding 152). Jack, the leader of the violent tribe, often takes his followers on gruesome hunts on which they graphicly disembowel the kill, and after the hunt, Jack leads a chant while the other boys stand

“The Lord of the Flies” by William Golding, is a novel in which the theme of savagery versus civilization is explored. Several British boys are stranded on an isolated island at the time of an imaginary nuclear war. On the island, we see conflict between two main characters, Jack and Ralph, who respectively represent civilization and savagery. This has quite the effect on the rest of the boys throughout the novel as they delve further and further into savagery.

If the instinct for savagery lies latent in all human beings, can they truly be held personally accountable for their actions? In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, one of the overarching themes of the novel is the conflict between savagery vs civilization, and explores the concept of the individual vs the society. Civilization, society and its righteous and morally good ideologies are represented by Ralph, and those of aggression, individualism and the morally bad are associated with Jack. Ralph, as first elected leader of the tribe of boys argues for organization and self sacrifice for the better good of being rescued and maintaining peace, whereas Jack slowly and insidiously wins over the support of the boys by promising fun and freedom- under his tyranica rule, naturally. It is plainly obvious, with both the reader’s good sense and Golding’s obvious inclination towards Ralph, that he is the most appropriate leader and that a civilized society is the correct and right way to go about governance.

I thought, by myself…I thought I might kill.”. The reader can see from this that Jack’s vocabulary is composed of only monosyllabic words as he is preoccupied only with thoughts of slaughtering. We can also interpret that Jack feels as if he has to kill in order to gain respect for himself. Jack shows this pride when he does eventually kill a pig and he retells the story of the hunt to the rest of the boys. He and some of the boys re-enact the murder in a savage and primitive style. Therefore, we can see how his behaviour has been affected as a result of his compassion and need to hunt. This change in his behaviour is very significant as hunting is how Jack begins to establish his power over the group. Soon after the killing of the first pig, Jack is able to become more powerful and Ralph begins to realise this so he says, “I’m calling an assembly.”, as he feels in danger of losing control.

Lord of the Flies, an allegorical novel by William Golding, holds truths about mankind’s true nature of existence. The novel explores the savagery in all men that lies dormant, yet when society’s rules cease to exist, the boy’s innocence perishes along with it. The boys attempt to band together and mock the society that they came from, but not understanding the complexity of the situation, results in their society falling into ruins. On the island the boys are returned to man’s primitive nature, without rules or discipline, and they slowly drift into anarchy. Without proper guidance, the boys resort to cloaking their innocence with body paint to survive. With the body paint coating their skin, the boys bury their old personas within and allow themselves to commit acts that society would frown upon. When Jack’s tribe uses the facade of body paint to dissociate themselves from civilization’s morals, they denote that hiding one’s true identity liberates them from the constraints of society.

The novel “Lord of the Flies” was written by William Golding to demonstrate the problems of society and the sinful nature of man.

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

"Man has demonstrated that he is master of everything - except his own nature." This quote from Henry Miller demonstrates that even the best of people can be tempted and twisted by their own nature. Like the symbolic pig’s head stuck in the calm forests clearing, all beauty and innocence can be mutated when order is overthrown by impulse actions. In William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, a central theme exists demonstrating the deterioration of civilization, and the overpowering of savagery, leading to the abandonment of moral thoughts and actions within a person. The beauty of the island is burned away slowly as the fiery demon of savagery attempts to overwhelm the boys. The beauty of the island symbolizes the charm of law and

William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, narrates the story of a group of English boys as they struggle to survive on an uncharted, uninhabited island. The boy’s airplane crashes into the island and kills any adults on board -- leaving the boys to fend for themselves. Ralph and Piggy meet each other first and, upon Piggy’s counsel, Ralph decides to call a meeting of all the boys by blowing on a conch shell. The boys quickly begin to form a society in which they elect Ralph as their leader. A boy called Jack quietly disagrees and believes that he should lead the group. As times passes, Jack and his choir become hunters for the rest of the boys and they begin to enjoy the ways of a predator. As Jack grows more savage, he becomes unhappy with the