Lord Of The Flies: Savagery

The novel Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, explores the conflict between civilization and savagery. The novel follows a group of boys stranded on an island, depicting the collapse of established order and the boys’ descent into barbarism. The group’s leaders, named Ralph and Jack, embody the conflicting ideals of organized society and anarchy, respectively. A rivalry develops between Ralph and Jack due to alienating differences in their personalities and values. Ralph and Jack’s differing relationships with a boy called Piggy create conflict between them. Furthermore, their disputes regarding the importance of democracy and rules divide them. The disparities between Ralph and Jack provide insight into their rivalry.

“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 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

Men, without rules, can be led towards destruction. Lord of the Flies depicts at first a group of boys trying to maintain order, and a later descent into savagery. One of the most direct, apparent examples of this is through Roger. Through the contrast of the self-restraint Roger has at the beginning of the novel and the murder he absentmindedly commits at the end, Golding illustrates how man’s desire for savagery is restrained only by the enforced civilization of society.

This begins to explain one of the main themes throughout the novel Lord of the Flies. For one to be uncivilized is to be barbaric and inhuman, without having a sense of culture and social development. When innocence or civilization is lost, levels of economic, social, technological, political, and cultural evolution differentiates from that of the normal, because ideas, values, institutions, and achievements of a particular society is changed. The boys in Lord of the Flies find themselves in a situation where their only option was to learn to grow up and learn to do it fast on their own. They have to learn how to survive and fend for themselves without the presence of any adult figures, and create a prosperous society for their own. They

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.

Though it is true that Ralph does not escape the darkness festering inside the boys on the island, his savagery is what ultimately saves his life in the end.

“What is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.” James Madison. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, a group of boys crash-land on an island, and struggle to maintain order as their fragile society begins to crumble around them.

Savagery Is Inside Us All The central theme of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies is that savagery is in us all. SO, in this essay, 3 characterized will be analyzed to help prove Golding’s point. The three characters will be Roger, Jack and Ralph. As seen in the book, Roger was a savage before he got on the island, Jack’s savagery came out at a moderate pace as things started picking up, and Ralph was only a savage once the savagery of the other boys was being used against him.

In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, one character states, “We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we’re not savages” (Jack p. 42). Scared and alone, a group of boys are stranded on an island with no adults. The boys, whose ages range from six to twelve, are unsure of how to survive and what to do. One of the older boys, Jack, agrees with another boy Ralph that they need to establish order and rules to survive. However, overtime Jack begins to turn away from rules and turn toward savagery. Savagely, Jack begins to exhibit animal like characteristics where he begins to prey upon pigs. After seeing the beast, Jack gets into an argument with Ralph, and he attempts to have the boys vote him as a new chief. Humiliated, Jack rebels

“What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages?” (Golding 91).

It has taken humanity over 150,000 years to graduate from savagery to civility but it may only take a couple days revert back. As seen in William Golding's Lord of the Flies, it does not take much to bring out the beast within someone. A group of adolescent boys were left stranded on an island when the plane that they were traveling on was shot down. Ralph, one of the older boys, was voted chief of the island by all of the other kids. Jack, the boy that lost the people's favor, was so engulfed by his desire of wanting to become chief that he left Ralph’s group and proceeded to create his own tribe, which was made of some of Jack’s followers. As he assumed power over the group, he dwelled deeper and deeper into savagery. It was not just Jack

“‘What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages?’ (Golding 101)” the answer to this question constantly changes over the course of William Golding’s suspenseful tale, Lord of the Flies (1954). Throughout the novel, Golding paints a vivid picture of how the once civilized boys on the island begin to embrace their wild nature over time. The true theme of the story is shown as the boys, left without supervision, forget their civilized ways and due to the natural inclination of man, are reverted into savages. Lord of the Flies clearly describes how the natural savagery within most people leads them to abandon civilization when alone, abandoned, and afraid.

Every child on this planet right now, despite how caring or considerate they may seem while young, possesses the capability of developing into an inhumane and cruel individual. Their growth is fully dependant on how they are raised. Children that are left to fend for themselves and make their own decisions will consequently resort to savagery. This is the point that William Golding is trying to convey to the reader in both his comprehensive novel, Lord of the Flies, and “Why Boys Become Vicious”, an article written for the San Francisco Examiner in 1993 after two ten-year-old Liverpool boys are charged with offenses of kidnap and murder of two-year-old James Bulger. Many different factors coincide to influence someone to act cruelly, but the

Savagery is exceptionally presented throughout Lord of the Flies written by William Golding. Savagery invites fear into a person’s life, making it difficult to navigate on a normal basis, fear controls the actions of the boys in dramatic ways throughout the novel. The three points in this essay that will be discussed will be the de-evolution of the boys as the novel progresses, the adult presence on the island and the effects that ensue afterwards and how different Jack’s tribe and Ralph’s tribe are on an emotional scale.