Savage Instinct In Lord Of The Flies Essay

In the book Lord of the flies by William Golding, around 15 boys between the ages of 9 to 12 were left stranded on a deserted island. As they navigate through the ways of survival, many of the boys find their cause to fall into savagery. Throughout Lord of the flies, Golding draws a fine line between savagery and civilization as the novel progresses. The author suggests that human nature has an inborn sense of savagery, and evil that lies within that is only controlled by the pull of civilization.

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.

(Hook/Lead) When humans are born, they all have a savage side to them, which can be held in and tamed, or let out under certain circumstances. This is what author William Golding claims in his award winning novel, Lord of the Flies. (GDT) An English plane full of schoolboys crash lands into an island in the Pacific ocean. With all adults dead and nobody on the island, the boys elect a leader named Ralph, and try to create their own society and civilization. Jack, one of the other schoolboys does not follow the rules put in place by hunting and letting loose. Over time, Jack becomes a savage with no sense of obedience. While Ralph wants to get off the island, Jack’s evil ways of killing pigs and uncivilized nature get to the rest of the boys on the island as more and more of them want to live like Jack and focus more on meat and savagery rather than being rescued. (Thesis) The boys value Jack’s leadership more than Ralph’s because Jack offers hunting and fun while Ralph offers the boys rescue and order.

“Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Bash her in (Golding 75).” Taking a guess on who is saying this quote, one would not imagine a group of little boys chanting it. William Golding’s goal in writing Lord of the Flies was to show that there is barbarity in everyone, and the quote is showing the beginning of the boys falling victim to it. The fight between creating and maintaining civilization, and the savagery deep down in all the boys was prevalent, especially between Jack, Roger, Piggy, and Ralph.

"This is an island. At least I think it's an island. That's a reef out in the sea. Perhaps there aren't any grownups anywhere" (Ralph, Chapter 1). Stranded on an island, facing a crisis that resulted from one of humanity’s many wars, the boys become a model that represents humanity itself. They organize to help one another cope with this strange experience. A tiny system of government is formed, and the boys are somehow empowered in spite of their bleak circumstances. Any system is subject to corruption when the institution becomes more powerful than the individuals, however, and Ralph’s system of government is no exception.

William Golding’s lord of the flies is powered by the ideal that savagery is imbedded within our human nature. Throughout the entirety of this novel Golding outlines the ways that savagery is an innate factor of the human condition, one that when given the opportunity, any human even the most innocent of little boys is forced to revert to. Simon’s death,Piggy’s death as well as the Lord of the Flies all display the unique ways in which the young boys descend into savagery.

Jack is the first character to don body paint, giving into the temptation of setting the inner beast free. During the duration of Jack's juncture on the island, his grip on society’s rules fades away, and he gives into the desire of acting on every impulse. Before wearing a mask, Roger sees Jack in the distance in a very different light: “When Roger opened his eyes and saw him, a darker shadow crept beneath the swarthiness of his skin; but Jack noticed nothing” (Golding 62). Underneath

Throughout the novel , William Golden uses many significant symbols that are constantly changing and giving the reader a sense of savagery versus civility. In the beginning of the story the author tries to give the reader a suspension of the boys trying to be civilized but later on they turn into a “Beast” and find their inner savage within them. The author gives many symbols that keep the gang together in under control and here are some of them. The conch represent that they have “authority” or the higher hand to speak.

According to Joseph Conrad, “The belief in a supernatural source is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.” In other words, evil resides in some individuals and when they are put to the test, the most unthinkable can happen. William Golding’s Lord of the Flies demonstrates that even kids can be stripped of their innocence in a blink of an eye is true considering that the instinct for survival along with power can over power sense and morals. In the novel, the author shows the conflicting behaviors between Ralph and Jack as they learn how to cope with the new environment. The use of symbolism was also evident in the story to explain the meaning behind the “beast”.

At the beginning, Jack was a civilized human being who was uncomfortable killing innocent animals for food since the laws of civilization had stopped him. However, after being elected chief of the hunters, the personal aspect of killing had started to diminish. He paints his face with charcoal to hide his true identity as a civilized individual, liberating himself from the shame and self-consciousness of killing. With the mask on, “[Jack] began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling.” (Ch.4, Pg.66)

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 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.

Consequently, he uses the need of meat to rationalize his savage behavior, although there is an abundance of fresh fruit. The need for this excuse is obviated when Jack starts to apply a mask of paint in order to liberate himself from "shame and self-consciousness" (64). Moreover, this self-deception enables him to become an "awesome stranger" (63), capable of wholly abandoning any sense of morality or ethics.

Lastly, the use of WWII as the backdrop for the novel is effective because it shows an accurate comparison of the events. In both cases, violence and killing occur very often. The events that take place in the war can be related to many points mentioned on how humankind is savage. The killing of the sow can easily be related to the accidental or intentional killing of civilians during WWII. In both cases, the killings of innocent people or children in front of others are examples of the inhumanity that

In the novel, The Lord of the Flies, the author William Golding shows the audience lots of points of humanity. In the beginning, the boys had found themselves on an uninhabited island, which had made them far from society. Golding is trying to reveal that when humans are getting far away from society, they start to do inhumanely things. This is like when Jack desired to be “chief.” Not being “chief” had made Jack very furious, as time goes by, his actions had affected the whole group. One of the people that has been affected by Jack was Ralph. Ralph was very civilized in the beginning, but then his actions had changed because of his nature. Throughout the novel, William Golding symbolizes that human beings are savages by nature. Piggy was