Savagery In Lord Of The Flies

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.

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.

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 the world, one's will to hunt and kill for survival has the most compelling impact on society, it is a behavior that destroys civilization. Barbaric behavior can stem from any situation and if it is just right, one might be willing to do the unthinkable and unforgivable if it means they will live on. In the novel Lord of the Flies the author Sir William Golding uses the boy's yearning to have dominance as to what causes savage behavior and the reason for what destroys the groups attempt to remain civilized.

By the last chapter of the book, Simon and Piggy, the symbols of innocence and rationality, have died, and the rest of the boys have turned to complete anarchy. Jack and his group embark on a chase to hunt Ralph down. After hiding in a thicket for a while, the boys find him, and he stabs one of them with his stick. In an act of revenge, they burn down the island to smoke Ralph out. He runs out of the forest and bumps into one of the savages. The fair-haired boy “[launches] himself like a cat; [stabs], snarling, with the spear…” (12. 166). His animal instincts kick in, helping him listen for approaching footsteps and allowing him to recognize signals exchanged between the members of Jack’s pack. He hears the signal of attack and he “[speeds] away again, till his chest [is] like fire” (12.166). Through his inner beast, he is able to defend himself, and after the man-hunt, land at the foot of a naval officer. Even though he does not use the most civilized methods to get away from his pursuers, his savagery saves his life and causes him to get

Stranded on an island with complete strangers. What would you do? Attempt to restore order and rebuild civilization or tap into your natural human instincts and hunt? In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, this fight between civilization and savagery play out. For most boys, they attempt to remain civil, but for Jack Merridew, the antagonist, this decision is simple. Jack hunts and kills anything in his path. Whether it be a pig or human. In Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Jack descent to savagery is tracked to display man is inherently savage.

At the beginning of the novel, Ralph uses the conch to call a meeting and “Piggy moves among the crowd, asking names and frowning to remember them” (Golding 18). Ralph and Piggy use the first meetings to instill order among the boys, but eventually, Jack begins to challenge Ralph’s authority. When Jack forms his own tribe, he states, “I’m going to get more biguns away from the conch” (Golding 133). This statement foreshadows that the boys will stray from the path of order into savagery. Later, Jack’s tribe participates in a number of rituals, including a dance where the boys chant, “Kill the beast!

In the novel Lord of the Flies, it tells the story of a group of children going against the brutality of nature. Afraid of turning to savagery, the boys try to create a democracy for a more balanced life style. “ Let’s have a vote. Yes! Vote for a chief! Let’s vote.” Pg.22 I can argue that the main challenge that the boys face is savagery. Savagery led to many other factors such as; bloodlust, the need for power, and argument. Unfortunately, their plan to stay civilized is corrupted by Jack’s (Main Protagonist) need for power. “ I ought to be chief, said Jack with a simple arrogance…” I found that this was one of the main sources that led the boys to conflict. For example, when the boys formed a circle and performed a dance, followed

William Golding, author of Lord of the Flies, changed the lives of many. I believe his main purpose was to show his readers the contrast between savagery and civilization. Supporting this hypothesis, Golding has placed the boys on an uncharted island without any trace of society. Most boys quickly become undomesticated while a few fight this feeling. The two sides begin to battle by a largely unequal number. The most civilized boys struggle or perish before the end of the novel while the barbaric flourish..

By only using kids in his novel, he is able to realistically depict the idea of a lawless society without a government to bind them. After the Roger turns the conch into “a thousand white fragments,” all hopes for civility quickly decay (156). They return to their primal and animalistic state and have “No fire, no smoke; [and] no rescue” (184). In this portion of the novel, the boys completely obliterate the civility that they had tried to preserve and are left without hope of ever returning. Their savagery is further exhibited when Jack and his tribe turn Ralph into their prey solely because he “wanted to keep up a fire” (189). They are willing to resort to any means necessary, including burning the entire island down, to see him viciously murdered and to eradicate the only trace of civility that they had left. However, Jack is unintentionally losing his control over the boys as this progresses. Although they had previously respected him as their leader, the boys plunge so far into the depths of barbarism and are so engrossed with their desire to kill Ralph that they would ignore anything that Jack says. With this, their moral boundaries have been completely obliterated and chaos is widespread on their once lush and serene island. As the autonomous and animalistic beings that they have become, they

In William Golding's, Lord of the Flies, Golding uses many techniques to allow the reader to predict and give things more meaning. In Golding’s exceptional novel, a fair amount of adolescent boys are stranded on an island with no grown ups. The boys will have to mature and govern themselves. In William Golding’s, Lord of the Flies, Golding uses the beastie, the fire, and the boys hair to symbolize the savagery in human nature.

To have no one in charge is a great way to live. Having no authority creates an unimaginable freedom. However in a world of freedom, we have to have rules and obey them. After all, we are not savages (Golding 42). In The Lord of the Flies, savagery poses a challenge to civility through the following people and symbols: facepaint, the conch, and Jack.

The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding was set around the 1950’s during a fictional atomic war. It is about a group of young boys who become stranded on an unknown island and have to fend for themselves. This creates many problems for the boys but the biggest is losing all sense of humanity. William Golding shows us that the killing of pigs helps demonstrate how the children declined into total savagery. He shows this through Jack, the chief of the hunters, who had greater determination to kill pigs than attempt to be civilized, the chant they had created to celebrate their kills and also the way they murdered Simon, a weaker character, and hunted Ralph, the protagonist, as if they were both pigs.

Descent into Darkness One would think that children are innocent beings full of happiness and life. One would think children are not prone to great evil. One may be certain that children would not be capable of murder. However, one man paints a very different picture of the morality of humankind even in its purest state.