Savagery In Lord Of The Flies

“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

Lord of the Flies by William Golding highlights humans’ descent from civilization into savagery. Although savagery overcomes some of the boys so easily, it is not as easy for others to escape their conditioning from society and go completely savage. In the beginning, the majority of the boys try to bring order to the island while others show signs of savagery very early on. Eventually when hardship and tensions increases, there are still a few boys who keep resisting savagery. Also, even when the savagery and evil start to become prevalent in the boys’ actions, they continue to resist the rejection of social rules and guidelines. It is hard for the boys to abandon the only thing they know.

Sometimes, looks can be deceiving. Nobody can predict the success of a person simply according to his/her appearance. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, the consequences of making the incorrect decision based on one’s looks is revealed. In this novel, a group of young British boys are stranded on an isolated island with no adults as a result of a plane crash. They must remain civilized and create rules themselves to ensure that order is not lost. To do so, they elect a fair-haired and attractive boy named Ralph as the island’s chief. However, when a strange beast makes its appearance on the island, panic rules over the boys. Ralph’s control over the group is diminished as Jack takes over. All faith in being saved is lost when

Through Ralph it shows that he is the most powerful boy on the island, despite his size. Ralph doesn't want to be in control of all the people, he just wants to find a way of the island. He is determined to create rules and follow them, and prioritizes the groups needs above his own selfish desires. For example, he builds the huts even though it isn't fun, compared to the boys who go off to play whenever instead of doing important tasks that aren't fun. Ralph symbolizes law, government and a civil society.

Nicole smith writes in her article, “What Ralph represents symbolically is more meaningful to the boys at this point than his actual skills,” (smith). This is true, even though the kids were not told that ralph was supposed to symbolize leadership, order, and responsibility, they saw somehow that he was made up of those things. This idea is supported in the novel where it says, “They obeyed the summons of the conch, partly because Ralph blew it, and he was big enough to be a link with the adult world of authority,” (Golding 59). The kids see Ralph as a natural leader. He keeps order and is organized. The kids are satisfied that ralphs is responsible about doing his job as a proper

One of the scenes where a major character faces a problem is when Jack and his hunters were chasing Ralph and he was thinking what he should do. This shows a lot about Ralph and how he is it shows ralph is civilized and thinks through problems and doesn’t just do thinks without thinking about them.

Certainly, with his asthma and extra weight, he cannot compete against the more athletic boys such as Ralph and Jack. For, example, when the boys make a rescue fire, Piggy arrives too late to assist with this work. And, while he is more rational than the others, he is unable to put into action some of his more reasonable ideas because Jack heckles him, telling him such things as that the conch has no significance on the mountain, thus undermining Piggy's authority to speak. Later, he berates Piggy when he criticizes both him and Ralph in Chapter

In the beginning of the book, Ralph is described as “fair”(Golding 7) and seems to be really happy as he says, “No grownups!” (8). As he gets ahold of the conch, he becomes chief of everyone and gets started right away to try to create shelters and a fire. Ralph sets up rules for each person and this symbolizes that Ralph is somewhat in a powerful position.

Long hair represents the growth of savagery among the boys. All of the boys except for Piggy all have long hair and Ralph notices this. When Ralph “hold[s] back his hair”, this suggests that he is more civilized than the other boys on the island. This is because holding back his hair means he is trying to hold back from becoming fully savage.

It’s not every day that you see acts of savagery between kids; however, in William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, it’s very common. Savagery is the quality of being fierce or cruel; the condition of being primitive or uncivilized. Savagery is a very big topic, in Lord of the Flies, the kids in the book had no adult supervision while they were on an isolated island so they were living by their own rules. At the beginning of the book the boys started off as young civilized children but then they slowly started to change. There were basically two different groups on the island, they had the group of the “Civilized boys” and the hunters, which was the “Savage” group. Both of these groups have changed dramatically over time in the book. The two main characters in this book are Ralph and Jack, and they are one of the main reasons for savagery in this book. Ralph represents civilization and Jack represents savage in all of us. In Lord of the Flies William Golding shows us the inter evil in mankind. Thesis statement

Human nature is complex, occasionally mysterious, and contains both goodness and evil. William Golding, author of Lord of The Flies, suggested in his novel the belief that evil with always predominate after the breakdown of law and order. However, this is not always the case, as shown by Ralph and the boys on an uninhabited island in the novel, Lord of The Flies. The actions of Ralph’s defiance towards Jack and his tribe, Samneric’s loyalty to Ralph, and Ralph’s rescue counter Golding’s belief and instead, demonstrate their remaining good on a wild, uncontrolled island.

fair hair” and his everyday clothes (Golding 7). Ralph has short, nice hair that is presentable to society.