Savagery In Lord Of The Flies: An Analysis

In scholarly studies, symbolism and imagery apply to enhance a reader’s knowledge of theme development. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, the general theme is the conflict between human inclination towards savagery and the rules of civilization. The purpose of symbolism and imagery is essential to the theme development of civilization versus savagery. Three symbols used to illustrate the theme of civilization versus savagery throughout the story are the conch shell, the conflict between Jack and Ralph and the hunter’s painted faces.

“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

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.

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.

“We are all ready to be savage in some cause. The difference between a good man and a bad one is the choice of the cause.” -William James (https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/williamjam157170.html?src=t_savage)

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.

experienced the worst of man when serving in the war. He saw the abuse of power by Hitler, when he could get away with killing millions of people because he struck fear into the citizens. A plane full of British boys crash lands onto an island in which there are no adults on the island, and no one knows about them. Jack, the rebellious leader of savages, realizes there will be no consequences for his actions. He kills two innocent boys and gets away with it, like Hitler did. When Piggy and the conch are destroyed, knowledge and order are lost; savagery takes over in order to prove that evil will destroy good since good is the only thing that can destroy evil.

By the story’s end, all of the boys but Ralph had become savages, leaving a sour taste in the reader’s mouth, but also providing many lessons about true human nature. Overall, Jack’s choices betray everybody on the island by potentially jeopardizing their rescue and, more importantly, by turning them into savages as well and completing the story’s intent to show humans in their natural

Civilization was created to contain social structure. However, in utmost circumstances, it is possible for instinct to triumph over civility. Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, is a plane evacuating a group of British schoolboys that crashes over a tropical deserted island. Once they crash on the island, they pick Ralph, the protagonist of the novel, to be their leader, and Ralph chooses Jack, the antagonist of the novel, to be the leader of the hunters, establishing somewhat of a civilization. Then when Jack comes upon a mother boar and kills it, that’s when their makeshift civilization slowly diminishes and the boys become savages. In addition, loss of social structure within a society can lead to the absolute destruction of the civilization. The author of Lord of the Flies, William Golding, uses man vs man and man vs nature conflicts to develop the theme of loss of social structure leads to savagery. Golding reveals this theme by exploring the conflicts of

As Jack began to hunt, savagery took over, and the thought of being rescued disappeared. Ralph realised the fire had died, as a passing ship left without noticing stranded children, “ They let the bloody fire go out” (Golding 68). “We can light the fire again. You should have been with us, Ralph. We had a smashing time. The twins got knocked over” (69). Or “I cut the pig's throat” … “ There was lashings of blood” … “You should have seen it!” (69). As Jack persuaded the others to hunt, the savagery took over causing them to neglect the idea of safety. Savagery began within all of the boys, and it came instinctively while applying war paint, and slaughtering pigs on the island. Throughout Lord of the Flies, savagery grew within each boy, mainly having a large effect on Jack and

In William Golding's Lord of the Flies the central and recurring theme, civilization vs savagery, is very evident and obvious. Throughout the novel, Golding associates civilization with good, while associating savagery with dark and evil. Due to the intense and driving force of the novel, civilization and savagery clash against each other as the novel progresses. Golding also lets the two main characters represent this theme. Ralph, the protagonist, represents leadership and has a civil wellbeing, while Jack, the antagonist, stands for the desire of power and savagery. “We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we’re not savages. We’re English, and the English are best at everything” (Golding 42). Jack agrees with Ralph in this statement about how the boys must obey and follow the rules given, however, as the novel progresses, Jack starts to become a savage and butts heads with Ralph. Nonetheless, the novel moves forward and the boys still retain their civil sides. In Chapter 3 the main conflict intervenes and the first verbal conflict takes place. As Jack and Ralph argue it is apparent on which side each of the boys take and the division of the boys starts to take action. Ralph advocates to build huts, while the bloodthirsty Jack, demands that the boys hunt for food. But because Jack and Ralph are children they are unable to successfully express their feelings and ideas during the debate. Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 present a new challenge that the

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

In the Lord of the Flies a boy named Roger initially gets poked at with spears easily at first by the other boys in a playful manner, but then quickly escalates into Roger getting beat up pretty bad, with no remorse from the boys whatsoever. This could be compared to something as simple as a playful game at a playground turn into a deadly fight, or as serious as the Metrojet Crash that had the whole nation of Russia wage war against the terrorist group Isis. In the novel, the hurting of Roger came with no thought of consequence from the other boys which makes these modern day events even more savage in that the consequences are very known to ones who perform the actions in modern events, but they still do it because being civilized isn’t even considered at that point. Now the general island stranded story has definitely happened in modern times. When stranded on the island, the boys in the novel result to savagery to survive, this would be no different from a famous true story of survivors Gerald Kingsland and Lucy Irvine who actually chose to live alone and stranded on a deserted island. This couple resorted to savagery just to survive: drinking turtle blood and not wearing any clothes, definite attributes of a savaged one. Savagery examples in the novel and from modern times definitely conclude the fact that savagery is out there, whether you witness it or