Savagery In Lord Of The Flies

At the time, Ralph heavily influences the boys and their actions for he resembles “the men with the megaphones” (18). He attempts to create order among the boys with rules, but most of the boys would rather play than follow the rules—for there are no adults to enforce them. With the role of leadership thrust upon him, Ralph has no choice but to stop playing games. His goals are to protect the boys and increase their chances of being rescued; however, the responsibility on Ralph’s shoulders soon begins to weigh him down. As “Ralph [watches the boys], envious and resentful” (75), the obligation to care for everyone on the island is a heavy burden to bear. His role as leader has forced Ralph to forget the joys of being an innocent kid and given him the encumbrance of responsibility, which causes the start of his maturation.

“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.

In the end, all the boys learn a lesson. They had many struggles and troubles of staying together as a group. Jack and his hunting group ended up setting the whole island on fire. “ The fire was a big one and the drum-roll that he has thought was left so far behind was nearer. Couldn't a fire outrun a galloping horse?” ( Chapter 12, Page 278) The horrific fire caught the attention of a naval vessel passing by the island. Ralph collapses in exhaustion, but when he wakes up, he sees a British naval officer right over him.

In the end of the book, Ralph, the formerly elected leader, sprints through the jungles of the island away from Jack, who had risen above Ralph, leading the remaining group of boys. All of the surviving boys, excluding Ralph, resorted to a primal state, breaking the system of democracy that was emphasized in the beginning and long forgetting the need to be rescued. Just as Ralph was about to be hunted by the boys, they all stumble into a naval officer, who assumes that the boys were playing an innocent game, and that he had found the boys due to the fire burning part of the island, which was really a fire not made to be a signal, but for the sole purpose of cornering Ralph. The officer looks upon the boys and states, “Two? Killed? We saw your smoke. And you don’t know how many of you there are? I should have thought that a pack of British boys… would have been able to put up a better show than that….” (Golding 202) After being informed of the chaos that took place just before his arrival. If the boys had stuck with the rules that they fabricated, the murder and savagery on the island wouldn’t have occurred. It’s ironic that if the boys would’ve continued the structure that was in place for a few more days instead of splitting apart and turning against one another, then they would’ve been rescued. Jack was the first to

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

The theme of savagery versus civilization is first introduced to us through the symbol of the conch shell which we associate with Ralph as he is the person who first uses it and becomes the elected leader of the boys. This symbolizes authority amongst the boys. At the first assembly Ralph says, “I’ll give the conch to the next person to speak…he won’t be interrupted”. This suggests civilization as Ralph is allowing each boy to have an equal say and opinion. If they have the conch, no matter who they are or what age they are they will be given the chance to speak and will be listened to by the rest of the boys. The boys have created the island to be a democratic place which shows a civilized side to them as they try to mimic the homes they have just left.

Not having been rescued yet has finally had a told on Ralph who seems to be getting more impatient as days pass by. Essentially what happens is he orders an assembly to take place where he will discuss with the group of boys how they need to follow orders how they need to do this or that in order to get rescued and at this point the boys no longer want to listen to him. They think he has "too many things" to say so they want to replace him. It was a great move for Ralph to do, remind the boys they need to take part being rescued. However, because at the beginning of when they were first on the island he had been a fun a chief they are not used to the idea of him wanting things to be done. They do not respect him anymore. They do not want to

Ralph shuddered; the chant still rang in his mind, over and over. Images ran through his mind. He watched Piggy falling from the cliff and Simon crying out as the other boys in Jack's tribe encircled him, trapping him before… he didn't finish the thought. In the corner of the room a conch shell glistened, he'd picked it up on the beach as they walked towards the boat. He had clutched it to his chest, much like Piggy had. The officers on the ship had shown him to his room and he hadn't left since, he had just sat on the bed, silent and still. Jack and the others were talking to the staff but Ralph hadn't said a word since he had first met the officer on the beach. He spent his time thinking about Piggy and Simon, what were they going to tell their families? How could they explain? He regretted everything that happened on the island. Their deaths were his fault. If he had just kept everyone together, none of this would have happened.

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

The naval officer is a stark contrast in his white, formal officer uniform to the boy’s ragged dirty appearances. The officer’s presence stops the “hunter” boys in their mission to kill Ralph. Initially, the officer assumes that the boys are “playing”. He quickly becomes disgusted when he realizes the low, uncivilized level the boys have sunk to. The symbolism of the blurred lines between civilization and utter chaos are apparent as Ralph stands before the officer,” Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy”.

Even though Ralph is a young teenage boy he still possesses the characteristics of a grown man. He shows us courage, responsibility, strength, hard work, and most importantly leadership. One nautical day everything changed for Ralph and his schoolmates after becoming stranded on an uninhabited island out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The boys claim they were shot down, but no one knows for sure what had happened. Somehow everyone survives the plane crash except for the pilot which means the youngsters were without any adult supervision. Ralph’s childishness was soon to show as he runs around cheering with his clothes off. In the book Ralph is distinguished as a handsome fair looking boy with blond hair and gold looking

Civilization is an organized developing society with rules and a leader. The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, presents the progress of civilization among a group of little English boys and how it gradually leads to anarchy between them. The boys end up on an uninhabited island and are left stranded by themselves with no adults to watch over them. They boys decide to try and govern themselves until they are rescued. While the boys manage to stay civilized for a while, they begin to turn against each other and become savages.

When the other boys come running out of the woods, they see even more officers behind the first one. The officers do not talk to the children and the children show little emotion which does not give the reader an idea of what they are feeling. In the book, when Ralph sees the naval officer, the officer talks to Ralph and asks him if him and the others were playing a game of war. He also asks Ralph if there are any dead bodies as a joke. Ralph replies saying that two boys died and they were actually having a war. This is important because it is an example of irony since the naval officer thinks the whole situation is a joke or game but it is actually real and savage. Ralph and the others also spill tears of relief and sadness but the movie does not express that enough.