Savagery In Lord Of The Flies Essay

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

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 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.

Lord of the Flies Essay By Disha Chanda ‘Lord of the Flies’ is a 1954 novel by William Golding. Golding’s purpose in writing the book was to portray his experiences working with unruly boys as a teacher and his time as a soldier in WWII. In the novel, a group of schoolboys from Britain are evacuated onto a plane during a war. The plane is shot down, leaving the schoolboys as the only survivors, and now forced to live on an island with no certainty, and more importantly, no adults. This novel contains many themes, including violence, authority, and savagery versus civilization, with the most recurring and impactful theme being the disruption of natural order.

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.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding is an allegory in regards to the generalization that when man wants power, man loses empathy. When empathy is lost, humanity is also lost and hopes for civilization vanish. Jack’s hunt for power and his willingness to take control any way he can shows the lack of humanity within him. Roger starts off as an innocent boy, but when no consequences are displayed for his actions his inner sadist reveals itself. Jack and Roger’s decline of empathy during their hunts reveals the inner savagery of man when power becomes the priority over a return to civilization.

Henry David Thoreau once said, "The savage in man is never quite eradicated." The story The Lord of the Flies by William Golding is about a group of boys that have been stranded on an island. Ralph and Piggy tried to maintain a society and Jack became a bloodthirsty savage. The author uses mood, conflict, irony, character development, setting, and allegory to develop the theme without society's rigid rules, anarchy and savagery can come to light.

Lord of the Flies, an allegorical novel by William Golding, holds truths about mankind’s true nature of existence. The novel explores the savagery in all men that lies dormant, yet when society’s rules cease to exist, the boy’s innocence perishes along with it. The boys attempt to band together and mock the society that they came from, but not understanding the complexity of the situation, results in their society falling into ruins. On the island the boys are returned to man’s primitive nature, without rules or discipline, and they slowly drift into anarchy. Without proper guidance, the boys resort to cloaking their innocence with body paint to survive. With the body paint coating their skin, the boys bury their old personas within and allow themselves to commit acts that society would frown upon. When Jack’s tribe uses the facade of body paint to dissociate themselves from civilization’s morals, they denote that hiding one’s true identity liberates them from the constraints of society.

Civilizations come in many different forms but even the best of them can descend into savagery. The boys being stranded on an island made civilization very hard to keep, thus making it not very difficult for them to descend into savagery. The first time the boys started to show signs of savagery was when Jack and some other boys split off and made a “tribe.” They put on face paint and hunted the pigs religiously not caring for their rescue, as all of them had already assumed they weren’t going to get rescued. Killing Simon and Piggy showed the true evilness in humanity when civilization falls. Jack and his tribe went mad after that going on a rampage and to do whatever pleased them. The tribe did not care for the well being of other and only focused on themselves. Lord of the Flies by William Golding clearly displays the evil in humanity through the loss of civilization to the descent into savagery, showing that even the best of people can fade into savagery.

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..

“Lord of the Flies” shows that when there is no civilization, humans resist to their initial evil self. In the beginning the children are stranded on an island and are completely alone with no one to guide them. At first they seem very innocent but as the story proceeds it is shown that the children have converted to complete savageness. The thoughts and actions of three characters, Ralph, Simon and Jack reflect that humanity is a selfish and brutal specie. Firstly, Ralph is, for the most part, a decent gentleman, the type that most individuals are normally attracted to because of his great looks and capacity to lead.

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.

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