Savagery In Lord Of The Flies Essay

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

In his novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding writes an unsettling story about the horrific reality of human nature and the battle one faces between humanity and savagery when civilization is taken away. Set during World War III, a group of boys aged six to twelve years old are stranded on an island with no resources except the ones they can acquire from the island. The boys create a civilization with rules for themselves in order to survive. As the novel progresses, the civilization unravels and the boys’ humanity lays on a fragile line, bordering on savagery. In his novel, Golding uses many structural elements to achieve a specific effect on the reader. One specific example is in the haunting passage in which the boys are overcome by bloodlust to kill the Beast and eventually murder one of their own, Simon. By using

“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.

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.

In Golding’s Novel, The Lord Of The Flies he uses great details to explain how every human has this evil core with us but, in this book Golding names this evil core as the “Beast”. In the scenes where you can see the beast growing out of the boys are Simon’s death, Roger throwing rocks later turn into boulders, and finally hesitating to kill a pig to brutally killing it. Now if we have a evil core within us or devil however you want to call it will it actually change us or does that “devil” really show who we really are in reality? In Golding’s Novel, lord of the flies, golding uses brutal as well as gruesome death of simon to convey the darkside of human nature and what we can become.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding shows how the world is man eat man. Golding

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

Simon became inarticulate in his effort to express mankind’s essential illness”(89). In this excerpt Simon introduces to the reader how the children might be the beast. It maybe is all made up and the children are looking for an excuse for the devilish deeds they are thinking of. If the children can rationalize their horrible thoughts for one another they can and will eventually act them out. When Simon talks to The Lord of the Flies they converse about how the beast is inside of them,”For a moment or two the forest and all the other dimly appreciated places echoed with a parody of laughter.

In Lord of the Flies, the boys on the island are overcome with the fascination of killing and slaughtering a pig, both for the food and for the thrill of the hunt itself. A chant that is repeated throughout the book, “‘Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” (Golding 152) is used in order to increase the intensity of the situation that is happening. In between each repeat of the phrase there is an insert of what is going a on around the boys in the scene and each time the actions that are going on is more violent than the last, ending with the death of Simon. This, along with the repeat in words creates an intense, almost animalistic feel of the scene.

Wallace Stevens once said, “Human nature is like water. It takes the shape of its container.” In other words, water conforms to the shape of its container in the same manner human nature conforms to society. However, when human nature is released from society, it can cause people to tend toward savagery. This concept of human nature is shown in Lord of the Flies by William Golding. In the novel, civilization and sensibility are lost when a group of schoolboys find themselves on a desolate island and fall to their own brutality. Through their self-interest, fearfulness, and dominance, the boys portray that when human nature is emancipated from the constraints of society, it can draw people away from reason and toward savagery.

Being on an island and no adults or even in general no structure whatsoever. Losing structure brings up the topic of the fact without it would people lose all civilization and turn savage. Civilization vs. Savagery, losing the key part to keeping society civilized. Without civilization we would become savages to the point of no return. By looking at the way Freud analyzed people and how our characters would change within time that society is no longer in play for the people.

Do humans have the ability to become savage? If so, is the savage behavior developed through severe environmental situations or is it brought out by dormant savage-like instincts? This question, addressing a controversial issue that can relate to the dystopian novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding. This novel describes a group of young boys between the ages of six to twelve, who are stranded on an island after a plane crash. With no authority on the island, the inexperienced boys attempted to create an orderly society which later distorts to a deadly dystopia.

the head. For a moment or two the forest and all the other dimly appreciated places echoed with the parody of laughter. “You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are what they are?”