Savagery, Power and Fear and How It Ties in with Lord of the Flies

Fear and intimidation play a significant role in the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, just as a coercion and fear played a large role in the lives of the people ruled by the Axis powers in WWII.

Throughout the novel Lord Of The Flies, the boys on the island are continuously faced with numerous fears. Subsequently there is nothing on the island which they fear more than the beast. The beast is not a tangible object that can be killed or destroyed by conventional means, but an idea symbolizing the primal savage instincts within all people. Its Golding’s intention to illustrate the innate evil inside man through his view of human nature, the actions of the Jack and his tribe, and the relationship between the beast and the school boys.

In the novel “Lord of the Flies” written by William Golding the novels main theme was civility versus savagery. The novel is about school boys who get stranded in an island because the airplane the boys were in was shot down. The only adult who was the pilot died so the boys had to learn how to survive without any adults. The schoolboys were aged ranged from 6 to 12 and since there is no adult supervision the boys vote for a leader which causes conflict with two boys. Things begin to get out of hand because they are free from any rules resulting in them acting like savages and forgetting about civilization. The conflict between the two boys named Ralph and Jack represents civility versus savagery because Ralph becomes leader and uses his

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.

‘lord of the flies,'. In R. Matuz & C. Falk (Eds.), Contemporary Literary Criticism (Vol.

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

No one would think kids could turn to cruelty, but in this book, you can see how human nature turns people against each other. Not all the boys turned to savages, but there were times when there actions were questionable. Take Ralph for example, he was probably one of the least barbaric of them all, yet he still joined in on the murder of Simon. While most boys were oblivious to their descent into savagery, people like Ralph realized this ongoing turn, “I’m frightened. Of us. I want to go home, Oh God, I want to go home” (Golding 157). The boys change into savagery was not gradual, and even some of the boys, such as Ralph or Simon, noticed this trend, and as young boys it frightened them to realize the fact that they were altering towards inhumanity. As well, the book represents that evil is in all of us. The Beast, which was the main source of evil in the book, was not real. It was only a figment of the boys’ imaginations. While the Beast wasn’t a physical thing it represented

It may have taken millions of years for humans to evolve enough to create the sprawling civilizations known today, but it only takes a few months for a group of civil, educated boys to regress back into savagery. In his novel Lord of the Flies, author William Golding depicts a group of young British boys getting stranded on a deserted island sans adults. The boys must look out for themselves, forming a basic governing system and trying to survive. But the challenge soon proves too much to handle, and order deteriorates. William Golding conveys the universal theme of civilization vs. savagery in his novel Lord of the Flies using the literary elements of plot, setting, and characterization.

Thesis Statement: The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding portrays the theme that regardless of each person’s different background and characteristics, every individual has the ability to commit brutal acts. While this book depicts Ralph and Piggy as the most civilized characters, and Jack and his hunters as young English choir boys, their actions reveal that they all have the capability to act violently.

Thesis statement: Though people live in a civilized society, they possess the capacity for violence. Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding, discusses this theme with two main characters who metamorph from civil human beings to heathens, and who distance themselves from the order of society.

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.

Civilization in Human Nature Humans are by far the most complex species on Earth. We have emotion, knowledge, diversity, and the ability to make decisions. However, man’s nature goes deeper than that. Human nature consists of two components that conflict with each other: savagery and civilization. The civilized characteristics we have are to live peacefully, morally, and orderly.

"Lord of the Flies shows how intelligence and common sense of the average person will always be overthrown in society by sadism and the lure of totalitarianism. " (Critic C. B. Cox), the extent of which this quote may apply to, falls where one has the intellectual capability to resist these lures. While this analysis of consuming incivility is a very prominent theme throughout the book, the book also demonstrates how some in the book overcame these lures with the strength of their intelligence. The book demonstrates events in which intelligence and common sense are overthrown by sadism and totalitarianism, but it also demonstrates figures in the book which resist the lures of sadism and totalitarianism.

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

“There is a savage beast in every man, and when you hand that man a sword or spear and send him forth to war, the beast stirs” ― George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords. Once a man is placed into the wild, he is soon to turn savage to gain power and thrive through uncivilized situations. They will do barbaric actions when left from civilization. In the book, Lord of the Flies By William Golding, he uses the group of boys to illustrate that while one may start as a civilized human, when there is a chance to seize power, he will turn savage to take and keep that power. At first, the boys remain calm and work together, until Jack moves to a more savage state making him do inhumane actions. This idea is also stressed in an article analyzing people without civilization.