Savagery Vs. Civilization Essay

Theme Statement: All civilized objects, activites, and souls, have inner savage which is held back by forced law, until power brings out the savage in everyone and everything.

“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.

To begin with, in the book Lord Of The Flies by William Golding, Jack & the Hunters are people that prove humans are inherently good but change throughout the environment. Jack & the Hunters start out innocent but later change as they realize no one can control them, therefore making them savage/evil. For example, “ Then Maurice pretended to be the pig and ran squealing into the center, and the hunters, circling still, pretended to beat him. As they sang. “ Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Bash her in.””(Golding 75). This quote shows how Jack & the Hunters are turning savage by performing savage acts.

Regardless of how civilized people are, given certain surrounding environmental circumstances, can produce changes in human nature to the point where they can turn into savages.

One group of people that could be considered savage is the African American boys that fought in the battle royal. They are brought to the smoker to fight at the white men’s pleasure. The African American fighters are degraded by this event and have become savage-like creatures fighting for small sums of money. The narrator says, “Blindfolded, I could no longer control my motions. I had no dignity. I stumbled about like a baby or a

Many European settlers have been using the term savages to refer to many indigenous people like the Yuchi, Mariames, Salinan, Cherokees, and the Puebloan. The indigenous people have always been underestimated by the Europeans settlers when being called savages due to their different mindsets and the ways of living that they had. All these tribes were called savage unjust and untrue because in the Journal of Christopher Columbus, Christopher describes them as “very well made” they look like they have very well built bodies. (qtd. in American Yawp, The Journal Of Christopher Columbus, 37-68) The Indians were really smart people but really different in many ways to the European Americans. The indigenous people are thought of as noble savages according to the article “Thanksgiving and the Myth Of Native American “Savages”” by John Horgan. Indigenous people should not be considered savages because they have were able to survive for a long time.

Young children who are left unattended will slowly loose their civilization, which will turn into, Savagery, Power, and Fear. Civilization is when man meets his basic needs in a healthy manner. Savagery is when people revert back to their lost human instincts.

According to people from our my English Composition class there are a lot of scenes in Dances with Wolves that illustrate the view of Indians as brutal savages. Some of these include: beating people on the head with a mace, shooting of dog, wagon train remains, driver of the mule train killed, yanking captive lady off the horse, and killing of peasant. These are just a few that can be interpreted as savage. There were also views of when they came to think of the Indians as friends instead of

“The Lord of the Flies” by William Golding, is a novel in which the theme of savagery versus civilization is explored. Several British boys are stranded on an isolated island at the time of an imaginary nuclear war. On the island, we see conflict between two main characters, Jack and Ralph, who respectively represent civilization and savagery. This has quite the effect on the rest of the boys throughout the novel as they delve further and further into savagery.

In the story, “The Most Dangerous Game” it portrays how enlightened individuals will turn uncouth if life relies upon it. First off, civilized is being educated more and being a good person who understands and respects others and themselves. Individuals in the story begin civilized, at that point end up plainly savage, particularly if life relies upon it. But being savage doesn’t necessarily mean that you aren’t civilized. Not all civilized people are nice, kind, and you know, civil. They have a bad side. Everyone does. Some people just may not notice it.Rainsford thinks of himself as civilized because he doesn’t murder he hunts and I agree with him.

If the instinct for savagery lies latent in all human beings, can they truly be held personally accountable for their actions? In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, one of the overarching themes of the novel is the conflict between savagery vs civilization, and explores the concept of the individual vs the society. Civilization, society and its righteous and morally good ideologies are represented by Ralph, and those of aggression, individualism and the morally bad are associated with Jack. Ralph, as first elected leader of the tribe of boys argues for organization and self sacrifice for the better good of being rescued and maintaining peace, whereas Jack slowly and insidiously wins over the support of the boys by promising fun and freedom- under his tyranica rule, naturally. It is plainly obvious, with both the reader’s good sense and Golding’s obvious inclination towards Ralph, that he is the most appropriate leader and that a civilized society is the correct and right way to go about governance.

There are various ways that savagery can flourish, develop, and unfold in oneself and make them turn ferocious and evil. One factor that can be accounted for is not having a person of higher authority in charge. For example in the novel, Lord of the Flies there is a lack of an adult. To grasp the true meaning of the word savage, according to Merriam-Webster, the definition of savage is, “Not domesticated or under human control and lacking the restraints normal to civilized human beings.” The outcome of this dire situation resulted in the boys taking a vote on who would be in power. Either Ralph, who is a representation of a civilized, productive, and charismatic protagonist in the novel. “But there was a stillness about Ralph as he sat that marked him out: there was his size, and attractive appearance; and most obscurely, yet most powerfully, there was the conch” (Golding 22). Ralph found a conch, and he blows into it when there needs to be a gathering to discuss certain matters. The conch most notably symbolizes power, democracy, and authority. The other candidate is Jack, a boy who demonstrates an anti-hero craving power, order, and dignity. “‘I ought to be chief,’ said Jack with simple arrogance, ‘because I’m chapter chorister and head boy. I can sing C sharp’” (Golding 22). Therefore, Ralph is victorious because the littluns were charmed for his potential in being a good leader, unlike Jack for his

savagery, is the substance that propels the novel forward, as so-called proper, domestic English boys, a suddenly placed in the middle of a wild jungle, this contrast causes the boys to turn feral, due to freedom and the lack of authority of the adult world. Mr. Golding uses Ralph to show the method of civilization, and Jack to show the method of savagery. Even though civilized and savage are areas on opposite ends of a stick, they run parallel to one another in certain aspects.

The notion of human nature has always been historically debated. Explores, philosophers, and writers have always come to argue on what is considered to be barbarism, savagery, and civilized. These constructed categories have put a label on people who do not share the same ideas as one another. These different views of human nature have come to propel change and have come to revolutionized human history. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Michel de Montaigne, and Thomas Hobbes all differ on their ideas of human nature, but they also share common ground. For some of these men the practices of different cultures are categorized as savagery, and for others it has been viewed as noble savagery. Their ideas however have allowed society to view different perspectives of human nature. These perspectives have classified human nature as a way of life, or as an obstacle to what is consider to be the good life. Their ethnographic resources provide a glimpse to all the different cultures and their value to society and history.

I think humans are truly not in control of their own lives. If we were, everyone would be doing whatever they wanted to do and that would be “savage.” Life is a game and sometimes we need to be taught how to play properly by a simple example of humanity. Dr. Powell proclaimed that you would find more violence in the city in one day then you ever would in the the forest and I agree. Humans are the only species that kill each other for reasons other than survival.