Theme Of Violence In Lord Of The Flies

For as long as humanity has existed, men have committed violence against one another. Assuredly, Nancy G. Guerra’s and Lyndee Knox’s entry on violence in the Encyclopedia of Crime and Justice affirms that, “As historical and cross-cultural records demonstrate, our evolutionary history is laced with examples of violence. Indeed, paleontological data reveal a rather continuous stream of human violence dating back thousands of years.” It is clear that violence is a part of human nature that has always existed and will likely never be eradicated. One of the aspects that all forms of violence seem to share is that, societally (in terms, at the very least, of Western societies), they are looked down upon. Consequentially, those who commit violent

Violence take multiple forms, many of which are covered in the nightly news. Murder, rape, familial abuse, bullying, workplace hostility, armed robbery—all of these are societal problems with far-reaching repercussions. There have long debates and discussions regarding whether nature or nurture influences individual violent behavior. People are concerned about what makes an individual to engage in violent behavior such murder or burglary among other types of crimes. They are also concerned about what makes people stop such behavior. However, there is no precise conception whether nature, nurture or both influence violence. Some people assume that, violent behavior results from individual’s life experiences or upbringing also known as nurture. Others feel that violent behavior is more complex and results from individual’s genetic character or nature. In other words, it is not clear whether violent behavior is inborn or occurs at some point in persons’ lives, but even it’s hard, emphasizing one and ignoring other influences is always an unwise way to go.

(Violence) "Ralph too was fighting to get near, to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh. The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering.” (Golding 114-115)

William Golding explores the theme of violence throughout his novel ‘Lord of the Flies’. He believed that every individual has the potential to bring out their inner evil, and that every human being is flawed in their nature. Hence, he wrote a novel with

In the novel ‘Lord of the Flies’, Golding uses the theme of violence surfacing throughout the text. One reason for this was, Golding believed that every individual has the potential for evil and that the flawed human nature is seen in ‘mankind’s essential sickness’. His belief in this arrived through his time spent in war, so his aim was to challenge Ballantyne’s novel ‘Coral Island’, and in which Golding’s book the truth would be shown about his own thoughts of the darkness of mankind. As the theme of violence is in the heart of the novel, another reason of this is due to the quick breakdown of civilisation on the island. Through the breakdown, an ideal situation of

Humans savagely turn against each other when they feel it would better them. One could say that there is no hope for humankind and that evil is an inborn trait of people, and in the novel, these two things go hand in hand together. In the Lord of the Flies, it portrays these ideas very well because it shows and explains how British school boys turn to savages because of the island.The boys’ shift to savagery was not gradual and this change in tone allowed many to come to a realization.

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

In our world and Lord of the Flies we see violence as a profusion. In Lord of the flies the violence starts out minor and then grows into a large awakening. The same in real life a war starts off small reason and then grows to a big deal. “ Jack was tall , thin, and bony….his hair was red beneath the black cap. His face was….freckled, and ugly without silliness. ( Chapter 1, pg 19).“ There were no words, and no movement but the tearing of teeth and claws”( Chapter 9 , pg 139). In these two quotes you see now Jack and the others started off civilized but, By the end, the boys were killing each other. For example, in WW1 it started off small when Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated . It started off “small”and blew up to over 17 million deaths. You can see the correlation between the Lord of the Flies and real life.

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

To be violent is to use physical force with the intention of hurting someone or something. In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the character of Jack reflects his latent violence onto the other characters around him. The evolution of Jack’s character from proper to primitive, explains that violence among people can be influenced by a violent leader. The reader sees Jack leading and influencing violence upon people, when he conducts his hunters to a successful first pig hunt, when the boys dance and kill Simon, and when Jack’s tribe viciously hunts Ralph.

Moreover, Jack shows that he will do anything to keep his powers intact and prove that he is a hunter thus, killing the beast to show his strength. Furthermore, violence has been exposed in the novel regarding the savage actions conveyed by the children on the island due to, the exposure of violence. While the leader Jack and Ralph were fighting between civilization and savagery, Roger pushed a boulder down upon Ralph and Piggy. Ralph escapes as he hears the boulder coming down, however since Piggy does not have his glasses, “the rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into thousand white fragments” (Golding, 200). This demonstrates the barbarian actions in Roger as he likes torturing people hence, wanting to

Why are people cruel to each other? Is it due to the environment one grows up in or the way someone was raised. There are many factors that lead to humans becoming cruel to others. In both Lord of the Flies and other articles, the reasons people are cruel to one another is due to the morals and ethics and the government system they are raised in. In Lord Of The Flies by William Golding, Golding illustrates how the difference in ethics and morals combined and the of governmental structures the boys have can lead to conflict, which eventually leads to violence within 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.