Who Is The Savagery In Lord Of The Flies

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 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.

Stranded, lost, unsupervised, and wild is the way Samneric, Roger, and Jack live. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, a plane crash leaves a group of boys on a stranded island to fend for themselves, which later on has a negative effect leading to death, devastation, and destruction. Their morals and humanity are put to the test when they are forced to survive on a deserted island. Is a structured society with rules or fending for yourself with your own free and will the best way to survive the island?

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

Stranded on an island with complete strangers. What would you do? Attempt to restore order and rebuild civilization or tap into your natural human instincts and hunt? In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, this fight between civilization and savagery play out. For most boys, they attempt to remain civil, but for Jack Merridew, the antagonist, this decision is simple. Jack hunts and kills anything in his path. Whether it be a pig or human. In Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Jack descent to savagery is tracked to display man is inherently savage.

All organisms compete in the game of survival of the fittest, where only the strong survive. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, the competition between civilization and savagery is a key point in the novel. The boys split into two separate groups, civilized and savages. They both have their own point of views and express them in different ways. Ralph and Piggy are the main leaders of the civilized group, trying to maintain order and control over the boys.

It is popular belief that the main cause of savagery, which is comparable but not limited to bullying within children in the world today, comes entirely from their peer pressure, parents, and other bullying. However, in Lord of the Flies, William Golding employs the descent to savagery to prove the environment and circumstances these boys are put through is the true cause. Golding uses characterization to convey this theme that all people can become savages when they are encouraged to change their morals by their environment and their current circumstances. He uses the characters Piggy, Ralph, and Roger, specifically to show a gradual, yet prompt turn towards savagery when put through these situations.

“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 human is made up of both savage and civil sides and the conditions that they are out in determine which side of their personality they will show. In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, there is a group of boys who are stranded on an island. The boys show different sides of their personalities and most of them give into their primal instincts because they need to survive. Throughout the novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses the characters -Jack, Roger, Ralph- to display the different sides of humankind through the conflict of civilization and savagery.

‘”Which is better, to be a pack of painted Indians like you are, or to be sensible like Ralph is’… Jack had backed right against the tribe and they were a solid mass of menace that bristled with spears” (Golding 259). The novel “Lord of the Flies” explores the central theme of civilization versus savagery, and how without rules and regulations of a society, one can become savage again. Throughout the novel, William Golding highlights this by vividly describing a group of young boys who land on an abandoned island. In the novel “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding, the character Jack draws out his inherent yet suppressed qualities.

Jack and his group killed a sow, they became savages. They sharpen a stick in both sides and put the head on it. Then they leave the head as an offering to the beast. Simon finds the head, and thinks that the head is talking to him. He calls the head The Lord of the Flies. This name makes an allusion to the devil. Making the statement that the lord of the flies is pure evil. The Lord of the flies tells Simon that the beast is inside all the boys, but that he could not tell the other boys about it. After his delusion with the pig’s head, he discovers that the beast is not more than a dead body. He decided to go and tell the other kids. But Simon went in the wrong time, the other kids confused him with the beast and killed him savagely. They

“Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” -Vince Lombardi. Civilization is considered to be a stage in the human development, which is considered the most advanced in society. The act of not being an uneducated person. Savagery refers to being cruel, violent, and unnmannered. In other words savagery is the opposite of what civilization is. Lord of the Flies is a story in which its conflict is between savagery and civilization. In the book Lord of the Flies we can see that as the story goes on the boys lose their order, education, and become violent.

In the beginning of Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the boys are depicted as proper english children which is made especially clear when Jack says “After all, we’re not savages. We’re the English , and the English are best at everything” (Golding 42). However, as the novel progresses, there is a shift from the proper english boys to savages. They begin to change their proper appearance to that of the savages they are becoming, with piggy being the most civilized character.