Lord Of The Flies: Savagery

Throughout the history of humanity, humans have different behaviors that change depending on what situations they are in. Psychologist Philip Zimbardo spent many years exploring human nature and has developed many theories about human behavior. One of Zimbardo’s ideas is about situational factors that states “one’s behavior is assumed to be dependent upon their current circumstances, situation or the environment that they are in.” He concluded the concept of situational factors after his Stanford Prison Experiment, in which he gave authority to regular people and observed any changes. The experiment proved that people’s behavior will change when they are in different situations. Zimbardo also believes that evilness is the exercise of power to harm people in anyway possible, so a five year old who teases others to Adolf Hitler would be classified as perpetrators of evil.

Literary devices are techniques often used by authors to portray in-depth analyses of major characters, storylines, and central themes, which take place in a story. These analyses help readers understand a message the author is trying to convey. In the novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses different literary devices in order to demonstrate the boys’ struggle against the lack of society and law on the island, as well as the consequences that have transpired due to this loss. This conflict is evident through the different instances of irony, foreshadowing, and symbolism that occurs throughout the novel.

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.

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.

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

English novelist and politician Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton, once said, “The pen is mightier than the sword.”. We,as humans, have always had the feeling of fear. No matter how many people say they don’t have that feeling, they have it somewhere within them. This fear has always thrived us to think in a radical way and has pushed us to make some good and bad choices in life. Because of this fear human beings have felt the need to protect themselves as much as possible and they believe that by having the most sizable, vigorous, and lavish weapons, they will be safe and protected from all harm and will keep order within society stable. But what Lytton wants us to realize in his quote is that you really don’t

Many philosophers believe that a correct government can make a strong society. However, these philosophers do not agree on what form of government is the most “correct”. English philosopher John Locke believed that Man is inherently moral and that the purpose for government is to grant the fundamental rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to its people. Another philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, however, held the belief that mankind is naturally evil and that society needs an absolute central authority to contain this evilness and grant its people with the common protection. Hobbes believes that in a state of nature, when there are no rules and everyone is granted equal power, the inherent evil impulses of Man are exposed. One

Savagery Is Inside Us All The central theme of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies is that savagery is in us all. SO, in this essay, 3 characterized will be analyzed to help prove Golding’s point. The three characters will be Roger, Jack and Ralph. As seen in the book, Roger was a savage before he got on the island, Jack’s savagery came out at a moderate pace as things started picking up, and Ralph was only a savage once the savagery of the other boys was being used against him.

In William Golding’s, Lord of the Flies, a few dozen boys are stranded on an island after a plane crash. The six to twelve year old kids turn to savages under the lead of the older males, and ultimately cause their own deaths. However, the smaller boys, such as Piggy and Sam and Eric, are the hope and reason of the group. Golding’s purpose of writing the book was to show that the defects in society originate at the defects in human nature. Golding allows the little ones to have no identities or personalities. This is symbolically showing that in society, the ignorant and innocent children are the only hope to a humane society. Innocence is purity, and the innocent children, in which are not corrupted by the bad people and things in the

“Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes” (Peter Drucker). In the novel Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding, a decent sized group of boys are marooned on an island. This island starts as somewhat of an oasis, containing everything that the boys need to survive and thrive, except for one thing: a leader. One of the older boys would need to step up, and it comes down to Ralph, a boy around the age of twelve who finds the conch, which is used as a beacon for civilization, and Jack, a boy of Ralph’s age, but is also the leader of a group of choir boys, who advocate for Jack from the beginning. The decision comes down to a vote, and Ralph is chosen with all the

Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a classic novel and portrays just how the society surrounding us can corrupt our once pure nature No one is born a killer, no one is born with an intense compulsion to kill, the island that the boys are stranded on has a very unusual, corrupting society; A society that erodes the boys innocence through the power struggle between Jack and Ralph, readers see the transfer from innocent to savagely through the hunting and Piggy’s death.

On the surface, laws are often viewed as restrictions that take away from personal freedom. Many see rules as a type of control and it’s easy to make sense of the idea that without laws, we would have absolute freedom. However, philosopher John Locke did not agree with this concept and stated, “For in all the states of created beings, capable of laws, where there is no law, there is no freedom.” This paradox claims just the opposite; that without law there is no freedom. Locke’s theory can be applied to William Golding’s Lord of the Flies through his characters’ actions in Chapters 4-6.

There are many factors that influence how people behave once on their own in an area without rules. The human race will fall apart without a set of rules that apply to them. When left on its own, and given an opportunity, human nature will revert back to the inherent savagery that lies within. In the book Lord of the Flies a British plane crashes on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere. The only survivors are a group of boys, and without any adults, the kids are left to fend and govern for themselves. Throughout the rest of the book, groups start to form and fight against each other. When the two groups fight for authority against each other things start to get out of hand.

Is it a person’s genetic biological make up that affects their decision making or is it outside environmental influences that impact choices? I think that the internal factors have more of an impact on a person’s behavior. In the book Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding, both factors seem to take part in what caused the boys to turn into savages. Considering that not all the boys turned into savages it helps prove that the bad genes inside versus the good genes played more of a roll and not so much the external environment, in who turned wild and who tried to keep up with the rules of society they knew before they crash landed on the island. Jack and Roger seemed to be the real “bad seeds” and without adults they became leader of the cruel, savages behavior on the island. Whether it was the way they were raised or they were just bad genetics, all it took was for Jack not getting his way. When all the boys voted for chief and Jack was not chosen he starts falling into his role as the bad guy.

Human nature is essentially evil, we will do whatever it takes to get what we want no matter what the consequences are at the end. Author William Goulding shows us this in the novel Lord of the Flies. That our ideology of getting things could be twisted.