The COnsequences of War

The Consequences of War

War is defined as armed conflict between different nations or groups of people. In the novel The Lord of the Flies, the characters face a war of their own. The novel takes place on an island in which a group of British schoolboys are stranded after being the only survivors of a plane crash. The boys have to work together in order to survive and be rescued from the island. However, they are eventually divided because of contrasting opinions and begin fighting amongst each other, which causes them to feel the repercussions of their actions. Lives being lost, nature being destroyed, as well as civilization falling, and people losing their innocence and descending into savagery are some of the consequences of war that the boys felt firsthand while on the island.

One of the consequences of war is the loss of the value of life that results in the loss of life. In Lord of the Flies, two of the main characters die, Piggy and Simon. As seen in the book, the quote, “Simon’s dead body moved out toward the open sea”, is contributing to the death of Simon (Golding 154). Simon was the most innocent boy in the story and unfortunately the first to die. Ralph and Piggy were so grieved with themselves, claiming that they had done nothing wrong, but actually had. Seen that they are bothered within themselves in what they did, Ralph speaks up to Piggy saying, “Piggy, that was murder. I wasn’t scared.”(Golding 156), with Piggy responding, “We was scared! Anything might have happened.” (Golding 156). These quotes that were spoken by Ralph and Piggy are showing that they really did care for Simon, they just did not realize it until the lost him due to the fighting of all the boys. Near the ending of the book, Piggy lamentably...

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...ives being lost, nature being destroyed, civilization crumbling around you while the people fall into the hands of savagery, and this causes people to lose their innocence. The boys on the island come to realize at the end that they have lost precious lives, destroyed the beauty of the island, and also seen that the civilization that they once had was gone. As the book says, “Like a bomb!” (Golding 28), the world is slowly becoming savage. If the world were to be like the lives of the boys while they were on the island, the world would be a disaster, and would be chaotic. Consequences of war is truly the main reason of why these boys fell apart with lives being lost, nature being destroyed, and the civilization crumbling right in front of their eyes in Lord of the Flies by William Golding.

Works Cited

Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. New York: Penguin, 2006.