Civilization Vs. Savagery In William Golding's Lord Of The Flies

Hayat Bander
ENG2D
Mrs. Bailey
May 7 2014
Evil Within: Civilization vs. Savagery in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies
S. Grant once wrote in an article, “Are we genetically predisposed towards “evil” behaviors like selfishness, violence, and cruelty? Or, is it an unfortunate side effect of our society?” (S. Grant). Grant questions the nature of human beings, and whether evil naturally exists in all of us or if it is society that is responsible. Lord of the Flies proves that we are all evil internally but the society and environment that we are exposed to can also affect our human nature. Lord of the Flies by George Orwell is a novel about a group of boys who are on a plane heading to a safe destination to be kept safe from a current nuclear war. Unexpectedly the plane is shot down and lands on a deserted island near the Pacific Ocean. The story continues with various types of young British school boys left to survive and govern themselves when no adults are found. Through hunger for power, evil and destructive behaviour circumstances on the island follow a negative path. In this novel it is evident that civilization keeps people under control and restrains them from expressing their evil nature. There are many boys in the novel that manifested their nature, and as the story progresses they only become more vicious. These boys are Jack Merridew, Roger and the other schoolboys who turn into savages. Jack loses control of himself as the story continues and unleashes a malicious characteristic, Roger without the restrains of civilization and order expresses his evil nature through wicked and cruel acts, and the savages also display an evil nature by participating in horrible crimes.
To begin, Jack Merridew is a twelve year old choi...

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...e boys lost the identity they had when they were in the presence of civilization. Nearly all of the boys made vicious acts while not suffering any consequence. On the island the boys did not have that privilege and lost their way of order creating cause. Without the restrains of civilization the boys turned into their own beasts, committing crimes that they would not dare do in their old lives proving that without the protecting of order and civilization we can lose our identity at any point. Civilization and order teaches us the difference between right and wrong and gives us a structure to live by. The law allows us to understand the degree of our actions, and the consequence allows us to feel remorse for what we do while also restraining us from our evil nature. Civilization and order protects us from ourselves and others, without it the world would be cause.