Cruelty In Lord Of The Flies

William Golding’s Lord of the Flies shows a group of young boys stranded on an island with no parental figures around. There is a plane crash and two main characters Ralph and Piggy are introduced to the audience first. These two characters are important throughout the whole story and show the ways the boys and the society deteriorate as the story goes on. Many events and different character personalities cause the boys to become savages and abandon all moral decisions. Children are already innocent and know little about surviving in the wild and keeping the rules of society, and with the things that happen and the events that occur, the boys easily become barbaric in nature. In Lord of the Flies the themes of Individual and Society, Cruelty,

As the fears of the island and hunting pack mentality increases the boys become crueler. Most of the boys’ obsessions with hunting cause bloodlust, frenzy, and murder. “Their obsession with hunting…” (Neighbors, Ryan). They kill a sow and their ritualism leads to the death of Simon. The cruelty continues in the story and the hunting overcomes all other responsibilities. One main symbol of cruelty in the novel is the beast. The boys even begin to worship the beast and the cruelty comes from within each of the boys. (Neighbors, Ryan) Golding shows how cruelty is a natural aspect of human nature. As the novel progresses societal values and moral codes wear away and barbaric emotions take hold of the children. During times of war soldiers are cruel and display very horrible emotions, but these people have to do this to cope with those times. The boys are showing the cruel nature of man as the experiences on the island change them for the worse. Cruelty worsens during the course of the novel and eventually boys turn into beasts just like the one that was worshipped, enticed by the island and victim to it. This nature of being cruel and savage also ties into another important aspect of the novel which is