Lord Of The Flies Savage Vs Savage

"The highly civilized man can endure incomparably more than the savage, whether of moral or physical strain. Being better able to control himself under all circumstances, he has a great advantage over the savage" (Lafcadio Hearn). We see much evidence of this idea that a savage cannot control themselves under all circumstances in the Lord of the Flies. Written by William Golding, The Lord of the Flies is a classic allegorical novel in which a large group of school boys crash land on a deserted island, and come along many struggles such as good vs. evil and the struggle for power. Human nature is the general characteristics of shared by all humans. Throughout the novel, physically hurting others and disorder are major clues to Goldings view

After Jack's tribe stole Piggy's glasses, the two tribes got into a heated argument and "Jack made a rush and stabbed at Ralph's chest with his spear" (Golding 177). Jack becomes so angry at Ralph that he decides it would be a good idea to stab him. Thomas Hobbes might say this is proof that everyone is born evil, but this clearly goes more along the lines of Locke's theory that people have the capacity for good and evil, Jack is cut off from civilization and therefore his evil, savage side begins to show. Another example of violence is when Roger kills Piggy. While piggy was trying to stand up from himself, "Roger leaned all his weight on the lever...the rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee...Piggy fell fourty feet and landed on his back across the square rock in the sea" (Golding 180-181). Roger feels that the solution is to kill Piggy, so they won't have to deal with his glasses problem any longer. He kills Piggy in such a violent way, he has clearly become a savage due to being cut off from society. A Marxist may argue that Roger believed Piggy was of lower status than him, and so he didn’t matter, but we can clearly see that there was no thinking behind Roger’s actions and he just listened to his id. Overall, these points clearly show that the boys who don’t have close ties to society have become