Lord of the Flies

He shows that he enjoys releasing the rock that killed Piggy showing that indeed he had developed into an evil monster under the chaotic environment. The events of the death of Piggy clearly demonstrates that with the abandonment of civilisation the boys decent into anarchy. In the end, Golding uses the dark and gruesome events leading to the death of Simon and Piggy as well as the savagery developing in the character of Jack to prove that when civilisation falls away and individuals are left to their own immediate desires, anarchy ensues in its most evil form. However, though Lord of the Flies displays the problems of humanity, there are plenty of pieces of literature that depicts the bright side of humanity, which hopefully outnumbers the negatives.

Unlike the other boys on the island Jack’s savagery did not take long to develop. He is like a disease that infects and encourages others to abandon their civilized ways. For most boys, killing the pigs was a food source but for Jack hunting was an adventure and a ritual. He creates a dance, and paints his face as a part of that ritual. Jack`s face painting influences the boys to such an extreme that they lose their individuality alongside with their ability to make civilized decisions.

As we see in Lord of the Flies, all of the boys except Simon feel the urge to destroy and kill. They go on wild hunts for pigs, hurt each other for entertainment, and form a wild tribe where everything is run by the tyrannical Jack and the sadistic Roger. Even Piggy and Ralph feel some of the others’ mob mentality when everyone, as a group, kills Simon, the only boy with a civilized heart. His death symbolizes how mankind kills off all notions of sympathy with its cruel and evil heart. If it were not for the moralizing effects of civilization, No humans would be present who pity others.

Roger killing Piggy with all intent is a show of evil. When Piggy and Ralph try to make Jack give back Piggy's specs, Roger silences Piggy: “High overhead, Roger, with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all of his weight on the lever” (Golding 200). This brutal killing of killing Piggy proves Roger's evil. Roger's intention to behead Ralph also shows evil. When Ralph asks what is going to happen to him, Samneric reply,“Roger sharpened a stick at both ends” (Golding 210).

As a final decent into the evil that has consumed him the pray becomes one of the boys as Ralph is hunted with the intent to kill, sacrifice and possibly even eat in an act of cannibalism. Before the evil began to grow in strength within Jack, he was a boy much like the others and like the others he found the concept of killing another living thing was not something easy to digest, but Jack learned. How ever hard it was for Jack to first kill a pig, spilling its blood on his bare hands, once he had first killed another living thing his path towards evil and savagery was well one its way. Early on in the novel we find Ralph, Simon and Jack walking through the forest when they come across a small pig tangled and caught in the creepers. Although Jack does have a knife with him his hesitation combined with the overwhelming reality of the situation keeps Jack stunned in his place and the pig escapes untouched.

The rumors of its existence scare the smaller children, but also become the catalyst for Jack and his group to indulge their savageness, due to their desire to hunt it down and kill it. The boys are driven to madness because of it. This “beastie” is the titular Lord of the Flies, or Beelzebub, who in the New Testament is identified as the Devil – a symbol of evil. When one of the characters, Simon, stumbles across the beastie it is revealed that it is a pig’s head on a stick. The pig was brutally stabbed by Jack and his hunters in a frenzy, as the pig squealed in pain.

Painting their faces gives the boys a new identity for their evil, they use these mask and expose the beast inside themselves. The symbols of the final fire, Castle Rock and the painted faces are all symbols of how underneath the thin veneer, all humans are beasts. The book Lord of the Flies by William Golding explains how much evil one has inside of their own innocent and civilized nature. If one looks at their day to day actions they would see the little moments that show their inner evil shining through. Sometimes people make comments or do actions for selfish reasons, which are all part of the evil inside all humans.

Piggy’ s name suggests that he will be a victim of the beast. Not the beast the boys on the island fear, but the beast within each of them. The author is saying through Piggy that because they kill and eat the pigs they become the beast. Ralph prays to the adult world to send them something grownup, a sign or something. His prayer is answered by a dead parachuter, a casualty of war from the fighting going on in civilized society.

This chaos carries on throughout each story due to the fact that the authority figures mask the truth that would resolve the main conflict of each story, ending the chaos. The power given to some of the characters in each story gets to their heads and they seem to lose all morals and begin to act in a way that is inhuman-like due to this. In the novel Lord of the Flies Jack becomes obsessed with hunting pigs, he turns into a predator, hunting pigs as prey. Since many of the boys look up to Jack, they also partake in his violent, animalistic acts. The boys encourage Jack’s predatory behaviors, which leads him further form his previous, civilized character.

The boar head shows how the savagery of the boys, but it also shows the savagery in all of us. This scene is Golding’s way of showing how easily people can lose their sanity, and their evil side comes out. Next, ... ... middle of paper ... ...This is when Simon understands that the boys all manipulated themselves, bringing about evil in themselves and the destruction of themselves. Heart of Darkness and the Lord of Flies, are both texts that express a negative view on the human condition.