The human mind is made of up two instincts that constantly have conflict: the instinct to live by society’s rules and the instinct to live by your own rules. Our civilized will has been to live morally by law and order, and our savage will has been to act out for our own selfish needs. We each choose to live by one or the other depending on how we feel is the correct way to live. In this allegorical novel, William Golding represents the transformation from civilization to savagery in the conflict between two of the main characters: Ralph who represents law and order and Jack who represents savagery and violence. Lord of the Flies has remained a very controversial novel to this day with its startling, brutal, and truthful picture of the human nature.
In the beginning, human influence was starting to affect this uninhabited “Garden of Eden”. Ralph, the charismatic and newly elected leader of the young boys’ parliament, is absolutely committed to civilization and morality, and is determined to make sure the boys survive and be rescued. At first, everyone is excited about living on such a fantastic island filled with flowers, fruit, and swimming pools. It is apparent that Ralph adores the island when, “… [he] laughed delightedly again and stood on his head” (4). However, he had to make sure they all stayed on task. To stay in touch with civilization, they decide to build shelters, make a
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“bathroom”, and use coconuts to drink out of. At first, Jack, the lead choir boy, is excited about creating a government declaring, “We’ll have rules! Lots of rules!” and has not yet abandoned the familiarity of civilization that he was accustomed to (25). With a signal smoke, shelters, and food being gathered, the boys shouldn’t have any wor...
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... others around them. Their stark differences of order and violence ended up changing hearts and destroying lives. All of the boys realize by the end of Lord of the Flies that they would never be the same now that their innocence is gone and they believe that evil is in every man’s heart. Ralph’s vulnerability appears again for the first time in a long time when he “wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy” (182). However, he will never be the same after this terrifying and life-changing experience. In the end, the battle between civilization and savagery never has a victor. The conflict between civilization and savagery is unending; the presence of savagery will always conceal itself within all humans even with civilization at its highest point.
Works Cited
Lord of the Flies
There is evidence in both Lord of the Flies and A Separate Peace that display the savagery of man. In Lord of the Flies there is savagery found when the choir boys and most of the bigguns separate from Ralph’s authority and form their own tribe. In A Separate Peace, savagery is found in unnamed characters during Leper’s war experience - he feels such a need to escape from evil and savagery in the war that he takes the risk and actually does. In both of these novels, the archetype and motif of savagery is present in young boys, ultimately resulting in the downfall and degenerating of man.
They thought their society was stable; they thought it would last. It all started with the conch shell that gathered them. In the book The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a group of boys became nomads on an island causing them to take on the biggest challenge of their lives, survival. The traits for a successful survivalist would include cooperation, maturity and responsibility. But if they can’t achieve those traits they will crash, causing chaos on the island.
William Golding’s novel ‘The Lord of The Flies’ tells the story of a group of English boys isolated on a desert island, left to attempt to retain civilisation. In the novel, Golding shows one of the boys, Jack, to change significantly. At the beginning of the book, Jack’s character desires power and although he does not immediately get it, he retains the values of civilized behaviour. However, as the story proceeds, his character becomes more savage, leaving behind the values of society. Jack uses fear of the beast to control the other boys and he changes to become the book’s representation of savagery, violence and domination. He is first taken over with an obsession to hunt, which leads to a change in his physical appearance This change of character is significant as he leads the other boys into savagery, representing Golding’s views of there being a bad and unforgiving nature to every human.
In the novel The Lord of the flies, William Golding illustrates the decline from innocence to savagery through a group of young boys. In the early chapters of The Lord of the Flies, the boys strive to maintain order. Throughout the book however, the organized civilization Ralph, Piggy, and Simon work diligently towards rapidly crumbles into pure, unadulterated, savagery. The book emphasized the idea that all humans have the potential for savagery, even the seemingly pure children of the book. The decline of all civilized behavior in these boys represents how easily all order can dissolve into chaos. The book’s antagonist, Jack, is the epitome of the evil present in us all. Conversely, the book’s protagonist, Ralph, and his only true ally, Piggy, both struggle to stifle their inner
Civilization struggling for power against savagery was shown throughout Lord of the Flies. These opposite mindsets are shown battling while determining who had the right to speak during assemblies, when the group hunted pigs, throughout the struggle over Piggy’s glasses, and finally with Simon’s death. These polar opposites are shown throughout these examples and reveal the desperation of clinging to civilization while savagery took over the actions of the some of the boys in Lord of the Flies.
Lord of the flies was about a group of boys getting stranded on an island. There was basically to groups I like to identify them as the “civilized group” and the “savage ones”. In this paper I will tell you examples of civilization and savagery in lord of the flies. From the conch to the pig head to the boys that are there .There are mean examples of this theme so let’s get started.
In the novel “Lord of the Flies” the author William Golding sets out to demonstrate what can happen when good clashes with evil, or in this case the Civilized versus the Savage. He selected two individuals to represent each group. Jack represented the savage and Ralph represented the civilized. As the novel progressed their priorities became clearer. Ralph wanted to be rescued and Jack wanted to kill. Due to their personality clashes, later in the novel series of unfortunate events occur at the end of the novel. It can be learnt that the rules and laws that guide us are there for a reason. To teach us the difference right and wrong and keep us behaved.
This democratic society does not last very long as the children (especially Jack) have a lack of respect for the conch and the rules. We can see this when Jack decides, “We don’t need the conch anymore, we know who should say things.” As the conch represents democracy, we can see that civilisation on the island is breaking up and savagery is starting to take over. We can also see a break up in society when Jack says, “Bollocks to the rules!” Here we can see that Jack contradicts himself while managing to diminish the assembly and the power of the conch.
A community that has immaturity in itself leads to chaos. The immaturity on the island starts on the very first day with the boys taking of all their clothes off. Following after the clothes, Jack tries to tell Ralph what he is going to do which is hunt for pigs. Instead of the fire job Ralph gave Jack. Since, Jack is unhappy with all of Ralph’s rules, Jack creates another immature community to be chief. In the end, when Jack to tries to kill Ralph the plan backfires, and gets all of the boys rescued. Therefore,
In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Simon and Piggy are among a group of boys who become stranded on a deserted island. Left without any adults, the boys attempt to create an orderly society. However, as the novel progresses, the boys struggle to sustain civility. Slowly, Jack and his hunters begin to lose sight of being rescued and start to act more savagely, especially as fears about a beast on the island spread. As the conflict progresses, Jack and Ralph battle for power. The boys’ struggle with the physical obstacles of the island leads them to face a new unexpected challenge: human nature. One of the boys, Simon, soon discovers that the “beast” appears not to be something physical, but a flaw within all humans
During WWII, a plane carried a group of 6-12 years old British boys crashed to an inhabited island in the Pacific Ocean. Without adults around they had to figure out how to govern themselves. Jack, leader of “the hunters”, was in charge of the food supplies. Under Ralph’s ruling, the elected chief, Jack’s eagerness vastly grew because he wanted to be the “King” not just a “hunter”. Instead of killing the animals, he wanted to kill humans and replace Ralph. Piggy, the most intelligent boy in the group, discovered Jack’s plan, and tried to tell Ralph about this wicked plan. However, the evil Jack found out and ordered his loyalists to kill Piggy. Unfortunately, Piggy was murdered by telling this message to Ralph. Jack’s ability was questioned. Finally, he didn't get what he wanted due to his untrustworthy character and fear. This example shows that if people don't challenge the authority, then the serene society won’t exist. In other words, the world would be surrounded by
He blows the conch and summons the deserted children together” (Li & Wu 1). While all the boys are interested mainly in playing and setting out to satisfy their own needs, Ralph is focused on building shelter and keeping a fire going to facilitate their rescue. As one can see, Ralph is “the representative of civilization and democracy, lives by rules, acts peacefully, and follows moral commands and values the good of the group, who dramatically reveals the condition of civilization and democracy in Golding’s time” (Li & Wu
Over millions of years, man has transformed from a savage, simple creature to a highly developed, complex, and civil being. In Lord of the Flies, the author William Golding shows how under certain circumstances, man can become savage. During nuclear war, a group of British schoolboys crash land on an uninhabited island to escape. Ralph the elected leader, along with Piggy and Simon, tries to maintain civilization, while Jack and his group of choir boys turned hunters slowly become savages obsessed with killing. Through characters’ action and dialogue, Golding illustrates the transformation of civil schoolboys into bloodthirsty savages.
In conclusion, all of the boys go through some struggle with civilization and savagery. Jack is the one who makes the biggest change in the book. He goes from civil straight to savage. William Golding's novel "Lord of the Flies", uses symbolism and allegories to show how Ralph, Piggy, Jack, and Simon struggle with civilization and savagery.
As the story opens, the boys are stranded on the island without any type of authority and must fend for themselves. A meeting is held and the chief, Ralph, is quickly named. A reader at once can notice there is already a power struggle between Jack and Ralph but this is overlooked when Jack says rational and sensible remarks about what should be done. The stability of civilization is still apparent when Jack says, “I agree with Ralph. We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we’re not savages. We’re English, and the English are best at everything. So we’ve got to do the right things,” (Golding 42). The boys are still influenced by the restraints they learned from a controlled society. Joseph Conrad asserts that “there exists a certain ‘darkness of man’s heart’ that is suppressed by the light of civilization” (Introduction to Lord of the Flies 2). “Although Golding suggests the harmony of an ideal society, he does not indicate any faith in its creation” (Kennard 234). The more meetings that are held the more futile they become. “ ’We have lots of assemblies. Everybody enjoys speaking and being together. We decide things. But they don’t get done,’ ” (Golding 79). The boys realize that there are no punishments for what they do and disregard their priorities. “The idea that the absence of the restraints of civilization can lead to a subversion towards savagery” (Introduction to Lord of the Flies 2). The makeshift society that the boys have created is already starting to weaken.