Skip to Content (press Enter/Return)
Essays
Topics
preview

NO TITLE

Good Essays
Open Document
How does a new environment affect a man? Do they hide and cower in fear, or do they become bloodthirsty and kill? In the novel, Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, a group of British boys are trapped on an island. The boys will have to survive on the island until they are recused. At their time on the island, the boys encounter a beast. To fend off this beast the boys tried to kill it. In this novel, Golding presents the symbol, beast, as a man’s instinct for savagery and violence based on their environment.
Environment plays a big factor on how a man from an organized society becomes a savage. On an island with no authority and no one in full control of others. The boys become uncivilized and lost their innocence. After a successful hunt, the boys managed to capture a pig and chanted “Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood,”(69). During another time “Maurice pretended to be the pig and ran squealing into the center, and the hunters, circling still, pretended to beat him. As they danced, they sang. Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Bash her in.” (75). During these two moments the boys are like cavemen chanting and dancing in a ritual. Another moment was when Simon came out of the woods, the boys did not hesitate, “At once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rocks, lept onto the beast, screamed, struck,bit, tore. There was no words, no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws,”(153). Without giving Simon time to explain, the boys mistaken him for the beast and killed him without second thought. Golding uses these three quotes makes clear that the boys are over excited over a kill. They completely lost their humanity when they murder Simon. The boys are like a beast and their interest toward savagery and violenc...

... middle of paper ...

...was a leader in the choir, so he wanted to be the leader in the tribe. In contrast when you expect a student of a Catholic school to be moral, but he was the direct opposite. This was cause of the environment Jack was in that changed him into a savage and violence.
The symbol, beast, throughout this novel, Lord of the Flies, showed the level of bloodthirsty and violent a group of boys can become when they are left alone in a new environment and the only thing in their mind was to survive. Based on this novel, the boys became extremely bloodthirsty and violent that they can be consider as a beast. A beast is a man’s instinct for savagery and violent. Suppose that you was trapped on this island, would you change in any sort of way? Would survival be first thing in your mind, or would you be like Simon who tries to persuade the group but ended up sacrificing himself?
Get Access
Related
Get Access