Rules of Society In the Lord of Flies by William Golding

In the Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, a group of boys are stranded on an island after their plane had crashed. One of the boys, Ralph, takes charge as chief of the group and does his best to help the boys survive until they get rescued. Over the course of their time trapped on the island, they learn that they aren’t as innocent as they thought they were. When rules are taken from a society, it becomes corrupted and people resort to their true human nature of savagery.

When all touches of society are lost, people will start to lose sight of their humanity. In the beginning of the book, the boys figured that they were on an island free from adults. Because of that, they had to look after themselves. Later on, Jack starts becoming obsessed with hunting pigs. He even gathers most of the other boys to go on a hunt with him. When Ralph found out that they had left the fire unattended he was angered, especially because it was the hunter’s responsibility to tend to the fire. When the other boys had returned, they were chanting Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood. The boys began to lose interest in keeping the fire lit so they could be rescued, and instead started to care more about hunting and meat. They seemed to like spilling blood. The boys even killed off Simon. Chanting Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood! Do him in! the boys murdered him, believing he was the beast in their fit of insanity. Towards the end, Ralph was running away from the group of savages, as he referred to them when they chased him on the island, that now sought out to kill him. The moment when the naval officer came to save them, they came back in touch with society. Ralph now realized the darkness in man’s heart and the nature of ...

... middle of paper ...

...y went there to get back the glasses that they stole. Piggy had the conch with him, still holding on the small portion of civilized society that still remained. When Roger rolled the rock down to get Ralph, he ended up killing Piggy, while also shattering the conch. The society had become completely corrupted, and the small piece of the society they had was gone. They met with the darkness and savagery that they always had within them.

Without any rules to hold a society together, it will soon be corrupted and fall apart, leaving the people to become less human, and resorting to savagery. Without any enforcement of the rules set by the boys on the island, they lose sight of the most important things, and prefer to spill the blood and guts of animals for meat. Rather than maintain a fire to be rescued by a ship, they chose the path of painted faces and bloodlust.