Savagery In William Golding's Lord Of The Flies

'What are we? Humans or animals? Or savages?' (Golding, 1954 p113) have you ever wondered is savagery a learned trait within yourself, or is it buried deep within you? Lord of the flies, my novel takes these motives that form our emotional style and turns them them into characters who are allowed to act out their instincts of good versus evil. Which will prevail?

Good morning and I am William Golding. I am the author of the book Lord of the Flies and as the author of the novel I have never before explained why I represented the issues and characters in the text, and why they acted in the ways they did. The intention for this novel was to show the potential for savagery is within us, and we have the ability to intentionally refuse it, even if we are moved to an uncivilized environment. “The theme of the book is an attempt to trace back the defects of society to the defects of human nature...The moral is that the shape of society must depend on the ethical nature of the individual and not on any political system." (William Golding) I wrote the novel around the time of WWII, I imagined the island to be a fire-ravaged battleground, like an arena where the forces of civilization, demonstrated by Ralph, must resist and do combat with the strength of violent bulling, demonstrated by Jack. The novel not only reflects the behaviours twentieth century it is also a reality familiar to us all. This novel was really interesting to write as there are many challenges, values and beliefs that I want to leave the reader either agreeing or disagreeing.

In the novel there are motives and themes evident throughout. The central conflict in the novel is between two who battle their feelings that exist within all human beings, by the way of living b...

... middle of paper ...

...ad more chance to kill the pig. On the other hand, Ralph naturally looks for a symbol of order, the conch he did this because he believes in the importance of rituals and rules. “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.” (William Golding, page 40) Ralph's approach to leadership is correct and loyal to civil laws gives one power "right makes might" (William Golding), he is also very loyal to obeying the rules The rules!" shouted Ralph, "you're breaking the rules!" (William Golding, page 92)

Ask yourself, do you know a young person who if freed of independent adult control, would they collapse into viciousness. The novel gives the reader a warning about essential human quality in our society. I want the reader to finish the novel and think “If I was in this situation what would I do?”