William Golding's Lord Of The Flies Essay

How close are we to complete mayhem? Truly we are on the edge, wedged between benignant and total savagery. In the novel Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, we see this take place. When a bunch of British schoolboys becomes stranded on an island, they realize they have to fend for themselves in this non-parental world with no rules. Early in the novel, a signal fire the boys put together dies due to a lack of labor. Jack, a possible antagonist in the novel starts to make a clique aimed at being the hunters, in Jack’s eyes the alpha males. Jack and his “warriors” drift off the primary objective of getting rescued. Finally, the conch, the symbol of control on the island, shatters at Castle Rock. Through these events, Golding shows that society is fragile, and without control, mayhem will erupt. The signal fire dying out is the first major example of society slowly crumbling. This is shown by a ship passing by with a probability of rescuing the boys but Jack and his hunters were out for a hunt instead of

Apart from that, many of the boys leave Ralph's side to join Jack as he now becomes the self-pronounced leader of the group. This action creates a tear within the original group of boys. Jack disbanding from the group of boys is shown when William Golding writes, “He looked along the right-hand logs, numbering the hunters that had been a choir. ‘I'm going off by myself. He can catch his own pigs. Anyone who wants to hunt when I do can come too.’” (p.127). Jack is shut down in a vote of who would be the better leader, Ralph or himself, he decides to split from the boys and hunt on his own. Jack leaving the assembly of boys is catastrophic in Lord of the Flies because it causes there to be an absence of the work. Ralph and Piggy, now more than ever, need to find a steady flow of food after all the hunters leave to find Jack, this shows that society is