The Novel 1954 and The Lord of The Flies by William Golding

In 1954, William Golding published the highlight of his career, The Lord of the Flies. The Lord of the Flies demonstrates the depraved nature of humankind by telling the tale of a group of boys stranded on a desert island. After a tragic plane crash, the boys come to realize that they are the only survivors, and begin organizing to build shelters, find food and water, and signal for help. Led by a boy named Ralph, the boys soon build a signal fire and establish a routine for civilized life away from adults. However, the peace established by Ralph is soon compromised by the hunters of the group, led by a boy named Jack. Jack challenges the leadership of Ralph and, through appeal to selfishness and fear, captures the allegiance of most of the boys. Following the ascension of Jack to power, the story quickly turns for the worse as human nature begins to tear the boys’ sense of order to pieces and drive them to savagery. Though Jack’s role in the group initially starts as one of cooperation, the end of the novel leaves more beast than human. In The Lord of the Flies, Jack’s progressive decent from an envious to a demonic self parallels how human nature drives men to savagery and war.
Jack had been a generally useful and cooperative part of the group until desire for the hunt overcame him. His failure to kill a pig when the opportunity arises awakes a spell of bloodlust in him, eventually causing him to abandon the signal fire to hunt. This decision marks a key turning point in the story, as a ship passes during his absence that could have rescued the group. Jack’s defiance of Ralph’s leadership stems from his desire for leadership and the “freedom” to hunt and play instead of wasting time with a signal fire. Jack uses this vision of ...

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... demonic self parallels how human nature drives men to savagery and war.

Works Cited:
1. Dangar, Joyanta. "The Nightmare Beast, War and the Children in William Golding's Lord of the Flies." PsyArt (2013): n. pag. PsyArt: An Online Journal for the Psychological Study of the Arts. 26 Nov. 2013. Web. 12 Apr. 2014. .

2. Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.

3. Percy, Walker. "The Demonic Self, The Envious Self." Lost in the Cosmos: The Last Self-help Book. 1st ed. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1983. N. pag. Print.

4. Spitz, David. "Power and Authority: An Interpretation of Golding's "Lord of the Flies"" Rev. ofLord of the Flies. The Antioch Review 30.1 (1970): 21-33. JSTOR. Web. 22 May 2014. .