Chaos In Lord Of The Flies

All of us have to make important decisions every day. Our choices define us. While sometimes our choices have positive influences on our character, the decisions we make can and will destroy us if we are not careful. In William Golding’s famous story of adolescent survival, The Lord of the Flies, the stranded, unsupervised schoolboys must make hard decisions in order to survive. While some belief the poor choices and detrimental actions of the boys lead to chaos, death, and destruction, others will argue that the boys simply are not mature enough for their less than ideal situation. The young boys’ actions lead to chaos for three main reasons. The immediate division between two leading figures, the loss of civilization and innocence, and

This results in the burning down of half of the entire forest. Little do they know that during the frenzy and excitement of the flames, a child, distinguished with a mulberry scar, wanders a little too far into the forest. The raging fire consumes him and he burns to death. When they become aware of the fact, the boys are shocked and ashamed. After a small while, the boys pretend nothing has happened. A piece of each boy’s soul dies alongside the boy with the mulberry scar. Furthermore, on the night of an island banquet, the little boys lose all self-control while playing a vicious game. While they chant the words, “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!”, a boy named Simon crawls into the chanting mob. Unaware of their actions in the darkness of the night, the boys grab Simon. They beat him to death while he screams and begs for his life. The boys do not properly mourn for Simon and once again pretend that nothing has changed. Humane morals and virtues disappear at this point in the story. The loss of innocence can also be summarized by the increase in violence and egomaniacal behavior in one boy, Roger. Roger is shown throwing stones at younger children at the beginning of this novel, but is careful not to hit any of them with the pebbles. With the immoral ideas of violence and bloodlust being praised by Jack and the other boys, Roger mutates into an unrecognizable monster over the course of weeks. As Piggy demands the return of his stolen spectacles, Roger responds by pushing a boulder on him. The overbearing force of the rock hurls Piggy off a nearby cliff to his gruesome death. Roger’s soul plunges into darkness as he does not repent for his murderous actions nor stops his uncontrollable behavior. In the final hunt for Ralph’s head on a stick, Roger lusts to be the one who finishes the horrific crime. The once disciplined schoolboys are beyond recognition as