Civilization And Savagery In Lord Of The Flies By William Golding

Lord of the Flies was written in the early 1950’s by William Golding. Golding wrote this allegorical novel in England when World War II was happening and Stalinism in Russia was at its peak. Lord of the Flies attracted a cult of followers, especially among the youth of the post- World War II generation (“Golding”). People thought that his book was too harsh, but what they didn’t realize was the true essence of how the war was really like. The war showed the good and evil side of everyone and it made people turn against one another and were no longer in a civilized manner. “What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages?” he wondered due to the experiences that he had encountered as a British naval officer during this time. This effected that the worst in humanity would prevail, and that many so called decent minded people would be easily and willingly influenced to act in terrible ways towards one another causing conflict between civilization and savagery.

The boys have turned their backs on society by ignoring their rules and relying on their savagery ways for their survival. The conch shell was used to conduct their meetings and symbolized civilization. In the beginning of the novel, the boys began their society as a unit with a leader, but as the story progressed their mini civilization began to collapse (Neighbors). As the novel steps forward, the boys began to turn away from the conch and its rules. More and more of the boys began to become hunters and savages and eventually turned their backs on the society that they had created on the island. This turning from society began with their disregarding of the rules of the conch shell (Neighbors). As soon as the boys became apart from their parents, they turned wild and began to hav...

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...he world what he saw. He showed this in the novel by at first having the boys make a small civilization for themselves on the island, but as the days go on the boys begin to rebel against the rules and their society. They act as savages and become obsessed with killing. They ignore the fact of a possible rescue just for the fascination to hunt and kill for their survival. It appears that Golding is making the statement that humans are not innately moral beings; they naturally hunger for barbarism, violence, and power (Neighbors). When the boys are faced with the chance of returning to civilization, they see where ignoring society and its rules has taken them over. They have become permanent savages and barbaric like and have no intent of going back to civilization. Savagery has taken them over and the worst of humanity prevailed causing them to act in terrible ways.