Dehumanization In Lord Of The Flies

In William Golding's Lord of the Flies, Golding shows his readers that humans are evil by nature: and without strong moral conduct, humans will be tempted to let go of their civilized self. The novel tells about a group of English boys who are stranded on an island while war is happening in the outside world. The boys make rules, and are happy with the island, but soon, everything starts to go wrong. The island starts to wear on some of the boys, and the temptations for power rise. Both the coincidental and deliberate dehumanization that takes place on the island is important because had it not been for this process of dehumanization, the boys would neither have descended into "savagery" nor followed Jack. The fact that the boys are

“He would like to have a pair of scissors and cut this hair—he flung the mass back—cut this filthy hair right back to half an inch. He would like to have a bath, a proper wallow with soap. He passed his tongue experimentally over his teeth and decided that a toothbrush would come in handy too. Then there were his nails—” (Golding 110) Throughout the time that the boys’ have been on the island, their hair, clothes, and all of their outside features have gotten very tangled and dirty. As the story progresses, not only do the boys’ outside features seem dirtier, or less humane, but the boys are also slowly departing from their civilized self. Without clean clothes, short cut hair, and other necessities they used to have, they cannot feel like themselves. This sense of safety will disappear over time, and the boys will start to descend into savagery, not being able to think about what is right and what is wrong. Equally important, Piggy wants to make a sundial, but without confidence in

Had the process of dehumanization never taken place, the boys would have never descended into “savagery”, nor have followed their evil temptations. For example, if the boys had never followed their temptations and stayed as formal English boys, the novel would not be as interesting and would not make such an impact on readers’ lives as the true novel has for many years. Therefore, through the boys’ behavior on the island, Golding tells his readers that our leaders need to enforce rules handling mankinds’ inner evil to make sure our society operates