Without authority and proper leadership, humans will wander off from the morals that they thought they had, and plummet straight into savagery. In the book, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a group of young boys between the ages of six to twelve get stranded on a deserted island. The boys try to build a functioning society in order to get rescued, but eventually, conflict occurs and the boys behave savagely, killing one another until they are rescued at the end. Golding’s view on humanity is that humans will naturally descend into savagery without society, rules, and authority. Jack and Roger’s nature prove Golding’s view as they are the main characters that descend into savagery and act sadistically. Although there are characters, like Ralph, who try to keep things on the island in order, they ultimately fail because savagery prevails. To illustrate, Jack is the prime example of how humans naturally descend into savagery as seen through his selfish and violent behaviour. Right from when he was introduced, …show more content…
Jack did not seem to want Ralph to lead, as they did not share the same ideas, he wanted to do things his own way. Jack did not care much for Ralph's main priorities which were to build shelters and a fire so they can be comfortable and get saved quickly. For example, when Ralph was explaining how the smoke will get them rescued, Jack kept mentioning hunting, causing Ralph to have an outburst, yelling, “I was talking about the smoke! Don’t you want to be rescued? All you can talk about us pig, pig, pig!” (Golding 59). Jack only wanted to satisfy his bloodlust and go hunting. His actions of disobeying Ralph’s authority proves Golding’s intent of the book, that humans naturally descend into savagery without proper authority. Additionally, without proper authority to stop him, Jack goes off to do as he pleases, he plays on the fears of the other kids so that they follow and behave savagely with him. He splits off from Ralph when he says “I’m not going to play any longer. Not with you... I’m not going to be part of Ralph’s lot” (140). Jack leaving the democracy that they were used to back at home to be in a violent tribe perfectly demonstrates jack’s deliberate intent to act savagely since there is nobody to stop him. Furthermore, Jack’s character reverts to violence whenever something does not go his way. For instance, when Jack got annoyed with Piggy, he would just hit him, once even beat him to the ground. His violence got progressively worse, by the end of the book, he has Samneric tortured, with the boys whining to Ralph about their savage actions, saying, “they made us. They hurt us… We couldn’t help it” (208). Therefore, the existence of Jack and his bloodthirsty, vicious behaviour proves Golding’s view on humanity, that people will revert from their civilized behaviour without authority and will act as savages. To further the point, Roger is an additional character that quickly descends into savagery without society, as he is Jack’s right-hand man, and they act very similarly. Although the island is still mostly democratic and run by Ralph in the first half of the book, Roger still shows that he has savagery hidden inside of him, waiting to be shown. When the boys were on the beach, Roger followed Henry from a distance and threw rocks at him, but not close enough to hit him. The book reads, “Here, invisible yet strong, was the taboo of the old life, Round the squatting child was the protection of parents and school and policemen and the law. Roger’s arm was conditioned by a civilization that knew nothing of him and that was in ruins” (67), here, Roger wants nothing more than to pelt Henry with rocks, such as his savage instinct wants him to, but he cannot yet, as he is still partially controlled by the rules of his old life. However, Roger lets his savage and sadistic instincts take over while under Jack’s rule and he, with absolutely no inhibitions, he loves to inflict pain. For instance, when Jack was prodding Samneric about not being on watch, “Roger edged past the Chief, only just avoiding pushing him with his shoulder... Roger advanced upon them as one wielding a nameless authority” (201). Jack had not even planned to use violence on the twins, but Roger was so eager, that he almost knocked into his chief. Also, while Jack was arguing with Ralph and Piggy, Roger took it upon himself to let a giant boulder fall and kill Piggy, the gruesome details are as follows:“The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee… Piggy fell forty feet and landed on his back… His head opened and stuff came out and turned red. Piggy’s arms and legs twitched a bit” (200). Roger’s sadistic actions after becoming savage have become his own and not Jack’s anymore, he willingly goes the extra mile to inflict pain on others, as his savage nature wills him to. Seeing as he is very quick to follow and agree with jack, Roger also reveals his true colours that he is just like Jack, he descends into savagery without authority or a society to punish him. However, there is a character, Ralph, that does not give into savagery and tries to create a democratic society, but ultimately fails as the savagery within the other boys prevails and takes over. Ralph tries to build a sort of government with a leader and rules and hosts assemblies so that the boys can be productive and get rescued. As soon as the boys met up together for the first time, Ralph said, “we’ve got to decide on being rescued… Seems to me we ought to have a chief to decide things” (23). Ralph proves Golding wrong, as his first instinct was to try and build a government and get saved, not to descend into savagery. When the boys failed to listen to Ralph and keep the fire going and a ship passed by, Ralph was furious, exclaiming, “there was a ship. Out there. You said you’d keep the fire going and you let it out… They might have seen us. We might have gone home… But you had to hunt” (76-77). Ralph’s explosion at Jack for not keeping the fire going disproves what Golding believes, since Ralph constantly gives orders to try and get rescued, and scolds the boys if they do not listen. He does not sway towards savagery at all. Furthermore, Ralph does not give into his savage instincts as Golding claims he would, even when everyone is hunting him. Even when Samneric warn Ralph, saying, “listen, Ralph… The Chief and Roger… They hate you, Ralph. They’re going to do you. They’re going to hunt you to-morrow” (208), Ralph sticks to his morals. Despite the warning, Ralph still refused to join Jack’s savage tribe, proving that not all humans descent into savagery when there is no authority around. Although Ralph is able to create a democratic society and follow his morals, proving Golding’s views wrong, he is completely overpowered by Jack and the other boys who descend into savagery and would have been killed by them, had it not been for their rescue. In short, although there are a few characters like Ralph, who refuse to turn to savagery and try to stay civil, they are overpowered by characters like Jack and Roger, who have completely lost all their morals and live savagely on the island.
The boys’ behaviour and the outcome of the book prove Golding’s view on humanity: that humans will naturally become savage without a proper society and authority to guide them. Jack’s refusal to follow rules and his thirst for power and blood illustrates his steady descent into savagery, and for Roger, his sadistic and violent behaviour shows his descent. Even though Ralph exists and tries to stay civil, build a government, and make rules, he is ultimately overpowered by the savage boys on the island. Thus, through Lord of the Flies, Golding proves his view on humanity, but that is since he wrote the book. It would be interesting to see how things would play out, should such an event were to happen to kids in real
life.
In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Simon and Piggy are among a group of boys who become stranded on a deserted island. Left without any adults, the boys attempt to create an orderly society. However, as the novel progresses, the boys struggle to sustain civility. Slowly, Jack and his hunters begin to lose sight of being rescued and start to act more savagely, especially as fears about a beast on the island spread. As the conflict progresses, Jack and Ralph battle for power. The boys’ struggle with the physical obstacles of the island leads them to face a new unexpected challenge: human nature. One of the boys, Simon, soon discovers that the “beast” appears not to be something physical, but a flaw within all humans
The book Lord of the Flies by William Golding is an exhilarating novel that is full of courage, bravery, and manhood. It is a book that constantly displays the clash between two platoons of savage juveniles mostly between Jack and Ralph who are the main characters of the book. The Kids become stranded on an island with no adults for miles. The youngsters bring their past knowledge from the civilized world to the Island and create a set of rules along with assigned jobs like building shelters or gathering more wood for the fire. As time went on and days past some of the kids including Jack started to veer off the rules path and begin doing there own thing. The transformation of Jack from temperately rebellious to exceptionally
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a novel about human nature and the functions of society. One of the main characters in this novel is Ralph, who is chosen to be the leader of a group of boys. He assigns tasks to the boys and tries to keep them accountable for it. However, the boys begin to slack because they can no longer see the point of these tasks and rules. As a result of the constant slacking the boys soon turned into savages. Ralph’s struggle to maintain order amongst the boys shows how without rules it is human nature to descend into savagery due to the avoidance of authority.
The Lord of the Flies - Savagery. William Golding’s novel ‘The Lord of The Flies’ presents us with a group of English boys who are isolated on a desert island, left to try and retain a civilised society. In this novel, Golding manages to display the boys slow descent into savagery as democracy on the island diminishes. At the opening of the novel, Ralph and Jack get on extremely well.
Golding has a rather pessimistic view of humanity having selfishness, impulsiveness and violence within, shown in his dark yet allegorical novel Lord of the Flies. Throughout the novel, the boys show great self-concern, act rashly, and pummel beasts, boys and bacon. The delicate facade of society is easily toppled by man's true beastly nature.
Would you be able to resist savagery from being away from society? Could you resist the urging power to kill? How about being able to find food without killing or not to go full savage on other people, could you still do it? A normal person could say no to all of these. In the novel, “Lord of The Flies”, William Golding shows that without civilization, a person can turn into a savage by showing progressively how they went through the seven steps of savagery.
In our society today, abortion is a huge controversial issue due to the beliefs of abortion being evil. “What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages?” (William Golding, Lord of the Flies). In the novel, “Lord of the Flies”, the author William Golding, leads the reader into dismissing savagery as an act of violent cruelty by portraying murder, an uncivilized manner, and an increasing disregard of the rules. Murder is symbolized in savagery throughout the novel. The boys act in an uncivilized manner. The rules that were made to help keep order in the island, are being broken.
In the novel, Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, a group of British schoolboys are stranded on an island, and soon find that fending for themselves and staying civilized is not as easy as they thought it would be. Although they start off with an organized society, through interactions with each other and objects around them, they become completely savage over time. Golding employs the symbolism of Jack, the conch shell, and the beast to serve the purpose of the allegory of the inherent evil of the human race.
Golding exhibits the gradual deterioration of Jack’s morals to reveal a character of savagery. The downfall of Jack’s morals begins when he loses the vote for chief His lack of respect and empathy is
Imagine flying on a plane and crash landing on an unknown island with a select group of people. How would humans deal as a result of this horrific situation? Is cruelty and violence the only solution when it comes down to it? In Lord of the Flies, William Golding explores the relationship between children in a similar conflict and shows how savagery takes over civilization. Lord of the Flies proves to show that the natural human instincts of cruelty and savagery will take over instead of logic and reasoning. William shows how Jack, the perpetrator in the book, uses cruelty and fear for social and political gain to ultimately take over, while on the other hand shows how Ralph falters and loses power without using cruelty and fear. In Lord of
In the novel The Lord of the flies, William Golding illustrates the decline from innocence to savagery through a group of young boys. In the early chapters of The Lord of the Flies, the boys strive to maintain order. Throughout the book however, the organized civilization Ralph, Piggy, and Simon work diligently towards rapidly crumbles into pure, unadulterated, savagery. The book emphasized the idea that all humans have the potential for savagery, even the seemingly pure children of the book. The decline of all civilized behavior in these boys represents how easily all order can dissolve into chaos. The book’s antagonist, Jack, is the epitome of the evil present in us all. Conversely, the book’s protagonist, Ralph, and his only true ally, Piggy, both struggle to stifle their inner
In Lord of the Flies, William Golding expresses the idea that humans are naturally immoral, and that people are moral only because of the pressures of civilization. He does this by writing about a group of boys, and their story of survival on an island. The civilized society they form quickly deteriorates into a savage tribe, showing that away from civilization and adults, the boys quickly deteriorate into the state man was millions of years ago. This tendency is shown most in Jack, who has an animalistic love of power, and Roger, who loves to kill for pleasure. Even the most civilized boys, Ralph and Piggy, show that they have a savage side too as they watch Simon get murdered without trying to save him. Simon, the only one who seems to have a truly good spirit, is killed, symbolizing how rare truly good people are, and how quickly those personalities become corrupted.
The Lord of the Flies by author William Golding is a tale of a group of boys who have been stranded on a deserted island as a result of a plane crash. The boys are faced with plenty of challenges that they all choose to make different choices for such as turning towards savagery for Jack and towards civility for Ralph, which ultimately brings the entire groups sanity to the edge. Within the novel there are plenty of themes, and most of them relate to the inherent evil that exists in all humans as well as the savage nature of mankind. In The Lord of the Flies, Golding shows these boys’ transformation from being a civilized group of boys to savage beasts due to their adaption to the freedom that they have in their new society, which connects
In the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a group of young boys from England are evacuated out of their country due to a war. The plane is then shot down and results into a plane crash on a deserted island. The boys are left all alone with no adults, no supplies, and no one to come and rescue them. They are all on their own and have to establish a new “society”. The boys have to choose someone to govern them and that person ends up being Ralph, who had an internal struggle between what is right and wrong closer to the end of the novel. The boys turn into savages, killing each other, and showing their evil inside each of them. According to, William Golding man is inherently evil, evil is in all of us, but it is oppressed by society, and comes out when there is not anything to hold us back, civilization is what holds back evil from coming out, or it is what triggers evil inside of man.
William Golding's first book, Lord of the Flies, is the story of a group of boys of different backgrounds who are marooned on an unknown island when their plane crashes. As the boys try to organize and formulate a plan to get rescued, they begin to separate and as a result of the dissension a band of savage tribal hunters is formed. Eventually the "stranded boys in Lord of the Flies almost entirely shake off civilized behavior: (Riley 1: 119). When the confusion finally leads to a manhunt [for Ralph], the reader realizes that despite the strong sense of British character and civility that has been instilled in the youth throughout their lives, the boys have backpedaled and shown the underlying savage side existent in all humans. "Golding senses that institutions and order imposed from without are temporary, but man's irrationality and urge for destruction are enduring" (Riley 1: 119). The novel shows the reader how easy it is to revert back to the evil nature inherent in man. If a group of well-conditioned school boys can ultimately wind up committing various extreme travesties, one can imagine what adults, leaders of society, are capable of doing under the pressures of trying to maintain world relations.