How Does Golding Present Savagery In Lord Of The Flies

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Lord of the Flies The story Lord of the Flies by William Golding deals with many themes that tie together the message the story is trying to convey. Perhaps one of the most important themes of this book is civilization vs. savagery. This is shown throughout the story as the children grow further and further from civilization leading to the death of three characters. As the story progresses the line between civilization and savagery becomes almost invisible. The point Golding is trying to make by having the characters turn savage is that contrary to popular belief savagery is our natural state. Civilization is something imposed onto man and it is not natural. He delivers this message by following the lives of a group of kids as they are submerged into the life of a savage. This theme becomes increasingly important towards the end of the story when Ralph is almost killed by Jack’s tribe until a naval police officer finds him. The naval officer found the boys after seeing the forest fire that Jack started as an attempt to kill Ralph. By writing in …show more content…

savagery is further implemented into the story through the personalities of the main characters. Jack represents savagery, Ralph represents civilization, and the rest of the characters fall somewhere between the two. The only character that seems to be completely different than the rest is Simon. Simon represents innate goodness. Simon is also the only character to truly understand the savagery in everyone. He discovers this after conversing with the Lord of the Flies, but before he has the chance to spread the truth he is brutally murdered by the rest of the boys as he is mistaken for the Beastie. The death of Simon ends the chance of any of the other boys understanding that the beastie is in actually in all of them rather than an animal as they all believed. “You knew didn’t you? I’m part of you?” (143) The death of Simon also speeds along the process of the rest of the boys becoming

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