What Makes People Savage Individuals can quickly spiral from well-behaved to savage and animalistic. Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, follows the story of many boys who crash land on a deserted island. It focuses on the tipping point that pushes young boys over the edge of sane to mad, and it perfectly illustrates the slow descent from civilization to savagery and the inevitable fate of rule and order. When placed in an extreme, fear-inducing environment, the situation can escalate quickly, causing chaos and disorder. The extreme fear the boys felt on the island was the reason for their outrageous and savage behavior. The relationship between fear and violence was infallibly explained when Golding stated, “When people are afraid they discover the violence within them and when they are afraid together they …show more content…
In the events leading up to the brutal killing of one of the boys, a terrified group of boys becomes on edge and violent during a frightening thunderstorm, and “out of the terror rose [a] desire, thick, urgent, blind” (Golding, Lord 214). The desire the boys felt at this moment was to kill. This group of boys felt very scared and blinded by fear and killed one of the people they considered a friend. The environment caused sudden fear and panic, which then led to the savage killing of the boy. Some may say that people are born with savage and animalistic tendencies deep inside their brains; it is true that some people can be born with conditions that cause them to act aggressively and savagely. However, before there was fear on the island, rule and order played a big part and the boys were fairly civilized, that is, until the environment induced more and more fear and produced chaos. The situation the boys faced influenced their behavior a lot because "All you really need is a situation that facilitates moving across that line of good and evil" (qtd. in
Fear resides within all of our souls and our minds in different forms wether it be mind, body, or spirit. Fear can be brought upon by actions, words or ever our mere imagination. Of course as one being younger your imagination can bring along fear that is non existent but, to one it may seem so vivid and tangible. In this Novel by William Golding we come to grasps with many different forms of fear being from the beast, the loss of humanity, and the fear of realization.
William Golding’s Lord of the Flies portrays the lives of young British boys whose plane crashed on a deserted island and their struggle for survival. The task of survival was challenging for such young boys, while maintaining the civilized orders and humanity they were so accustomed too. These extremely difficult circumstances and the need for survival turned these innocent boys into the most primitive and savaged mankind could imagine. William Golding illustrates man’s capacity for evil, which is revealed in man’s inherent nature. Golding uses characterization, symbolism and style of writing to show man’s inhumanity and evil towards one another.
Human's fears should not be taken lightly. Fear could do anything to one's minds, though without fear, man can be as savage as animals. In the book Lord of the Flies, William Golding presented fear of the unknown to be a powerful force in a man's mind. Fear of the unknown is a powerful force, which can turn to either insight or hysteria. The kids feared of not being rescued off of the island, so they made signal fires on top of the mountain. Then, there and gone, Roger's fear of the old rules he abided to. Also, there were the fears of the beast which confused and isolated the kids from the top of the mountain.
Violence has remained desirable throughout human history as great pleasure is received from inflicting pain on others. In the Lord of the Flies, William Golding creates a world of increasing violence. He establishes this violence through the setting of the novel, the characters, and the theme.
William Golding’s novel ‘The Lord of The Flies’ tells the story of a group of English boys isolated on a desert island, left to attempt to retain civilisation. In the novel, Golding shows one of the boys, Jack, to change significantly. At the beginning of the book, Jack’s character desires power and although he does not immediately get it, he retains the values of civilized behaviour. However, as the story proceeds, his character becomes more savage, leaving behind the values of society. Jack uses fear of the beast to control the other boys and he changes to become the book’s representation of savagery, violence and domination. He is first taken over with an obsession to hunt, which leads to a change in his physical appearance This change of character is significant as he leads the other boys into savagery, representing Golding’s views of there being a bad and unforgiving nature to every human.
Be civil, or be savage, the conflict between the instincts, stuck in the mind of boys who arrive at an unknown island after a plane crash. In many parts of the book Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, the lost boys face an inner conflict between their instinct to be civil, and their instinct to be savage. Some conflicts are faced in the novel throughout different scenes, such as; playing around, jealousy, hunger, mistrust, and death. Both the main characters, Ralph and Jack, are used as excellent examples to portray this idea of civil and barbaric, this comes as the group of boys separate. Because Ralph and Jack were on odds since the beginning, the group of boys eventually separates, giving them the choice to choose their own leader. Some ingenious boys allow themselves to have fun and become savages instead of keeping their civil instincts, causing Ralph to struggle against Jack and his savages, the ones who let the savage inside them take over.
Within each of us lurks a beast waiting for the first opportunity to bare its ugly fangs. A vestige of ages past, when violence and destruction was man’s only language, the beast only needs a bit of chaos to resurface. William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, is hinged on this idea. In the story, a group of English schoolboys are stranded on an island without a single adult. They try initially to keep a rough semblance of civilization in place, calling assemblies and lighting signal fires, but the beast is soon awoken from its primeval slumber to wreak terror among them. Golding makes it his duty to reveal the innate evil of the human soul in Lord of the Flies by not only displaying general chaos, but detailing specific instances where the violent nature of man bleeds through. The “darkness of man’s heart” (Golding 202) is demonstrated when Roger feels the sudden urge to throw rocks toward a younger boy, when the boys’ game of mock hunting turns a little too real, and when the little savages murder Simon in a passionate frenzy.
In the novel The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a group of English schools boys are stranded on an island in the Pacific Ocean. The boys’ plane crashed into the ocean in a futuristic war-ridden world. In these dire times, the boys manage to create a hierarchy and assign different roles to all of them. Throughout the novel, a human element of fear terrorizes their island society. Fear is the key element in the novel. It controls how their island society functions and it controls the boys’ actions. Fear was something that affected the adolescent school boys to a large extent by that led to the corruption and crumble of their society.
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.
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding is tale of a group of young boys who become stranded on a deserted island after their plane crashes. Intertwined in this classic novel are many themes, most that relate to the inherent evil that exists in all human beings and the malicious nature of mankind. In The Lord of the Flies, Golding shows the boys' gradual transformation from being civilized, well-mannered people to savage, ritualistic beasts.
Humans have an instinctual response, emotionally and physically, on fear towards danger or any unpleasant situation. When one is not in their right, conventional state, they become too concentrated towards the danger in front of them, thus leading to vicious outcomes. These may affect the person himself or to the one he is in opposition to. Fear stimulates the lost of individualism and encourages a group mentality to one another. The book “Lord of the Flies”, written by William Golding, manifests fear all throughout the book which directly triggers the savage acts the boys commit themselves . When one is scared, they are prone to create groups to disperse the fear and accompany it, or in the case of Simon’s death, the loss of individualism, a creation of a group mentality, is an and
In Lord of the Flies, Golding proves that fear draws out man’s inner evil and barbarism. Within the novel, Golding uses characterization of the boys and symbolism of the beast to show the gradual change from their initial civility to savagery and inhumanity. Learned civility, order and humanity become ultimately futile in the face of fear. The author teaches that without logic, fear consumes endlessly. He shows that fear clouds the mind, thus making it absolutely imperative to maintain reason and logic throughout life. Fear will always end in a fate worse than death for those who survive it.
This paper will explore the three elements of innate evil within William Golding's, Lord of the Flies, the change from civilization to savagery, the beast, and the battle on the island. Golding represents evil through his character's, their actions, and symbolism. The island becomes the biggest representation of evil because it's where the entire novel takes place. The change from civilization to savagery is another representation of how easily people can change from good to evil under unusual circumstances. Golding also explores the evil within all humans though the beast, because it's their only chance for survival and survival instinct takes over. In doing so, this paper will prove that Lord of the Flies exemplifies the innate evil that exists within all humans.
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.
“There is nothing to fear but fear itself” (Roosevelt). “Fear is a chain reaction in the brain that starts with a stressful stimulus and ends with the release of chemicals that cause a racing heart, fast breathing and energized muscles, among other things, also known as the fight-or-flight response” (Layton). Fear affects the brain and can help people or make them in a worse situation than they were in the first place. Fear most motivates/influences people during times of crisis by clouding judgement and becoming a weapon of power.