Religion In Lord Of The Flies Essay

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There are numerous primitive acts committed in the text the Lord of the Flies, but by far the most savage one is when they killed the piglets mother, and the piglets too. This hanness act shows they have no regard for the innocence of the pigs demonstrating the turn from right to wrong. At the beginning, they are too scared to even kill a pig " because of the unbearable blood" with Jack being unable to stab it (Golding 31) . This however only makes makes him more urgent to prove himself by being savage and has "the compulsion to track down and kill that was swallowing him up" (Golding 51) . Soon, the killings begin and eventually the pig is on a stick sharpened at both ends where the boys dance around it as an offering to the beast. This is …show more content…

At the beginning when the boys are less savage the beast was only a mere superstition and no crazy acts are committed in order to seduce the beast. The only talk about it was when it was described as a snake-thing and even then boys hollered in laughter and cheer (Golding 35). Towards the end of the book though is when the boys become more savage and fear the "beast" as an embodiment of evil similar to the Christian concept of Satan introducing the hidden theme of religion. It is their irrational fear of the beast that causes the boys' paranoia and superstition but eventually leads to a religious belief in a Satan. Through the different characters, the novel presents a continuum of evil which first starts with a superstition and ends in a religion. This change is seen when Jack is at first unable to kill the pigs and by the end he is worshipping the “Lord of the Flies” which is a dead pig head he killed (Golding 133-147).Here, the superstitious belief that the beast may or may not be real has completely vanished and instead in it’s place a real fear has formed and the boys are determined to get rid of it. This is why the do a dance around the pig head in a religious fashion. The difference between religion and superstition is whether or not the action or decision is based off of morality or simply human

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