Savagery In Lord Of The Flies

Anyone is capable of savagery, despite being raised in a good environment or having a good life. The leader of a group of choirboys, Jack, in William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies reflects the change of young boys becoming savages. Jack is a young British who is trying to survive on an island while maintaining his group of choirboys. Jack is savage because there aren’t any boundaries to limit his behavior and actions. Jack evolves into a savage throughout the story, he first is unable to kill a pig, then he suggests the ideas of rules, and then deliberately mistreats a sow, showing anyone is capable of becoming a savage.
In the beginning, Jack first arrives on the island as a well-made leader of the choirboys. There was an expedition that

was going to take forth and Ralph chose Jack and Simon. While exploring the boys come across a pig, “’I was just waiting for a moment to decide where to stab him’” (31). Jack had seen a pig and was aiming to kill it, but he didn’t. Jack hesitated to kill the pig for he feared blood and killing something in his nature was perceived as a savage thing to do. Jack was anticipating the kill because he wasn’t experienced and had never killed anything in his life before, none of the boys have. The boys then mock Jack for not killing the pig, and Jack kept making excuses for his missed kill. Jack then suggests the idea of rules, “’We’ll have rules!’ he cried excitedly. ‘Lots of rules’” (33). Jack is trying to maintain civilization within the group of boys; he does this by making rules so everyone can be civil. Jack wants all the boys to remain how they are so they all won’t become savages. Jack said whoever doesn’t follow the rules should get punished so these boys will learn how to be civil.
As the story unfolds, Jack and his actions begin to change. After Jack vowed to not show mercy to the next pig he hunts, he practices hunting. Jack was by himself in the forest trying to hunt, “Jack stood there, streaming with sweat, streaked with brown earth, stained by all the vicissitudes of a day’s hunting” (49). Jack wants to prove himself to the boys after they humiliated him. Jack practices how to hunt by himself in the forest, although he doesn’t catch anything his hunting skills have furthered. He was beginning to go crazy with hunting when he started to smell the droppings of the pig.
Eventually in the story, Jack and his hunters target a mother pig, “Jack was on top of the sow, stabbing downward with his knife” (135). The way Jack had targeted and treated this pig was sickening. Jack deliberately targeted a mother pig knowing all the piglets would die as soon as she would, and he treated the pig so harshly. Jack didn’t hesitate to do anything he was on top of the pig and started stabbing it with his knife and made bad comments about it, if he wasn’t a savage he would’ve killed the pig in a more respectful and orderly way.
Anyone is capable of becoming a savage. The way a person is raised or how good their life is doesn’t depict them of being a savage. Everyone has a bad side and a good side in them, it just happens to come out at random times. The world has different views of savagery, but generally it means just killing recklessly without a purpose and going on whim on everything. This is a societal flaw in human nature where one goes against the normal way of things.