Savagery In Lord Of The Flies Argumentative Essay

The savage in man is never quite eradicated. -Henry David Thoreau. Can the lack of civilization bring out the inner savagery in people? In the novel The Lord of the Flies by the late William Golding, a group of boys are forced to flee their homes in England due to incoming axis bombers. They board a plane, but in the middle of their flight they were shot down and crash land on a deserted island. Only a fraction of the boys survived the crash and were strung out along the island.Two of the older boys, Ralph and Piggy, find each other and began searching for others. During their walk, Piggy spotted a conch shell and Ralph blew it, alerting all of the boys on their position and they flocked over. They held a meeting with the group and after discussing

their situation, they had a vote to see who would be the “chief” of their new group. The vote was held between Ralph and the head choir boy, Jack. After Ralph the tension between him and Jack started. Eventually after many instances of conflict the tribe began to split between the Ralphs group of boys, including the “littluns” (small children}, and Jack’s hunters. Slowly all of the hunters abandoned Ralph. They created their own tribe that had a constant conflict with Ralph’s. After many fights they were finally found by the navy and were rescued
The boys did change during their stay on the island.

Slowly the boys in the hunters tribe became more and more like animals. They began stealing and attacking the other tribe. After a raid on Ralph’s camp Jack yelled, “Tonight we’re having a feast. We’ve killed a pig and we’ve got meat. You can come and eat with us if you like.”, and all of the boys accepted the offer. On the night of the feast, one boy, Simon, was in the forest and burst out amidst a ritualistic dance the hunters we’re doing. He was attacked with their spears as soon as he rushed out. Simon was brutally murdered and his body was washed out to sea. The raids didn’t stop and eventually the hunters stole one of the boy”s, Piggy, glasses. He couldn’t see at all without them, so Ralph, Piggy, and SamnEric marched to the Hunters camp with spears and demanded his “specs” back. The hunters saw this as a threat and one of them pushed a boulder off a cliff onto Piggy, killing him instantly and pushing him out to sea. It was a gruesome scene that sparked another physical fight between Ralph and Jack. It led to Ralph being forced to run away and SamnEric being captured. These examples show that the boys that landed on the island weren’t the same as the savages that left. But was this to be

expected?
Golding argued that when civilization is completely striped away, then no matter who you are, you will slip back toward savagery. But is it true? Were the boys truly changing or were they themselves the whole time, and they were always meant to be murderous psychopaths? There has been instances of similar scenarios in the world. We see these especially during war time. In Vietnam a Man escaped war with his son and for 40 years they lived together in the jungle. They eventually lost almost all of their verbal communication skills and just communicated to each other with gestures and noises. We see civilization slowly fade away from the boy’s and the men’s minds as their stay away from society progresses. The idea of rescue perished throughout the island for the boys. Instead the majority of the boys look for immediate satisfaction in killing pigs and other tasks that the deem worthy. They didn’t need rescuing, they were becoming a part of the island. They were the predators. Without supervision they were allowed anything. We definitely observe change with the boys. They enter the island looking for a way home, but only left because home was looking for them.
The idea of immediate satisfaction shows that part of their mind disappeared. As humans, we have parts of our minds that determine reason,who we are, and what we’ll become, this is called our ego and/or superego. And then we have our id. Id is the primitive part of the mind that contains all basic needs and feelings. It is what drives their thirst for instant satisfaction and the reason the focus on only short term goals. The ego helps us strive to achieve the id’s goals, but within reason. finally the superego is what makes us who we are. It is our moral system and it becomes the embodiment of what our parents and society taught us. These are what make us people, but when you lack civilization to help build and maintain your egos then you rely on your id and that leads to the savagery that we see come from the boys.
Golding is correct, when people lack the structure that civilization creates then we lose part of our mind and we become barbaric animals. There have been scientific studies and real examples, that show when you lose the framework that that basic civilization creates, then you will become a savage. You mentally break down and only function for what you believe to be necessary. Golding new what happens when you lack structure and he portrayed it in his character and showed the entire process or becoming a savage. When you’re in these situations your brain opens itself up to savagery.