Savagery In Lord Of The Flies Research Paper

Andrea Liu

Ms. Dasho

English 9 Honors Period 1

25 September 2015

Civilization to Savagery

There is a preconceived idea that order is something that humans have that animals do not. However, this does not seem to be the case in Lord of the Flies, in which English schoolboys are stranded on a deserted island. The story tells about their experience and suddenly, the idea that order is a natural human quality is gone. In the novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding argues that when order is lost, civilization regresses to savagery. He supports this through the characters of Roger and Jack, as well as the symbolism of the fires throughout the story.

Golding supports this theme during the book by Roger’s actions. At the beginning of the book, there

is a scene in which Roger throws rocks at a littlun: “Roger gathered a handful of stones and began to throw them. Yet there was a space round Henry, perhaps six yards in diameter, into which he dare not throw” (Golding 62). In this event, Roger still has the decency to not hit Henry with the rocks, and is still considered civilized, shown by the six-yard diameter into which Roger dares not to throw into. He still possesses that connection with civilization, and does not dare to throw within that boundary that he set for himself. Later on in the book, when the order of the group is lost, he joins Jack’s savage tribe. The reader can really tell how much he has changed, when “Roger was dropping [stones], his one hand still on the lever. Below him, Ralph was a shock of hair and Piggy a bag of fat” (180). This basically shows how Roger’s values change from when he lands on the island, especially because he is aiming those rocks directly at Piggy and Ralph. When he arrives on the island, he is a boy who has morals and principles about what is right, but when he leaves, he is savage. Towards the end of the book, Roger gets mad at Piggy for coming into their part of the island, so he put a strong stick under the rock to act as some sort of lever, and he pushes the lever down (180), letting the rock roll down the mountainside, killing Piggy and shattering the conch. Roger is no longer the same boy who would not think to throw a rock within a six-yard diameter of another. He no longer holds onto that sliver of civilization. Instead, he turns to savagery. He has now deliberately killed a human being on the island with him, showing his loss of order, descending him into savagery.
Throughout the book, the reader sees Jack’s gradual transition to savagery when the order of the group is lost.

At the beginning of the book, he is the one leading the choir boys, lining them up and keeping them in order. After Ralph blows the conch, the boys see the choir boys marching in two parallel lines to meet the rest of the boys (18). Jack later offers to be the hunter for their group of people. However, when they go on their trek to the top of the mountain to determine whether they are on an island, Jack finds himself presented with the opportunity to kill a pig. Though at that moment, he finds that he is unable to do so. He gets frustrated, and after that, he is so determined that he will kill a pig that getting meat is always on his mind. To do so, he “made one cheek and one eye-socket white, then he rubbed red over the other half of his face and slashed a black bar of charcoal across from right ear to left jaw” (63). This proves how much effort he is willing to put into being able to catch a pig and bringing meat for the other boys without directly being blamed for the pig’s murder. He goes so far as to paint a mask over his face, where he feels like he can do anything and not be blamed for it. We can easily tell that Jack is becoming savage, but it is confirmed when the hunters begin describing how they killed the pig: “ ‘There was lashings of blood,’ said Jack, laughing and shuddering, ‘you should have seen it!’ ” (69). He seems astonished by the fact that

there is blood and is proud of the fact that he was the person who stabbed the pig and cut its throat. This is the point at which we can tell that Jack has actually turned savage. Further along in the book, Jack creates his own tribe, one of hunting. One night, they have a feast, and invite everyone on the island. Towards the end of their night, Simon crawls out of the forest: “At once the crowd surged at [Simon], poured down the rock, leapt on to the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore” (153). Jack’s tribe has become, no longer has a care in the world about what it is they are harming. They assume that the crawling creature was the “beastie,” not caring who or what it really is, and they manage to kill it. That shows how savage Jack has gotten, after the losses of order and civilization.
Golding proves this regression to savagery through the fires.

At the beginning of the book, Ralph and Piggy bring up the need to have a signal fire running at all times at the top of the mountain. When the group is civilized, the fire runs well. On the other hand, when the kids all get excited about the fire, “The heart of flame leapt nimbly across the gap between trees and then went swinging and flaring along the whole row of them. Beneath the capering boys a quarter of a mile square forest was savage with smoke and flame” (44). When they first set up the fire, they go wild, allowing it to go out of hand. Later, when they are more calm and civilized about the fire, it becomes a constant fire, never burning more than is needed to keep the fire going. However, at the end of the book, the group’s order is lost, and Jack’s savages are left with the responsibility of keeping the fire going, which they fail to do. By the end, Jack and his tribe completely transform into savages, and they now have the power of fire. They abuse that power by letting the fire go out. Now they have no signal fire, but they do use their power to create fire, to get Ralph out of the island’s forest, setting the entire island on fire. They obviously did not think this through like Ralph, who figures it out when he sees that “the fire was nearer; those volleying shots were great limbs, trunks, even, bursting. The fools! The fools! The fire must almost be at the fruit trees -- what would they eat

tomorrow?” (198). They are savage to the point of not caring what happens after this moment. They let the fire get out of control because of the fun and games that they wanted at that specific time. These things happen when the order of the group dissipates into nothing. They have no principles about how to act, and how to keep society organized, so their civilization descends into savagery.
Civilizations descend into savagery when the order there once was is lost. William Golding proves this in Lord of the Flies with the the characters of Roger and Jack, and the symbolism of the fire. Roger begins his life on the island with boundaries, like the six-yard diameter into which he dare not throw, but ends up killing Piggy. Jack becomes savage when he paints his face to get away with the blame of murdering a pig, and is fascinated by the sight of blood from a pig. The fire goes out of hand when the order of the group isn’t there, but is calm and constant while there is order within their civilization. If a country’s government does not have order, the people in it would become savage, and lose the civilized parts of themselves. If civilization and order are not maintained within society, humans as we know them will forever change into beasts.