Savagery: Development of Animalistic Behavior and Loss of Rationality
In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Golding illustrates the idea when deprived of civilization and rules, humans display their true nature of savagery. The British boys crash land on an island during the time of an international nuclear war. Their once civilized and ordered lives soon turn into absolute mayhem when left to survive by themselves. The novel reveals that with the onset of savagery comes both animalistic behavior and rejection of reason.
In the beginning of the novel, the group of boys start as civilized, with their past lives still influencing their actions on the island. Gathering all the boys together, Ralph establishes
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Unlike the start of the novel of giving effort toward living civilized, the boys now act as if they are animals, tending toward their natural primitive qualities. While discussing with Sam and Eric Ralph ponders, “ Ralph tried indignantly to remember. There was something good about a fire. Something overwhelmingly good.”(163). From being overly enthusiastic of making a fire and hoping for rescue, to now forgetting the purpose of the fire, helps distinctly shows how savagery is effecting the boys lives. Ralph describes a curtain covering his ideas, that curtain being savagery preventing him to think rationally like he had before. During the night while Ralph, Piggy, Sam and Eric are all asleep, Jack and others from his tribe come and attack the boys and as well steal piggy’s glasses. The incident is described as, “Then there was a vicious snarling in the mouth of the shelter and the plunge and thump of living things .”(167). It is seen from the when the savages steal the glasses meant for the signal fire, that they are willing to give up the chance of rescue in order to make a fire to roast pigs. The next morning Ralph and Piggy go to Jack's tribe and confront them on stealing Piggy’s glasses. While talking Roger releases a boulder which then strikes Piggy and destroys the conch, “The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist.”(181). Established by Ralph in the beginning of the Novel, the conch held power over all of the boys. But now that the conch is destroyed the power is up for grabs, letting Jack begin an unethical and barbaric rule. With Piggy and the conch gone Ralph is left with no authority over the boys, leaving the boys to be controlled fully by savagery. Jack and the savages plan to hunt and kill Ralph, while running
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.
Lord of the Flies is an intriguing novel about a group of English boys who are stranded on a remote island during World War II after their plane was shot down. The schoolboys quickly use the resources they find and create a temporary form of order. As they continue to stay on the island, their proper English ways quickly turn into savage like instincts. In William Golding’s, Lord of the Flies, Golding uses the conch, the Beast, leadership, murder, and fire to show that without rules there is chaos.
Savagery is brought out in a person when they lose everything else. Lord of the Flies by William Golding shows us that when there is a lack of societal boundaries, animalistic behavior is what will follow. Humanity is destroyed with lack of guidelines or rules.
Over millions of years, man has transformed from a savage, simple creature to a highly developed, complex, and civil being. In Lord of the Flies, the author William Golding shows how under certain circumstances, man can become savage. During nuclear war, a group of British schoolboys crash land on an uninhabited island to escape. Ralph the elected leader, along with Piggy and Simon, tries to maintain civilization, while Jack and his group of choir boys turned hunters slowly become savages obsessed with killing. Through characters’ action and dialogue, Golding illustrates the transformation of civil schoolboys into bloodthirsty savages.
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.
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.
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.
In William Golding's Lord of The Flies, the boys try to maintain civility, but nature pulls them into savagery. Nature always seems to pull man in, even when man tries to fight it; the boys give in by hunting, fighting, and doing whatever they please. All of this is because there is no authority in nature. The boys try to maintain civilization on the island, but nature is gradually luring them in and revealing their true human instincts.
In the novel The Lord of the flies, William Golding illustrates the decline from innocence to savagery through a group of young boys. In the early chapters of The Lord of the Flies, the boys strive to maintain order. Throughout the book however, the organized civilization Ralph, Piggy, and Simon work diligently towards rapidly crumbles into pure, unadulterated, savagery. The book emphasized the idea that all humans have the potential for savagery, even the seemingly pure children of the book. The decline of all civilized behavior in these boys represents how easily all order can dissolve into chaos. The book’s antagonist, Jack, is the epitome of the evil present in us all. Conversely, the book’s protagonist, Ralph, and his only true ally, Piggy, both struggle to stifle their inner
One of the main themes in William Golding's 1954 novel Lord of the Flies is that without civilization, there is no law and order. The expression of Golding's unorthodox and complex views are embodied in the many varied characters in the novel. One of Golding's unorthodox views is that only one aspect of the modern world keeps people from reverting back to savagery and that is society. Golding shows the extreme situations of what could possibly happen in a society composed of people taken from a structured society then put into a structureless society in the blink of an eye. First there is a need for order until the people on the island realize that there are no rules to dictate their lives and take Daveers into their own hands. Golding is also a master of contrasting characterization. This can be seen in the conflicts between the characters of Jack, the savage; Simon, the savior; and Piggy, the one with all the ideas.
To begin with, when the group of boys first arrive on the island, they are well mannered young English boys.The
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.
William Golding’s Lord of the Flies is a story about a group of young boys on an island that face the consequences of savagery and the lack of supervision. Mob mentality occurs when group members lose their identity and follow someone else’s behaviour. Golding’s novel illustrates how mob mentality exposes the fragility of human willpower and exposes the primal instincts of human nature. Throughout the novel, the boys' decline into viciousness, power struggles, and fear-mongering over the 'beast' serve as examples of the human necessity for savagery.
All things considered, the gain of savagery develops soon after the loss of proper order and authorization occurs. In an analysis written by E. C. Burkin it is stated that, “William Golding's Lord of the Flies is about evil; and it re-counts a quest for order amidst the disorder that evil causes. Golding has said that the theme of the novel ‘is an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature. The moral is that the shape of a society must depend on the ethical nature of the individual and not on any political system, however “parently logical or respectable” (Burkin 4). Burkin’s study directly states how one of the main ideas in Lord of the Flies is how disorder causes evil.
Ralph and Piggy’s sense of responsibility and maturity initially brings to the island a voice for everyone, calling for a brotherhood among the boys in order to survive and eventually be rescued. Early on the novel reads “There was a stillness about Ralph's as he sat that marked him out: there was his size and attractive appearance; and most securely, yet most powerful there was the conch.” (Golding Pg. 22). This quote describes the presence Ralph promoted on the island early on in their adventure. He encouraged equal say amongst the boys through the conch. In order to speak, one had to have possession of the symbolic shell. The shell representing the Parliamentary government in which they had left at home. Furthermore, Piggy, gaining an influential voice through Ralph, shouts his concern to the immature reckless boys “The first thing we ought to have made was shelters down there by the beach... Then when you get here you build a bonfire that isn’t no use. Now you been and set the whole island on fire.” (Golding pg. 47). Like Ralph, Piggy’s responsibility and ability to plan for the future contradicts the actions of the boys, which in turn is the main reason for the separation between Jack and Ralph. Ralph and Piggy strive for a civilized way of life, yet find Jack leading an indirect revolt against any attempt to maintain order. Ralph and Piggy represent the good, civilized world in which they