Survive in the Lord of the Flies by William Golding

When humans are pushed to survive, they are willing to do anything to do so. In the novel “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding, a group of boys are stranded on an island and have to survive, however as the story progresses the boys become more barbaric and savage like. Even though there are good people in this world, there will always be evil. Why does evil exist? Golding’s belief of human nature is that humans are naturally evil and savage. However, law and civility keep humans from turning into this natural state of evil and Golding uses the development of Jack to show how savagery is created.

Golding uses other characters to show Jack’s regression to savagery and one of these characters is Ralph. Ralph brings out Jack’s inner savagery by making Jack become more dominant. When the boys vote, they pick Ralph over Jack as chief, as a result Jack feels humiliated ,“Even the choir applauded...”(pg 23). Jack feels defeated when this event occurred, even more so when his loyal choir applauded for Ralph and after Jack’s defeat,”...the freckles on [his] face disappeared under a blush of mortification.”(pg.23). Jack’s savage nature is a result of him wanting to compensate for not being chief. Jack wants to prove that he deserves to be chief instead of Ralph by proving to the other boys that he is stronger than Ralph. However, as the book progresses, Ralph stays as chief and Jack becomes progressively more savage. Another character that plays a significant role in Jack’s progression to savagery is Piggy. From the start of the novel, Jack is a bully who that picks on Piggy constantly. As the fat kid, Piggy takes a lot of abuse from Jack and one instance of this is from when the boys first meet Jack and Jack says to Piggy “Shut up fatty.”...

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...der, which creates chaos and leads the whole island into despair.

Golding effectively shows how humans are naturally evil by using other characters, setting ,and symbols. Golding uses these three things in his writing to develop Jack’s character from being a civilized English boy to a barbaric savage to show that the natural state of human nature is evil. Without law, order, or civility, then humans would regress into animals, just as Jack had regressed into savagery. Golding is showing us within his writing that when humans are put into a situation where they must survive, they will do anything to achieve this goal. However, civility keeps us humans from having the need to survive because we have unity within a civilization, but once we turn on one another, civilization will break down and we will all be pulled into the darkness.

Works Cited

Lord of the Flies