William Golding's Lord Of The Flies

The heavy rain slammed against the ground in the dark of night. The man rounded the corner only to witness the dreadful sight of a lifeless figure limp on the coated concrete. It was horrid, blood splatter, and torn flesh. The torture that this poor person could have endured would be preposterous. He was enraged, teeth clenched, he cursed the gods for allowing such people to get killed by emotionless and cruel “humans”. Every single person born on this Earth is not invincible to such acts. Similar to William Golding, every human contains a non-civilized or barbaric characteristic due to the fact that people always struggle for power, someone’s craving for their desires can cloud their judgment of what’s right, and the only thing that contains

that craving or desire is the bounds of the law.
People as we know want to be on top, socially and academically. Everyone wants the satisfaction of ruling over a set of people, or just having that inside feeling of being better than another person. The concept of power is huge, it can grant many wishes yet if it is misused, it can bring to one’s downfall. Throughout human history, there was always someone who wanted to have power, and they would meet ends to make that happen. Take Adolf Hitler as an example, leader of Nazi Germany. He started as a citizen who admired Germany, but with his greed for power, it gave him (and others) a different view on life. One of Hitler’s beliefs were that Germany was the best of the best:
He had very strong views on Germany being the Master race and thought that Germany was far superior to any other country… He wanted to join up with Poland, the Sudetenland and Austria. If these three countries wouldn’t agree to join with Hitler and Germany, Hitler would almost certainly invade and conquer them anyway… he didn’t care. (THE TRUTH ABOUT ADOLF HITLER’S RISE TO POWER)
Hitler turned away from the path of civility after believing that he needed power. Hitler had the mindset of getting what he wants when he wants it, this brought him to be a main force in WWII, but his actions during the war were very savage and barbaric including the massacre of innocent civilians. Power is a huge factor when it comes to ones state of mind. In this case, it made someone a superpower, yet in the end it concluded with their demise. The privilege of power and the benefits you can reap should be used with caution as it is a very strong force that should not be meddled with.
Someone’s desires can be a major influence on a person.

As humans, we tend to want something so much to the point of where we ‘need’ to have it. This may result in losing focus on what is actually happening which will cause one to focus on what they want instead. Someone’s desires can range from small things like phones to large things like world dominance. In the book Lord of the Flies, William Golding plays around the fact that humans are savage and that it this trait brings their downfall. Jack who is the major antagonist loses grasp on simply surviving on the inhabited island and begins to desire the need to hunt pigs. His desire got out of hand which brought forth his savage side where it caused the death of two characters. One of the deaths were caused by Jack and his group since they lost sight of what was happening and focused on one objective: “Simon was crying out something about a dead man on a hill. ‘Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!’... The beast was on its knees in the center, its arms folded over its face… The beast struggled forward, broke the ring and fell over the steep edge…” (Golding 168-69). Jack and his group ended up taking Simon as the beast which was caused since Jack and his group were acting out of control and focused on themselves. This lead to the death of Simon, who was one of the more civilized people there. Desires can be huge in a person’s decisions, and it can play a key role for the good or

bad.
The law is a huge influence in modern day society. Controlling different aspects to keep things in a civilized order. These laws are chains which tie down the malicious characteristics and keep them under check. But the law can only do this for so long. Absence of such order can cause the breakdown of the border between what is right and wrong: “Jack was the first to make himself heard. He had not got the conch and thus spoke against the rules; but nobody minded.” (Golding 94). The boys tried to maintain the laws they created, yet they started to ignore them as evident here. The boys came from civilized land, yet the absence of those laws degraded them to the point where their savage traits started to take control. The law is the only thing that keeps people civil, without it, their civility diminishes and their underlying traits surface.
Civility is just a mask for the inner ruthlessness of all humans with no exception. This is said since society and its inhabitants are always struggling for authority over another, one’s ambitions and desires can overpower someone’s perception of events, and that the face of order and justice is the only thing keeping someone’s primal instincts in check. Civilization is unstable with fluctuations for the worse, there will soon be a time where the inner thoughts of society will overcome their emotions leading to chaos or fighting. Humans are, and always will be savage.