The Themes Of Savagery In Lord Of The Flies By William Golding

Lord of the Flies is the name given to the inner beast, to which only

Mankind is, by nature, an evil, vile, and savage species. This is nowhere more apparent than in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, a novel detailing the adventures of a group of shipwrecked British schoolboys, who must survive on an uncharted Pacific island, while seeking rescue and order. Golding’s exploration of Man’s inherent wickedness is no more apparent in Chapter Nine, “A View to a Death”, in which the group of boys, in a riotous ceremony, brutally murder one of their own. The many events of the book lead to one conclusion: In Lord of the Flies, William Golding propagates the idea that Mankind is inherently inclined towards savagery and evil, which is conveyed via symbolism, juxtaposition, and foreshadowing.

In the book, Lord of the Flies, William Golding writes of the beast as a symbol that represents the savage-like urges that lie within all souls of humans. The civilization among the community of boys continues to stifle the beast. Savagery emerges when the suppressing of the beast comes to a halt, and the beast is set free. The savages worship the beast. As Jack’s clan convert to such a creature, they live for the beast and leave sacrifices for it to assure their safety. The Lord of the Flies, contains the theme of savagery and the beast, and is shown through the characters’ actions and words.

In Lord Of The Flies, William Golding uses a fictional being in the young boys minds to introduce the idea of savagery within human beings. For example in chapter 5 Simon states his opinion on the beast that everyone on the island fears, Simon says, “ maybe there is a beast...maybe it’s only us.” Through this statement Golding displays the idea that evil resonates within them all. Thus showing the reader that the fear that was among the boys all along was soli created by their evil acts and intentions. This fear can be seen, when the idea of a “beast” was first introduced to the novel in chapter 5, Ralph “remembering the beast, the snake…the talk of fear.” brings up the beast but the idea is quickly counter attacked by Jack saying, “...as

In the book Lord of the flies by William Golding, around 15 boys between the ages of 9 to 12 were left stranded on a deserted island. As they navigate through the ways of survival, many of the boys find their cause to fall into savagery. Throughout Lord of the flies, Golding draws a fine line between savagery and civilization as the novel progresses. The author suggests that human nature has an inborn sense of savagery, and evil that lies within that is only controlled by the pull of civilization.

When it comes to surviving, people are willing to resort to anything. In the novel Lord of the Flies the children experience savagery and begin to get gradually worse. This monumental effect in the novel written by William Golding reflects the savagery that took place during World War II with the soldiers and the people caught in the crossfire who combated one another for survival and resorted to savagery to stay alive.

In the novel, Lord of the Flies, William Golding is able to use his outstanding writing abilities utilizing metaphors, symbolism, and other literary devices to establish a hidden message throughout the novel. The hidden message that Golding builds on is that there is a natural evil inside every human being, which is suppressed in an organized society through laws, rules, and punishment. The young boys in the novel are on an island all by themselves. There is no punishment for their actions, therefore allowing that evil to come out of most of the boys. All humans have an innate evil within them and that evil is brought out when there is a lack of civilization and consequence as seen in Simon’s murder,

Lord of the Flies, A novel written by William Golding, teaches many themes of human nature some true and some faulty. When a group of young british boys crash land into the ocean, they find themselves stranded on an undiscovered island. No one could anticipate what these civilised boys would turn into as time went on. From proper, clean-cut, disciplined schoolboys they slowly morph into the opposite of their initial characters. Throughout the story the boys turn to their primitive sides and begin to show an unknown evil inside of them, while killing each other and forming clans. As the audience sits back and observes, it is almost impossible to not compare the boys to the rest of mankind. After all they are Golding’s little human nature experiment.

Have you ever wondered how certain people would act in a survival setting? Well in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies that was exactly it. During wartimes a group of boys were stranded on a deserted island and left to attempt civilization. After their civilization fails, they start to turn away from society. Then, later divide into two groups with different leaders, one being the original leader, Ralph, the other to be Jack.

Lord of the Flies was written in spite of Golding's consideration of human evil, a topic that involves an examination not only of human nature but also its causes. What causes someone to be evil? How does someone become so terrifyingly vicious? Is a person’s development affected more by their genetics or their experiences? This is the old-age controversial topic of nature vs. nurture.

"Man has demonstrated that he is master of everything - except his own nature." This quote from Henry Miller demonstrates that even the best of people can be tempted and twisted by their own nature. Like the symbolic pig’s head stuck in the calm forests clearing, all beauty and innocence can be mutated when order is overthrown by impulse actions. In William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, a central theme exists demonstrating the deterioration of civilization, and the overpowering of savagery, leading to the abandonment of moral thoughts and actions within a person. The beauty of the island is burned away slowly as the fiery demon of savagery attempts to overwhelm the boys. The beauty of the island symbolizes the charm of law and

From the beginning of human existence we have been savage. Over the years we have been able to control is in a more civilized way, but humans still have the urge to kill, the urge for power. In the novel “Lord of the Flies” Golding represents the savagery and selfishness in each human being through characters and various symbols, whether they are stranded on an isolated island or living in the largest city. Under the cover of each human being is the originality, where everyone is savage.

In Golding’s Lord of the Flies, as the schoolboys’ dilemma on the island continues, the horrifying, but mere idea of the “beastie” casts a constant fear in their minds that only conceals the true savagery that has been implanted into human society beforehand. The sudden uproar of brutality begins when Jack decides to form his own hunting tribe (127). As described by Golding, the savages kill a pig and leave its head on a stick in the forest, while Jack states, “This is for the beast. It’s a gift” (137). This shows how the beast distorts the head hunter’s mind, in which he makes a peace offering to the beast as if worshipping a god (137).

    Despite the progression of civilization and society's attempts to suppress man's darker side, moral depravity proves both indestructible and inescapable; contrary to culturally embraced views of humanistic tendencies towards goodness, each individual is susceptible to his base, innate instincts. In William Golding's Lord of the Flies, seemingly innocent schoolboys evolve into bloodthirsty savages as the latent evil within them emerges. Their regression into savagery is ironically paralleled by an intensifying fear of evil, and it culminates in several brutal slays as well as a frenzied manhunt. The graphic consequence of the boys' unrestrained barbarity, emphasized by the

In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, symbolism and allegories were used to show how the children who are stranded on an island have a huge struggle with civilization and savagery. Ralph, Piggy, Jack, and Simon are the ones in the novel that struggle with this the most.