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Who Is The Savage In Lord Of The Flies

Decent Essays

Eylül Güven 399
Ms. McConnell
English L2A
May, 17, 2017

“There is a savage beast in every man, and when you hand that man a sword or spear and send him forth to war, the beast stirs” (George R. R. Martin). A human is made up of both savage and civil sides and the conditions that they are out in determine which side of their personality they will show. In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, there is a group of boys who are stranded on an island. The boys show different sides of their personalities and most of them give into their primal instincts because they need to survive. Throughout the novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses the characters -Jack, Roger, Ralph- to display the different sides of humankind through the conflict of civilization and savagery. …show more content…

At first Jack was civilized just like everyone else. Being civilized in general means not doing what comes naturally. Before landing on the island Jack was living in a community where killing was a crime. “They knew very well why he hadn’t: because of the enormity of the knife descending into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood” (29). Jack could not bear the idea of killing. He has never killed before and the idea of taking something's life scared him. Since Jack had never seen something killed before it was terrifying for him. After some time on the island a different side of Jack became visible. “[Jack] began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling” (66). Jack, who used to be afraid to kill, has become savage. His instincts to kill are at play. It is clearly seen that Jack has two sides to him and his feelings toward the same topic change according to the situation he is

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