Civilization Vs Savagery

Overwhelming Abundance of Evil
Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a novel that makes a stance on how no single human being is not all good. While humans are the most well developed mammal on planet Earth there is a reason that they are still considered a part of the Animal Kingdom. There is a savage, almost evil instinct buried in each human being. The events of the past and circumstances surrounding the human are the deciding factors of whether or not the evil instinct is released. The novel, Lord of the Flies, draws attention to this topic with three main characters. The theme of civilization vs. savagery is a theme carried by the plot of the novel; innocence and sanity are what are lost as a result of savagery. Golding uses Ralph,
Jack, and Simon to represent different extremes of the human nature scale as well as his views on the subject. The novel starts with a group of boys on an island beach. The reader only knows that there has been a plane crash and that the boys come from a boarding school. There is no knowledge of where they have landed, how the plane crashed, or much background of the boys. The boys must work together to survive until they get rescued. They organize into groups and elect Ralph as leader. Tension has already started to grow because of the fact that Jack was not named as leader. After not winning the role, Jack names himself as head hunter. These roles of leadership set the tone for how the rest of the novel will play out. It is clear that Ralph will have a civilized and rational way to thinking through problems while Jack is going to have a savage nature. In the beginning of the novel everything is running smoothly. Everybody is doing their designated tasks and there is an orderly way around the island. This order does not last long. The chores are given less attention and the boys start to become lazy. The first serious result of this is losing the opportunity to be rescued. The rescue fire had not been watched and went out. A ship passing the island did not see smoke or a sign that there were humans on the island. This is when Ralph decided that society must be put back into order. Jack starts trying to influence the boys at this time. He has convinced most of the boys that there is a beast present on the island. Jack knows that getting the boys to fear a beast is the first step to gaining control. He must then show the boys that he can protect them by hunting the beast down, it is then that he will have control over the group. The children then start to claim that the beast is after them and does not want them on the island. This fear of the beast starts to consume the boys and begins to drive them mad. They gradually lose the civil instincts and by the end of the novel savage ways have taken over in the cruelest of ways. Jack’s plan is working as many of the boys start following his ways and leadership. The only boy to not be consumed by the savagery is Ralph. Golding uses the character of Ralph to show that there is an evil instinct in every human being and that even a person with the purest intentions can be corrupted.
Ralph is the protagonist of Lord of the Flies. He is the elected leader of the group of boys, which shows that he represents order and civilization. Many of the other boys are excited to be on their own. They are happy to be given the freedom of playing and fooling around all day. Ralph however wants to set up civilization. His main goal is to keep the boys until they are rescued. Ralph wants to return to a society of adults. His strong morals and commitment to civilization are what keeps Ralph pushing against savagery. At first Ralph cannot understand the boys wants to be savage. The chanting, dancing, and blood lust of the hunters disgusts Ralph. He is determined not become like the hunters. Ralph cannot completely escape the savagery. When he experiences hunting a pig for the first time he is overcome by a rush of violence, excitement, and bloodlust. At this time Ralph also participates in the dancing and chanting rituals done by the hunters. Ralph is also caught up in the excitement of bloodlust at the end of the novel during Jack’s feast. The savagery that he experiences here leads him to be a part of the killing of Simon. It was an instinct that took over that took over Ralph and caused him to partake in the killing of Simon. The savagery took over Ralph during multiple occasions even though his greatest desire was to keep the peace until they were rescued. At the end of the novel Ralph weeps for the loss of innocence. “Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of a true, wise friend called Piggy” (Golding 184). When Ralph runs into the officer at the end of the novel he weeps. They are not tears of joy, but instead tears of loss. He realizes that the events on the island have caused him to lose the last innocence that he had left. The evils
and violence that were released changed every boy on the island. Not one boy would be able to leave the same as when they crash landed. Jack represents savagery and the want for power, the antithesis of Ralph. It is clear that Jack’s want for power starts with the beginning of the novel when he is not happy that Ralph was chosen over him as leader. The reader knows that Jack has had leadership roles in the past because of the fact the he is the leader of the choirboys. Jack’s savage behavior begins when he is unable to successfully hunt a pig. From that point on he is determined to never let anything escape him again. Jack starts to paint his face which allows a more violent side to come out. “His mind was crowded with memories; memories of the knowledge that had come to them when they closed in on the struggling pig, knowledge that they had outwitted a living thing, imposed their will upon it, taken away its life like a long satisfying drink” (Golding 70). This quote shows a milestone in the boy’s journey to savagery. Jack blames the loss of the kill on the crowded memories that took over his mind. Jack does not find satisfaction in finding food for the troupe but instead for the fact that he outsmarted an animal. His pride is in the defeat of another. Jack never lets go of his want to be in authority. He learns that he can control some of the boys with fear. Jack uses the superstition of the beast to manipulate the boys. He makes them want to become more savage. This in return causes the boys to drift towards Jack’s authority as opposed to Ralph’s. Jack’s want to be savage comes from an inner instinct. He arrives on the island a leader of well-mannered choir boys, showing that he is just as civilized, if not more than the others but then evolves into a blood lusting savage. Jack’s transformation shows how humans are not born all evil. There is a potential for evil inside of every being. The evil comes out during the appropriate circumstances. Simon is the middle man between Ralph and Jack. He has a spiritual goodness that makes him closely connected to nature. The boys start to reject all moral behavior as soon as civilization is not forced upon them. The moral compasses of each boy become disregarded because of the lack of enforced punishment. Simon is the one character in the novel to continue to think with morals instead of on the spot adrenaline. Even Ralph and Piggy, who fought for civilization the most, become weak and fall into brief moments of savagery. Simon acts morally because of his lack of guilt or shame. Simon never mistreats the littluns in fact when given the option he chooses to stay with them. Simon is also the first to realize that the beast is not real. He discovers that the beast is a figment of imagination that Jack has used to instill fear in the boys. “What I mean is . . . maybe it’s only us” (Golding 137), Simon says when the littlun brings up the idea of the beast in the meeting. Simon is already questioning whether or not the beast is real. Simon is the first character in the novel to recognize that the beast is not a physical force but an internal force. The beast is more of a symbol for the savagery inside of all the boys. Simon represents the internal good that all humans have. His occasional moments alone in nature, positive outlook, and want to keep the thought of a beast out of the boys’ heads show his internal good. Simon contrasts both Jack and Ralph because of this. His murder at the end of the novel represents how savagery and violence are able to take over the good in society. The overwhelming evil is able to override the good.
Golding is trying to introduce the idea that there is an inherent evil within each human being. Ralph does his best to stay civilized but has moments or savagery. Jack turns into a violent leader. And Simon, the spiritual goodness of the group, is eventually murdered because of an overwhelming abundance of evil. The evil in human nature is brought out with the right mix of surrounding events and attitudes. In the case of Lord of the Flies the savagery presented not only took lives but innocence as well.

Works Cited
Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. Salisbury: Faber and Faber, 1954. Print.