Lord of Flies

Musician Annie Lennox once said, “Humankind seems to have an enormous capacity for savagery, for brutality, for lack of empathy, for lack of compassion.” This quote introduces the idea that humans have a brutal nature and are drawn away from the civilized ways of life because of it. When true human nature is allowed to be seen, these savagely characteristics are made visible and these other courteous ways of life are forgotten. In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the boys choose to follow Jack’s violent and fearful leadership, abandoning Ralph’s authority based on order and civilized norms, proving that rule based on savagery appeals to mans dark human nature and will overshadow leadership based on civility to the detriment of society. This realization is shown in the novel when, at the beginning, all of the boys follow the same rules that have been put on them for their whole lives, but as the story progresses Jack follows his savagery human instincts and some boys follow. At the end of the story all of the boys true selves are exposed and savagery and brutality have consumed the boys. At the start of the novel,while on the island the boys follow the rules that society has always made them follow, making the island a peaceful and organized society but very early on it is made known that the boys don't want to follow these norms that have been put on them their entire life. When they first get to the island, they keep order by electing a leader. “...We ought to have a chief to decide things...Let’s have a vote...This toy of voting was almost as pleasing as the conch.” pg. 22. Voting is something that is done in a normal society and they boys take this systematic way of making decisions and use it on the island. This shows that for a small amount of time, their regular ways of living stay with them because this is what seems normal to them. They have been taught these ways to do things their entire life and they have been enforced by adults so