lord of flies essay
Blake Dimon
Mrs. Brown
English2, Period3
8 October 2012
Lord of the Flies Essay As the plot progresses in Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the children stranded on the island become less and less attached to social norms. Near the end of the novel the children have no shame in slaughtering animals, embracing violence, and using the ground they stand on as their own personal bathroom.
Every human has a primal instinct lying within them but it is not a question of how close you are to acting on it but rather how well you control and cope with it. From the start of the novel Jack does not like abiding by any of the rules. He simply wants to hunt and have a good time. On Jack’s first hunt he was still connected to the previous society he had once been a part of. He could not bring himself to kill a pig that was caught in thick brush, so he let it get away. By his third hunt Jack and his hunters show no mercy, killing a pig and bringing it back to camp chanting “Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood.” (69) The more time the children have away from society and civilized adults the more they transform into savage animals. Right at the end of the novel the once innocent boy Jack feels no shame about the murders of Simon and Piggy, nor his attempt to kill Ralph.
Even after voting Ralph; the only civilized person left on the island as the leader of the group, the children still largely follow Jack in casting off moral restraint and embracing violence and savagery. “When I woke up one was kicking me in the face. I got an awful bloody face I think Ralph.” (168) Since the children have been marooned on an island with no responsible adults they cannot help the fact that they break the rules and participate in anarchy. When they were first stranded on the island they would not dare kick someone else in the face especially while the person was sleeping but being disconnected from their previous society has caused them to act like barbaric animals.
The community
Mrs. Brown
English2, Period3
8 October 2012
Lord of the Flies Essay As the plot progresses in Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the children stranded on the island become less and less attached to social norms. Near the end of the novel the children have no shame in slaughtering animals, embracing violence, and using the ground they stand on as their own personal bathroom.
Every human has a primal instinct lying within them but it is not a question of how close you are to acting on it but rather how well you control and cope with it. From the start of the novel Jack does not like abiding by any of the rules. He simply wants to hunt and have a good time. On Jack’s first hunt he was still connected to the previous society he had once been a part of. He could not bring himself to kill a pig that was caught in thick brush, so he let it get away. By his third hunt Jack and his hunters show no mercy, killing a pig and bringing it back to camp chanting “Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood.” (69) The more time the children have away from society and civilized adults the more they transform into savage animals. Right at the end of the novel the once innocent boy Jack feels no shame about the murders of Simon and Piggy, nor his attempt to kill Ralph.
Even after voting Ralph; the only civilized person left on the island as the leader of the group, the children still largely follow Jack in casting off moral restraint and embracing violence and savagery. “When I woke up one was kicking me in the face. I got an awful bloody face I think Ralph.” (168) Since the children have been marooned on an island with no responsible adults they cannot help the fact that they break the rules and participate in anarchy. When they were first stranded on the island they would not dare kick someone else in the face especially while the person was sleeping but being disconnected from their previous society has caused them to act like barbaric animals.
The community