Savages In Lord Of The Flies

Living in modern times, people believe that savages are people who live in huts, wear clothes made of plants, run around wildly, do crazy dances in front of fires, and live in the jungle. Modern day people believe that they are completely free of savagery and are civilized, no matter how much time they stay away from civilization. Author William Golding believes the opposite; he believes that even civilized people can become savages, just because it is a small part of human nature. In Golding’s book, Lord of the Flies, a group of British boys become savages over a period of some of weeks. In the novel, Golding expresses his opinion through the symbols and characters such as the conch, Roger, and Simon. One symbol that Golding uses is the conch, which represents civilization. Ralph calls all of the boys by blowing into the conch. They also take turns speaking by holding the conch.
Simon represents a Christ-figure, because he finds out the ultimate truth of what the Beast actually is, and he is sacrificed for this. Simon is a quiet boy who isn’t really mentioned in the beginning of the book, besides the fact that he supported Ralph rather than Jack. Simon’s main role came after all of the boys had seen the dead parachuter and perceived him as the “Beast”. Simon, being the Christ-figure, disbelieved in the “Beast” and investigated. After investigating, he found out that the “Beast” was just a dead parachuter. Before this had happened, Simon had met the Lord of the Flies, who is a pig. The Lord of the Flies told him, “‘Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!’”(206). He tells Simon that “[he’s] a part of [Simon]”(206), which shows that the “Beast” was within the boys themselves. This is the biggest point that Golding was portraying to his readers. That “Beast” represents the savage side of every human, which may take you