William Golding Lord Of The Flies Quote Analysis

Imagine a thick mixture of blood and sweat streaming down from your temple, the sound of your heavy breathing is deafening against the pitch black night. You run into an alley way when you hear footsteps running past. Sirens blasting, tear gas fill your lungs with every inhale, and you hear distant screams. The sound of a club striking something… someone until the screams are gone. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, he expresses humanity’s capacity for evil. Destruction and demoralization comes out to play when civilization and order are absent. The book takes one through a time when there was peace and law, but gradually illustrates corruptions strength on the boys’ minds. This book relates to problems we’ve seen in the past and what
problems we are repeating and creating now. Lord of the Flies shows what we are capable of becoming: monsters.
In the early stages of the novel, Golding writes about how even with their circumstances, the boys create their own rules. In the first pages we are introduced to an object symbolism of order that is the conch. Once the boys assemble and no grownups are present, Jack comments that they’ll have to look after themselves (Golding, pg. 21). Boys introduce names, and then Ralph lifts the conch saying, “Seems to me we ought to have a chief to decide things.” With a choir to everyone else vote, Ralph becomes chief and purposes they explore the island which leads them to food, building shelters, and starting a signal fire. Later in the novel Ralph realizes his unhygienic appearance. To keep a civilized image he plans to wash his shirt, cut his hair, and have a bath. Ralph is concerned about keeping order and a healthy society on the island, even when the boys resort to my next topic: savagery.
Harmlessly this all starts with play.
Just like the saying it’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt, the boys begin by playing around, not working, and eventually harming. On page 114 and 115 it describes how the boys “play fight” Robert as if he were a pig. Robert plays along but soon the boys start hitting a bit too hard, Robert squeals in mock terror, then in real pain (Golding, pg.114), and they grab him. Then the most astonishing thing happens when Golding writes, “Ralph, carried away by a sudden thick excitement, grabbed Eric’s spear and jabbed at Robert with it… Ralph too was fighting to get near, to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh. The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering.” It wasn’t just a game. It was grabby, grimy, grimacing hunters who longed for more than a pig’s death. The pig’s death earlier that gave Ralph the knowledge that they outwitted a living thing, imposed their will upon it, taken away its life like a long satisfying drink (Golding, pg. 70). Their satisfaction must have been in Simon’s murder, or Piggy’s death, or the hunt for Ralph. The night that Simon died was full of frenzy and fear. Everyone joined in the dance, the chant, the cold-blooded murder. The next day Ralph realizes the damage they’ve done and what they’ve become. Piggy constantly says it was an accident, or defense but Ralph replies with, “That was Simon ... that was murder.” Then he whimpers, “I’m frightened. Of
us.”
Golding’s classic is such an entrancing book due to its symbolism and scarily relatable theme that applies then and now. Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941 and war was declared on the Axis powers by Franklin D. Roosevelt. Acting out of fear all people of Japanese descent on the West coast were put into internment camps to eliminate possible spies and loyalists of Japan. In the Lord of the Flies the boys acted out of fear when they killed Simon. Both the Japanese- American citizens and Simon experienced the unfair and brutal decisions carried on by other people’s fears and misunderstanding.
Twenty years later, mankind’s flaws still present themselves in the height of the modern civil rights movement. A march to Selma on March 7th for voting rights was assembled. 600 peaceful people that marched were stopped at the end of the Edmund Pettus Bridge by law enforcement. Before the two minutes were up for them to disperse the troops advanced. John Lewis who led the march was one out of 58 people that were treated for injuries. In his court statements it reads, “I was hit twice, once when I was lying down and was attempting to get up.” That day in history is known as Bloody Sunday. The police officers can be compared to the hunters because what was their job, turns into a brutal and uncontrollable pleasure in harming peaceful things.
Anywhere on the news you can find reports and video of boycotts and police intercourse. Unexplained deaths lead to the loss of innocence in police enforcement and people who riot against the law. Breaking into buildings, stealing, disrespecting those who represent the law, and those who represent the law disrespecting citizens is too common. Defying the laws put forth for everyone and harming things extends far beyond making a point, just like how hunting for a pig became more than hunting when they posted its head and smeared its blood on their faces.
Imagine turning on the television to the news and no war, riots, or terrorism continues. The world is at peace. Corrupt leaders and people have since made agreement to never harm again and everyone is respected. In this novel it shows not only human kinds ability to be evil, but to be civilized like Ralph, Piggy, and Simon. When there is order, there is peace. At the end of the book there is a chance of hope and rescue, just like what we can find in our world today if we find what we are capable of becoming: humane.