Though adults’ sadistic intents were and are visible in instances such as German concentration camps during World War II, William Golding hones in on budding adolescents in Lord of the Flies to demonstrate that the capacity for brutality occurs in humanity regardless of age. Only in essence do these children maintain their innocence; as the novel progresses, their tendency to give into the darkness inside of them becomes more frequent. Lord of the Flies begins with a group of boys aged between five and twelve--the remaining survivors of an airplane crash which takes place during their evacuation from England. Having wrecked on a fictitious island with no adult in sight, the boys are left to govern themselves. They elect as their leader an athletic, fair-skinned boy called Ralph, and under his guidance they agree to keep a fire burning as a signal for rescue, to summon gatherings by blowing a conch shell and to allow a hearing to any boy holding the conch. Ralph and Piggy, a fat, intelligent boy, arrange to build shelters, leaving the hunting to a slightly older boy, Jack. As leader of the choirboys, or “littluns”, he was envious of Ralph’s election; to pacify him Ralph suggested that the choir should hunt the wild pigs living in the forests. …show more content…
With the masks on, he and the hunters seem to have new personalities as they forget the taboos of society that once restrained them from giving in to their natural urges. The hunters fail in their initial attempt to catch a pig, but Jack becomes increasingly preoccupied with the act of hunting due to the satisfaction it provides his primal instincts. The cracks in their learned civility are beginning to deepen at this point in the novel, particularly in the willingness of the older boys to use violence to give themselves a sense of superiority over the