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How Does Lord Of The Flies Represent Civilization

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“Maybe there is a beast… maybe it's only us”(89). In the beginning of the novel, a group of boys are stranded on an island without adults. They obey the regulations and rules set by the chief, Ralph. Ralph and Piggy find a conch shell that is used to call the boys to gather around for a meeting, which represents civilized environment created by Ralph. The boys turn into savages when Jack becomes absorbed with the thought of hunting and paints his face to disguise in the jungle. Because Jack is one of the most powerful boys, who seeks for power, his actions influence many other boys to replicate him. In the novel, Lord of the flies, Ralph and Piggy represent civilization, and Jack and Roger represent savagery. Ralph and Piggy represent civilization. …show more content…

Jack’s desire to hunt and kill lead to Simon's death. Simon discovers there is no beast on the island, because he realizes they assumed the pilot with his parachute as the beast. Simon decides to inform the other boys; meanwhile Jack and his crew members are having a feast. Ralph and Piggy came to the feast, so Ralph can have at least have a little control over the boys. Additionally, they start to dance and chant around the fire “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood"(152). Because it dark and the boys did not stop chanting, the boys think Simon is the beast. Therefore, Simon is killed in the feast, and the boys do not feel guilty about their actions. Roger is one of many boys who is influenced by Jack’s actions. Jack and a few of his crew members steal Piggy’s glasses to make fire. When Ralph and Piggy come to retrieve them, Ralph observes“High overhead, Roger, with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever”(180). Roger pushes a boulder where Piggy was standing; subsequently Piggy is killed. Jack’s obsession with hunting and killing lead to the separation of the boys, additionally Jack’s actions influenced other boys to act like him. The boys being stranded on the island with no adult lead to loss of civilization within Ralph and Piggy, and the boys around them. Ralph and Piggy try to maintain law and order, but the innocence with them is lost. Additionally, Jack’s desire for hunting and blood kills Simon. Jack’s actions also reflect on Roger’s actions, which kills Piggy. Losing civilization amongst the group leads the boys to disrespect the society as a whole, and they will never be able to return to civilized boys there

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Ralph dives out of the way and dodges it, but Piggy does not react fast enough. The boulder crushes Piggy and kills him. Both of these events represent an end to the small portion of rationality living amongst the boys. After rationality is wiped out from their communities, savagery and evil arise. The theme of inner savagery plays a very prominent role in both novels.

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Ralph treats all the boys with respect. Ralph's leadership is exemplified when he defends Piggy who is one of the weakest in the group. During an argument between Jack and Piggy, Jack slaps Piggy and breaks his glasses. Ralph calls it "A dirty trick" (p. 72).

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Stranded on a deserted tropical island, with no adults, was the time Simon, Piggy, and Ralph started their journey. Ralph and Piggy soon discovered a conch shell that summons a bunch of other boys on the island. They all decided that it would be best to have a leader of the group and they chose Ralph, but Jack was appointed to be leader for the boys going to hunt for food. Next, the boys decided how they wanted to send a signal in case a plane would fly over the island. Their conclusion was to keep a fire lit at all times.

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”(Golding 106). Piggy, ralph and jack tribe were all chanting and dancing for a hunting call to find and kill a pig but then turns into a chant to kill the beast. They become very violent and they become very confused and get simon and the beast mixed up and they end up killing simon. This murder symbollizes the savergy in the boys and how evil and cruel they are. “"_Kill the beast!

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He goes hunting with other boys on the island, and they successfully kill a pig. Unfortunately, they let the signal fire out in the process. Ralph tries to look for the boys, when they come marching in, carrying a dead pig. The boys, led by Jack, are chanting “kill the pig. Cut her throat.

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Although the boys are stuck on the island for weeks and begin to turn to savagery, one boy, Simon, makes an observation that no one else makes yet. Simon, who is an intuitive and sensitive individual eventually recognizes the darkness that hides within the human heart. When the boys argue about there being a beast on the island, Simon proposes the idea to the group that “maybe it’s only us that we’re afraid of” (Golding 195). Simon tries to suggest that the beast may be something within the boys themselves but to the boys, it’s just easier to fear the beast than to face the reality that they are actually afraid of each other. Towards the end of the novel when Simon and Piggy face death, and Jack’s savage group is about to kill Ralph, a naval officer shows up at the same time Ralph was about to give up and let himself die.

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The boys that started following Jack caught most of the island on fire trying to capture Ralph, but because of the fire Ralph was smoked out causing him to run towards the sand, finding rescuers. Jack took Piggy's glasses causing him to not be able to see therefore, when Piggy went to get his glasses from Jack, some of the boys ended up pushing a bolder onto his head. Since Simon was caught in the middle he ended up going insane, causing him to put the pig's head on his head, which caused the boys to believe he was the beast, so they ended up accidentally killing him.

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After a quick vote, Ralph was elected leader of the stranded boys, leaving Jack jealous and vengeful. Golding expresses in the novel how people can be made powerless and put in danger due to their self image. As a way to express this, Golding uses the character, Piggy, to give the audience a sense of what it feels like to have problems and conditions that create a separation between people. Piggy is a character with more of a sensible appeal to the problems that arise in this novel, but he is dramatically weakened after being caught time and time again envying Jack and Ralph. Piggy is described as a "fatly naked" (13) boy as he and Ralph are first scoping out and entering the pool, whereas when Piggy was exiting

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Jack's influence is beginning to rub off on the other boys, causing them to believe that one of the other boys is 'the beast.' Simon crawls out of the jungle and, "all at once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt onto the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore. There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws" (Golding 169). The fear of the beast that sits within the boys originates from the fear that Jack has instilled into them. This causes them to murder young Simon, believing that he is the beast.

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There is a savage beast in every man, and when you hand that man a sword or spear and send him forth to war, the beast stirs. In the novel, Lord of the Flies, a group of young boys are plane wrecked on an uninhabited island and try to adapt to the changes in their lives by attempting to build a civilization. But as time goes on, that steadily crumbles and they slowly descend into savagery. Simon discovers the true identity of the beast; Ralph and the remaining bigguns join Jack 's tribe for a feast and a party. Simon is brutally murdered by the boys, having been confused for the beast.

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Unable to keep up with the rest of the boys physically and intellectual beyond his age, he is shunned from the beginning. While Ralph’s calmness seemed to augment his image of leadership and strength, Piggy’s rationality and common sense becomes a hamartia, marking him as a tragic figure. Piggy is so intent on preserving some remnant of civilization on the island that after Jack’s tribe attacks Ralph’s group, he assumes they “wanted the conch” (00), when in fact they have come for his glasses in order to make fire. Even up to the moment of his death, Piggy’s perspective does not shift in response to the reality of their situation. Because his intellectual approach to life is modeled on the attitudes of the authoritative world where Golding utilizes Piggy to make a statement on the treatment and disregard of the weak, whose punishment for giving power through his glasses to the corrupted Jack Merridew is death by murder.

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Then, while Ralph and the others were sleeping, Jack and a few of his hunters attacked Ralph’s people and stole Piggy’s glasses and extinguished their fire. Piggy,

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The boys, now in contact with adults, society, understand their moral wrongdoing under the scrutiny of the adult naval officer and all begin to cry. Ralph begins to cry for their cumulative loss of innocence, the evil their hearts obtain, and the wrongful murder of Piggy whose sole purpose was to maintain social stability and order. Their expression of emotions through crying, makes the boys vulnerable as immature children, solidifying the idea that even as children, innate malice lives within all of man. Ralph further understands the cruelty within man’s heart as the naval officer ironically degrades the boy 's ability to maintain civilization as he continues to participate in the annihilation of his own enemies in the war.

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Jack seems to bring out the savagery in all the boys, as they slowly began acting less civilized. Heartless monsters were made out of once innocent well behaved boys to bring out primitive behavior. Bringing out this in the boys leads to multiple deaths that could have easily never happened. Through this all Ralph tried to calmly put the thought of peace and being civilized into their young minds. Piggy and Ralph seemed to have this connection that helped make it easy for the two to be compatible up till the point Piggy passed.

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The boys reenact killing the pig, pretending to hurt Robert, and even for Ralph, “The desire to squeeze and hurt was overmastering” (Golding 115). Also, going to Jack’s feast causes a crime that Ralph commits. Ralph and Piggy join the other boys and partake in the feast, the dance, the killing. Ralph knows that he killed Simon and he knows that his innocence is gone. He regrets the things he does and “cradles the conch to and fro”, wishing for order again (Golding

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