Civility Vs Savagery In Lord Of The Flies

In Lord of the Flies the author, William Golding, shows civil conflicting savagery through Ralph and his restraint from savagery, Jack shows it through his lack of restraint. Civility and savagery were present all throughout and after COVID. There also is “The Thin Red Line” which follows closely the fight between civility and savagery. Golding makes the statement about how civility and savagery are present in everyone. Ralph is shown to have both savagery and civility, except he has better control over it. Not letting it misguide and delude him from his overall task: saving the group of kids. Ralph admits to wanting to “put on war-paint” but his bigger and more important task is to “keep the fire going” (Golding 142). Ralph has a lot of weight on his shoulders at this point, having to keep everyone in line, and keeping the

Ralph chooses to work and does the best he can to lead everyone off the island as safely and as fast as possible. Another example of Ralph’s control is after he hunts for the first time and the boys recreate the situation of them beating the boar on another kid. Jack calls it a “game” where Ralph is kind of uneasy about the statement (Golding 115). Ralph’s morality kicks in, telling him that this is wrong, which is why he feels uneasy about Jack calling it a game. Ralph’s control over both savagery and civility allows him to not give in and do horrible things to others while on the island. Jack, on the other hand, has little to no control over his savagery and civility. Losing his temper and inflicting pain on others and also giving into the temptation of staying on the island instead of rescuing. One of the kids Jack inflicts pain on is Piggy, after an argument about Jack letting the signal fire go out when there was a ship that could rescue them. Jack loses control and “[sticks] his fist into Piggy’s stomach” (Golding 71). That happens a bit after the starting point of Jack’s