Cruelty In Lord Of The Flies Analysis

Cruelty can often be described as savagery in that it causes mental or physical harm to a person or object. The novel written by William Golding, and published in 1954, the Lord of the Flies, reveals our human nature through a fictional society. With his writing crammed full of literary devices like symbolism and motifs, Golding uses cruelty to develop major themes and display motivation along with the transformation of characters within their adult-free society.

As witnessed in the novel, Jack is extremely cruel to Piggy. He can be described as the stereotypical high school bully in that he is intimidating and makes remarks just to lower someone’s confidence. In chapter two, Jack bluntly tells Piggy, “You're always scared. Yah---Fatty!” This

The two most obvious characters that deal with cruelty are Jack and Piggy. Starting with Jack, we can see that many of his acts of cruelty revolve around hunting. It is observed that Jack becomes bloodlust throughout the book. He first starts hunting for a pig and then cutting one’s head off, and then to ordering a man hunt on Ralph. He progressively intensifies as a savage and continues to support the theme of internal darkness. On the other hand, Piggy is destroyed by cruelty. Throughout the book, Piggy cannot speak directly to a group of people, only Ralph. As the rules of the conch seem to disappear, Piggy loses all of his power. Then, he gets killed by a large boulder that not only destroys him, but the conch as well. The loss of Piggy and the conch represent the destruction of democracy, reason, and logic on the island. Throughout the novel, the Lord of the Flies, cruelty functions to help develop major themes that are not noticeable at first glance. At first, the book seems to be about just a group of boys stranded on an island. But with deeper examination, the novel shows the true darkness that exists in every human being. Golding tells a story that shows the fight between democracy and dictatorship, the struggle between bad and good, and how cruelty is destined to be the downfall of