Flies: Savagery

ndrew Melton

Ms. Anne Poplin

AP Literature 7th Period

7 December 2016

The savagery of Golding

Lord of the Flies is an elegantly written example of what the lack of civilization can and will do to a struggling society. The novel begins in a very unexpected way. It begins with a plane crash onto a remote island that is completely uninhabited. Out from the woods emerge two characters named Ralph and Piggy. They find a conch shell on the beach and use it as a horn to call to any other boys who may have survived the crash. Once the boys assemble, they decide to chose a leader. The group choses Ralph but not without strong argumentation from a boy named Jack. They appoint Jack as the lead hunter for the group. The boys next big decision

One symbol that Golding uses is the killing of the sow by the boys. The killing of the sow symbolizes the terror human is going to bring to nature, it shoes how evil overpowers everything, and it resides nowhere but inside the human (Thapliyal and Kunwar). The boys taking their hunting to a whole new level after the kill the sow. They start to reenact the killing and make an event out of it. This takes a turn for the worst when the boys end up killing Simon because they mistake him for the beast. Another symbol that Golding uses is a pig 's head. The pig 's head is symbolic of the inner beasts of men. As they (the boys) become more enthralled in the hunt and its bloodlust, they even begin to worship this beast, leaving it sacrifices, such as the sow 's head on a pike, as if it were a tribal god (Neighbors). This event occurred in front of Simon without the hunters ' knowledge. Simon was left to think to himself about the event that had just occured. This is when the books title comes in to play. The Pig 's head, which is infested with flies, has a conversation with Simon in Simon 's head. A conversation in which Golding, speaking through this grotesque agent, removes any doubts that might still have lingered in the reader 's mind with respect to the novel 's theme or the source of the evil described therein:

The Lord of the Flies spoke in the voice of a schoolmaster. "This has gone quite far enough. My poor,

Symbols, characters, and the beginning and end of the novel express what Golding believes about savagery. Golding chose every part of his story for a reason. There was no 'filling ' in his story, meaning that there was nothing he wrote in to just to take up space. Everything he wrote expressed his ideas that savagery can only come from inside of man and that everyone is a natural 'beast ' to the world. His characters showed his audience that lack of a civilized life can lead to the destruction of a society. There is no way of stopping savagery even if it has only taken over one mind. In society, humans influence others so heavily and savagery can spread like wildfire; needing just a spark to set a society ablaze. Humans have a natural instinct to do what is best for them, no matter the cost. Golding, like his character Simon, realized that the beast