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How Do Boys Become Civilized In Lord Of The Flies

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“This was a savage whose image refused to blend with that ancient picture of a boy in shorts and shirt” (Golding 143). The book, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, is about a group of young boys who become stranded on an island during the time of WWI. They developed a system and rules to live by to have some organization; however, that did not last as they soon became violent and evil towards one another. The young boys are more savage than civilized because they turn against one another and become violent and brutal, their way of living and thinking changed throughout the story, and their innocence diminished as they were corrupted by evil and immoral personas. Overtime, the boys became more manic and violent towards their own friends. Instead of being mature and working together, they were brutal if one did not agree with another. The text states, “The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee…” (Golding 141). Piggy was tired of the group turning and killing their friends and tried to speak upon the issue during an argument, but then he was murdered intentionally by a boulder that the boys pushed. Piggy did nothing to cause harm to the others and was innocent, …show more content…

The reading states, “This was a savage whose image refused to blend with that ancient picture of a boy in shirts and shirt” (Golding 143). This quote explains how the playful and genuine kids the boys once were are not there anymore. They have changed so much that they have lost themselves and are not recognizable. Another quote is, “There isn’t anyone to help you. Only me. And I’m the beast” (Golding 111). The mindset of the boys has changed and they have been corrupted with evil. There is no real beast, but the “beast” is actually themselves. The group has been corrupted and changed them in a physical way that is not recognizable anymore. They are no longer young little boys, but heinous

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The Retrogression into a Savage-Like State Throughout Lord of the Flies, Golding illustrates a viewpoint many have labeled unlikely or impractical. He argues that all of mankind is capable of a behavior unlike society’s belief of normal human conduct. Society could truly be capable of retrogression into a savage-like state. Although the young boys in the novel are perceived as being the embodiment of innocence, their stay on the island depicts exactly how capable they are of such behavior. The novel paints a story that holds a deeper meaning than what the words on the page are attempting to reveal to the reader.

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Piggy was a very intelligent little boy who never harmed anyone. " A noise nearer at hand made him quiver... He sneaked forward a few yards and saw the shape at the top of the rock change and enlarge... Ralph put his head down on his forearms and accepted the new fact like a wound... Piggy was dead" (Golding 186).

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When Piggy was killed the boys

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Subject matter such as extreme anger, violence, and even death are typically associated with novels and movies about adults. Most people do not usually relate these things to young children, but the in the dystopian fiction novel Lord of the Flies, boys as young as six years old are exposed to all of this. Changes within the characters coupled with the presence of several key symbols show how separation from civilization can corrupt the minds of young children. From examining the characters and symbols in the novel Lord of the Flies, one can see that the author William Golding is showing the immense importance of civilization and how a lack of it can result in chaos and savagery. Civilization is proved to be of extreme importance in this novel, and the lack of it has a profound effect on the boys.

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Piggy has a really hard time trying to be powerful and lead the group, but his actions and the actions of the other boys show that he can’t hold power over a group, and they show why Piggy has a hard

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The teachings of the book are delivered in an outmoded fashion and are historically irrelevant in today’s changing world. The first half of the book focuses on a “dark thing, a beast, some sort of animal” that terrorizes the boys at night (83). While this beast provides an interesting plot to the story about a mysterious being, the true terrors of modern society have nothing

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No one has stood up to the bullies and they let the verbal taunting continue which makes things escalate to physical contact. The boys start to push and shove each other and one goes as far as throwing rocks at a little boy. An example of physical bullying is when Jack broke Piggy’s glasses. Towards the end of the story they take the physical bullying too far and one boy, Rodger, pushes a boulder off a cliff sending Piggy to his death. If they had listened to Piggy and Ralph, who were the voices of reason, things could have been a good type of different on the

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In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, young boys get stranded on an island with no adults in the midst of a war. The boys were orderly and civilized in the beginning but then as they began killing pigs they slowly became savages and lost their civilization. The boys began turning on each other and the evil within them became present. Golding uses a variety of literary devices including personification, symbols, metaphors, and irony, to project the theme that pure and realistic people in the world can be unheard and destroyed by evil.

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How Savagery Takes Over George R.R. Martin once said, “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.” William Golding demonstrates that every person has savagery inside of him in his novel, Lord of the Flies. In this novel, Golding shows us that civilization is lost and savagery begins when the urge to kill takes hold of us. William Golding’s character development of Jack and motif of weapons help develop his point.

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In chapter 5, Simon realizes that the beast is not actually a physical beast, but the inherent evil inside each and everyone of the boys. This means that the beast within themselves symbolizes the primal instinct of savagery existing in all human beings. Finally, when Simon was murdered by the boys in chapter 9, it signified the final straw of the boy’s descent into savagery. The boys mistook him for the beast and danced around singing rituals. The boys killed Simon, which marked the ultimate loss of innocence.

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The author of the story decided to add in this quote to link the most cruel thing that the boys did with the destruction of order: "The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch

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Piggy valued civilization most out of all the boys, as he always sought the option that would support the entire group, and keep them all safe. The safest that the group of boys had been was when Ralph was appointed as the leader, and he and Piggy had gotten the entire group to work on getting them back home safely. The group isolated Ralph, Piggy, and Simon and eventually attacked them, despite their efforts to bring order and rules: “Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of a true, wise friend called Piggy.” pg 202. Piggy and Simon were killed by Jack’s boys, and with that, the most thoughtful and civilized of all the boys were gone and they lost their chance to be saved.

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From Civilized to Savage, Imagery in Lord of the Flies Humans often think that they are civilized but they often forget the more savage nature of their ancestors. Sometimes humans start behaving in a primitive fashion when they find themselves in a new or uncomfortable environment and lose touch with civilization. In Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies, he shows how a fictional group of boys stranded on an island become progressively less civil and well-mannered. Golding’s use of imagery shows the boys as civilized, uncivilized, and savage beings throughout his novel Lord of the Flies. To begin, imagery is used to show the boys’ civilized nature.

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Anybody is capable of performing the most savage acts? In the novel, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a group of boys are stranded on an island without knowing if they could get rescued. It was written after the terrible actions during World War 2 and highlighted the hidden evil and savagery of any regular civilian. Through symbolism, irony, and character development, Golding communicates that brutality exists in everyone. When the boys got stranded, they were ripped away from society.

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Or Savages” (91) This shows how much the boys had advanced in adapting to their environment. They no longer recognized themselves and how they act because they had to change themselves to survive in the more hostile

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