Marek Edelman, the last surviving leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (part of World War II), once said, “Man is evil, by nature man is a beast....” He was born in 1919, and his views on society and human nature were shared by many during his time. The author William Golding, like Edelman, was born in the early 1900s and lived through some of the most violent wars of history: World War I and II, the Vietnam War, and the Korean War. He fought for England in World War II and witnessed the tragedy that occurs when the dark side of a human is uncontrolled. In his novel, Lord of the Flies, he uses the conch, Ralph and Jack to show us that consequences are the only thing holding civilization together and that being civilized is unnatural. The conch represents civility and order; it’s a protection against the boys’ potential for destruction. The conch delays their descent to savagery, allowing them to be rescued before destroying themselves. At the start of the …show more content…
He is Ralph’s antagonist, arrogant and charismatic. At the start of the book, he thinks he “ought to be chief”(22). However, he gets outvoted by Ralph, who then leaves Jack “in charge of the choir”(23). Jack decides that the choir will be hunters, already displaying his bloodlust. At this point, they haven’t even been on the island for long, showing us how quickly we can revert to savagery if there is no order. As the story proceeds, Jack becomes power-hungry and a power struggle ensues. Jack comes out on top, and he becomes an absolute ruler of his tribe. In addition, when Jack decides he’s “not going to be part of Ralph’s lot--”(127) he gets other boys to join him by saying “anyone who wants to hunt when I do can come too”(127). Like him, the other boys want blood, thus they join him. He gets boys to join his group with ease, showing us just how natural savagery is for us, and he also shows us how easily the savage within us can be brought