Rituals In William Golding's Lord Of The Flies

Rituals in Lord of the Flies The slogan “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” are chanted by the boys in William Golding’s novel Lord of the flies, while they decide to hunt after the ritual or do the ceremonial dance. The rituals are one of the most important elements in the story that had considerable influence on the establishment and disruption of boys’ group, and led to Simon’s death. Golding presents rituals represent different stuff under the dissimilar situations. He first points out that rituals could heal others by describing the circumstance after boys arrive at the island, and then he expresses rituals are destructive forces by giving details of the conflict between boys and the actions of savages after the assembly.

Ralph and Jack’s opinions are divided on this point, and “the careful plan of this assembly [breaks] down.”(P112) The conference breaks up in discord. Before this meeting, a group of boys which is led by Jack goes to “kill a pig”(P86) and this makes “the fire out”(P87) indirectly. During the process of hunting, the boys do their first ceremonial dance; and the dance build up the boys’ courage. Therefore, the children would do the dance and chant their slogans which is “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!”(P86) if they hunt the pig. The boys do their ceremonial dance for making fun with Robert as well after the rituals. Golding points out that the boy’s “desires to squeeze and hurt are over-mastering”(P142) while they do the dance. The ritual of hunting the pig can be seen as a destructive force, it helps the boys to be succeed in capturing the

When the storm comes, “A wave of restlessness set the boys swaying and moving aimlessly” and “the littluns began to run about, screaming.”(P187) Jack demands that savages do the ceremonial dance just as they do it before killing pigs to achieve a sense of security. Even “Piggy and Ralph […] found themselves eager to take a place in this demented but partly secure society” (P187). However, Simon appears for his decision of sharing his discovery about the beast at this time, and this is absolutely inopportune. All of the boys, include Piggy and Ralph, brutally beat him to death. After this assembly, The boys are officially divided into two groups -- one is lead by Ralph and the other one is under Jack's control. The meaning of this ritual becomes paradoxical in this situation; it can be both healing and destructive