Savageness In Lord Of The Flies Essay

622 Words3 Pages

Between murdering, raping, shootings, kidnapping, and daily assault, it is reasonable to say that the world is a violent place. No matter how kind, how generous, how selfless, how angelic, how humble, or how friendly a person seems, those characteristics always hides the true, dark and evil nature of the human being. In a natural environment, humans are not kind. Humans are not generous. And humans are for sure not selfless. In the novel, Lord of the Flies, William Golding demonstrates that all humans are born with an inherent savageness, despite their beliefs of personal civilization.
Though once commonly categorized as animals, the development of civilization has resulted in a separate category for humans, with a behemoth gap between the two. Shortly after the boys reunite on the island, Jack responds to Ralph’s orders, stating that “We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we’re not savages. [...] So we’ve got to do the right things” (Golding 42). Within the first few days of isolation, the boys are still accustomed to civilized life, with certain rules and etiquettes. …show more content…

However, they only do so until they finally break and release that bottled up animalistic behavior all at once. Only a few days after landing, Jack encourages all of the boys to dance and close in on Simon, biting and stabbing him, chanting, “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!“ (Golding 152). The greed for power and personal desires leads to the end of civilization and the beginning of savageness. Jack, who had once stated that the boys should obey the rules, ends up following the opposite path that leads to power by participating and encouraging uncivilized behavior. This demonstrates that while humans portray themselves as civilized beings in everyday life, the evil nature that lives within them comes to light in situations that presents itself dire in, as it is their natural instinct to