Savagery In Lord Of The Flies

In Lord of The Flies, William Golding displays that people are truly evil deep inside and that society is what masks their evil. The group of boys who survive the plane crash are stranded, and are left with no form of control whatsoever. Their ideals of what is right and wrong begin to fade away, and the boys start to become savage, some more than others. Without the normal routine of each day, and control over what they can do, the boys feel a sense of freedom that they have never felt before. The adolescent boys abuse this power of freedom, and focus more upon having fun each individual day rather than the long term goal of being rescued. William Golding shows that the boys’ mental state regresses to savagery due to normal society being absent

When the boys initially set up their government, Ralph is elected as leader. Ralph is chosen because he had blown the conch shell that led all to meet together. In fact, he was even described as “There was a mildness about his mouth and eyes that proclaimed no devil.” Due to Ralph being elected leader, Jack is assigned as leader of the hunters. Jack becomes upset because he feels that he should be leader of all the boys. He was used to being leader from his past, but not in any way involved with government. He was leader of the choir boys due to his good voice, not governing ways. After multiple failed attempts of killing a pig, Jack becomes frustrated. His frustration leads to himself becoming infatuated with the idea of killing a pig. As the ideals of his previous society diminish, he starts to become more savage. Jack decides to paint his face and rush the pig, and is successful in the killing of the pig. However, Jack and his group are so obsessed with killing the pig that they forget to keep the signal

He is chosen for his leader characteristics, and sure enough proves to be a good leader for a while. He is smart and keeps a signal fire going to help rescue the boys. However, Ralph does not exactly command the boys to do stuff but more so complains. After a while, Ralph is influenced by some of the boys and starts to become more or less of a savage. He dances in the circle of boys who end up killing Simon. Ralph does not even realize what has happened until later. Now, even one of the most civilized boys has start to become savage. The dancing in the circle is not even the worst of it. As the book progresses towards the end, Ralph has become even more savage. He tries to get the attention of the hunters, acting as if he himself was a wild pig, trying to get them to kill him. Ralph’s true evil is exhibited towards the end of the book as the society upon the island is