Savagery In Lord Of The Flies

Humans… or savages? A large group of boys end up stranded on a deserted island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. These young, innocent children find themselves struggling to balance their savagery with civilization. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, the conflict between civilization and concealing savagery appears through symbolism with the conch, grown-ups, and fire.

Throughout the novel, the conch symbolizes civilization and order because of how it protects the boys from their savage personalities. When Ralph picks up the conch shell from the lagoon and admires its beauty, Piggy positively explains, “A conch; ever so expensive. I bet if you wanted to buy one, you’d have to pay pounds and pounds and pounds” (16). As Piggy describes

Following the creation of the first fire with Piggy’s glasses, the narrator illustrates, “On one side the air was cool, but on the other the fire thrust out a savage arm of heat…” (41). The narrator portrays how the two sides of the fire prove similar to the characteristics of all the boys. These characteristics appear as civilization and savagery, and the savage side of the fire shows to overpower the other, similar to the way it appears in children’s minds. Soon after Ralph let his anger out at Jack for letting the fire die, Jack tries to apologize when he insists, “We can light the fire again” (69). As Jack tells himself he can light it, he knows inside that as all of the kids go savage, and that civilization disappears and cannot return easily. really no way back to civilization. The fire goes out, and so do their memories and thoughts of civilization. At the time of the big fire Jack set to the island when Ralph tries to escape, the narrator mentions, “They had smoked him out and set the island on fire” (197). Since Ralph lead the group all along, he proves his organization and civilization through all of his actions. After Roger kills Piggy, Ralph did not have many friends to rely on or talk to, and Jack has a strong desire to kill him. As Jack starts this disaster, he threw away every existing idea of civilization by almost killing Ralph, the only memory of it. Fire proves itself as a symbol of civilization conflicting with savagery in the novel because of how the boys change when a fire is present or not