Savagery In Lord Of The Flies

The civilization vs savagery in a man is not determined by past experiences, but the person that has always been deep within them. In William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies, the true nature of humans is noticed through a group of British boys. The boys are on a plane together that crashes on a deserted island, where the boys attempt to figure out a way of surviving and getting rescued. Although, at first the boys are excited that they have a chance with no adults, so they are able to act the way they desire. Eventually, the boys get used to acting out in ways that they wouldn’t have in the past, which causes them to become very violent. Ultimately, the violent actions in the boys show how humans tend to have true aggressive behavior, which

For example when the boys are hunting a pig, Jack finds much joy in the murder. The imagery in this scene is clearly showing the rape of the mother pig, “Jack was on top of the sow, stabbing downward with his knife… Then Jack found the throat and the hot blood spouted over his hands” (Goldings 135). This clearly demonstrates the violent behavior of Jack is revealed, during his time on the island, because he doesn’t have much of a reaction to the blood spurting all over himself. More specifically, Jack kills the pig very casually, although at the beginning of the novel he is scared of the topic. This transition is also distinctly demonstrated when Jack burns the entire island, looking to hunt Ralph. The fire causes total destruction of the island, “Smoke was seeping through the branches in white and yellow wisps, the patch of blue sky overhead turned to the color of a storm cloud, then the smoke billowed round him”(Golding 195). It is proven that Jack is truly evil because his only motive for making the fire is to hunt and kill Ralph. Also, the allegorical meaning of this fire is hell because all of the boys would have ended up dying, they are trapped on the island and the fire spreads quickly. In other words, Jack's violent intrusive thoughts take over his mind, which causes him to forget about the other boys on the island, putting them and himself in danger. Overall, the normal innocence of Jack has completely vanished by the end of the story and taken over by his own savage