Savagery In Lord Of The Flies

“What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages?” Piggy asks. The boys in the Lord of the Flies are stranded on an island away from civilization and they must figure out how to survive. As their stay at the island goes on the boys continue to struggle with staying civil. Ralph and Jack, our two main characters, represent two sides of the same coin. Ralph symbolizes order and civility while Jack represents chaos and savagery. Ralph, who is originally elected leader, struggles to keep control over the others and loses the boy's loyalty to Jack. Eventually Jack gives up trying to keep peace and goes completely savage. In William Golding’s book, Lord of the Flies, a common theme is whether or not savagery is an innate human trait or a product of

[They’ll] have to look after [themselves].” He sees that the “understandable and lawful world was slipping away”. Conflict grows between him and Jack because Jack is focused on killing and hunting. Ralph grows frustrated because he knows that if they are stuck on the island for a long time they’ll need things like shelter and fire to signal any ships that may pass by. He knows they won’t survive long-term and need to be rescued and doesn’t understand why all Jack is focused on is “pig, pig, pig!”. Ralph shows how savagery and evil is not something everyone has inside them since birth. He manages to stay civil despite being away from civilization and surrounded by

Before civilizations came into existence we roamed the earth and killed and did anything we wanted. Jack starts out as a helper to Ralph but he craves the power that Ralph has as chief so he always tries to undermine his leadership abilities. Jack represents savagery and evil and at the start he has the same sense of innocence as the rest of the boys. However, as the story goes on he is the first to really embrace his savageness. He obsesses over killing a pig and doesn’t care about being rescued. When the young boys start talking about “the beastie” he jumps at the opportunity to hunt it and show he’d be a better leader. He doesn’t even actually believe in the beast but “If there’s a beast, [he’ll] hunt it down! [and he’ll] close in and beat” it. Jack shows how evil is in all of us and the only thing stopping us from embracing that side of ourselves is society’s rules and