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Savagery In Lord Of The Flies Essay

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In the lord of the flies, William Golding displays the theme that all men are inherently evil when the kids kill the pig, murder Simon. And brutally slaughter piggy. During the story you notice the boys slowly embrace their inner savagery. The rules of civilization become more distant in their minds and their actions become more and more evil. The killings soon escalate from accidental (Simon and Snake boy)to intentional(Piggy). In chapter four jack and his group of hunters (choir boys) kills a pig. As they walk to the fire to cook the pig they chant, "Kill the pig! Cut her throat! Spill her blood!" pg.69. it is surprising to me how much the kids seem to enjoy the killing. Their excitement also shows itself as Jack and his hunters talk excitedly about how they killed the pig, “’we got in a circle-‘ ‘We crept up-’ ‘the pig squealed-’… we had a smashing time… ‘I cut the pigs throat’ said Jack proudly” Pg.69. Jack and the hunters already, at this point, seem too have turned into savages who enjoy killing a living thing. This connects to the theme, all men are inherently evil, because after just a little time away from societies rules, …show more content…

9 Most of the boys seem to have chosen savagery over law and order as they join Jacks tribe instead of Ralphs. Jack’s tribe has a feast, that everyone goes to. After the feast the boys engage in a chant, “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” pg. 152. During this chant, Simon comes down the hill with news that the beast is just a dead man on the top of the mountain on the island, “Simon was crying out something about a dead man on a hill.” Pg. 152. The boys think that he is the beast and engulf him. Their chant becomes, “Thick urgent and blind” pg. 152 Simon tries to escape the mass of people but they chase him, and, “there were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws.” Pg. 153. This is connected to the theme, all men are inherently evil because the kids have descended to killing actual

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The other boys start to fear the beast more and more, thinking it was a physical being, but Simon understands that it is not real and that it is only created by the boy’s fear. When Simon comes out of the forest to try to explain this to the boys, they mistake him for the beast and end up killing him. Simon's

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Obviously, the boys' fear of the ‘beast’ and their ironic need to destroy it shows that the tight grip which society's rules once had on them has been loosened in the duration of the time they have spent on the

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To elaborate on motif, there is a chant that keeps repeating among the group of little boys “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” (Golding 152). In this excerpt from the book the boys chant leads up to Simon a side characters death.

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Killing their first pig was a start to the end of jack and the boys innocence. Jack and his group were in the woods hunting for food. “the spear moved forward inch by inch and the terrified squealing became a high-pitched scream. Then Jack found the throat and the hot blood spouted over his hands. The sow collapsed under them” (pg 192) this quote from the book was depicted as a very gruesome killing.

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He must have had a nightmare” (35-36). Considering how innocent and civilized the boys are at

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Simon was the first to realize there was no actual beast on the island, and that it was only a dead man with a parachute. He believed there was no such thing as a beast on the island, and he helped the littluns believe it too by saying: "What I mean is... Maybe it 's only us." (89). Simon was trying to suggest the idea that the beast was only an illusion to the boys’, as it had been created only within their imaginations.

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‘Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood’” (Golding, 152) The boys, kill a friend they know and chant as though Simon was the beast, which they want to kill, but really the beast is the savagery inside of them.

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Upon arrival, the boys are innocent children only concerned with how they will get home. As time passes, the boys lose their purity and slowly become corrupt by mankind’s essential illness, evil. One of the older boys, named Jack Merridew, was only concerned with hunting from the moment the boys’ plane crash landed. Ralph, the official chief of the group insisted that they

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He goes to share his hunting story to Ralph and a boy named Piggy. On page 69, the narrator shares, “I cut the pig’s throat,’ said Jack, proudly, and yet twitched as he said it.” This quotation shows us that civilization is lost when the urge to kill takes over because it shows the stage where Jack is proudly killing animals, but still feeling a little bit uncomfortable with it. In this example, Jack proudly shares that he has killed, but still twitches after saying he did. Jack is still hanging onto the little bit of civilization that is left on their island.

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“They understood only too well the liberation into savagery that the concealing paint brought” (Golding 172). In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, savagery can be seen through many examples — murder, discord, ritualistic and violent sacrifices, and language. The boys in Lord of the Flies acted savagely and immorally due to biological factors because it is human nature to turn on each other. There are Biblical allusions in the novel that prove that the immorality of the boys is deep-seated. “Aren't you afraid of me?

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When the heavily robed chorus first marches down to the beach, “[Simon] flop[s] on his face in the sand and the line broke” (Golding 20). However, Simon is sensitive to those around him and selfless. He helps build huts. He figures out that the beast is only themselves. When the boys are arguing where the beast comes from, Simon timidly remarks, “‘ What I mean is . . .

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Cut her throat. Spill her blood”(Golding, Lord 90). The boys have to kill pigs on the island for food but do it in such a way that is unnecessary. The boys kill the pigs in many terrible ways that make the pig suffer more than it needs to.

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As the novel develops, the boys are left to their own devices and morals to survive on the island. Golding implies that when this happens, people naturally revert to cruelty, savagery and a human evil that he believes is in everyone. When Jack kills the mother pig, he is in great triumph over outwitting a living thing. This shows that he has become a savage through his time on the island, and his inner evil has taken over him. It also shows that Jack has become more violent over time, as if killing pigs is normal to him.

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(Golding, 77). Although the boys laugh at Simon’s idea, his belief conforms Golding’s idea that inner evil exists. The boys develop into the beast when they kill Simon. Simon was desperate to explain the unidentified creature on the mountain but the boys weren’t in the mood for listening to him. With his brutal murder by the other boys, chaos takes over civilized order on the island.

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Each one of the children see the limitless and ruleless place they have crashed onto; most of them introduce this idea with the savagery that they take on. Some of the children instantly do only what they want, while others try to remain civilized. “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood,” (Golding 152).

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