Savagery In Lord Of The Flies Essay

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,

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