Savagery In Lord Of The Flies Quote Analysis

What would you do if you were stuck on an island? In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, English schoolboys find themselves in this exact situation. The boys, with their ages varying from six to twelve years old, get into a horrendous plane crash in which no adults survive, and they must fend for themselves on a mysterious uninhabited island. The boys attempt to organize themselves and establish a civilized way of life on the island. Led by Ralph, the boys set rules, hold assemblies and assign jobs. However, as their time on the island grows most boys drift away from their civilized origin. Eventually, one of the older boys named Jack creates his own tribe of bloodthirsty savages that were once innocent schoolboys. This contrast between the influence that the isolation of the island has on Ralph and Jack is accurately represented by Leonard Sydney Woolf quote that “anyone can be a barbarian; it requires terrible effort to be or remain a civilized man”. The passage relates to the theme of savagery in Lord of the Flies through Ralph’s struggle to lead the boys in remaining civilized and Jack’s fall into a life of savagery. Ralph continuously fights throughout the novel to uphold rules and order among the boys that he initially created to keep them civilized. Once Ralph is chief, the conch plays an important role in the first rule he creates, which is that he would “give the conch to the

Jack best illustrates everyone’s capacity to be a savage and how easy it can be to become one. Ralph best shows human ability to suppress savagery with civilized life. As Leonard Sydney Woolf “anyone can be a barbarian; it requires terrible effort to be or remain a civilized man” which relates to the theme of savagery through both Jack decline into and Ralph’s fight against savage