Savagery In Lord Of The Flies Research Paper

Many different themes are presented in the “Lord of Flies”, however, the most important theme is savagery and civilization. It is commonly known that civilization and savagery are impulses that human beings face everyday. Golding presents the differences and affects between these two topics in his characters. Each boy on the island has the choice to decide what type of person they will be, in order to survive. Most of the boys choose to become savages, while the others decide to still follow civilization rules. However, civilization does not last for long and savagery takes over. The “Lord of the Flies” draws attention between the differences of savagery and civilization in the boys through human nature, evil, and human civilization. William Golding presents how human nature affected every boy on the island. In the beginning of the book it is assumed that the boys will all stay good and civilized since they set up a mini government on the island. However, Jack and most of the other characters do not stay good and civilized for the majority of the novel. Through out the boys’ journey on the island the idea of human nature is questioned, it is whether

Their once innocent and moralities are gone forever. For example, Jack in the beginning was caring and innocent but he later became evil by abusing his authority and killing others. “He snatched his knife out of the health and slammed it into a tree trunk. Next time there would be no mercy” (Golding 31). After this moment Jack was able to leave behind his innocence and change into a evil young boy. Other boys start to be afraid of what horrendous acts he can do to others, which causes them to join him instead of fight him. Allowing the fear and doubt lead their actions causes them to become evil. Golding suggests that evilness is in every human being, no matter what the age is. Evilness is caused by the fear and doubt taking over the