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Savagery: Lord Of The Flies By William Golding

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Recommended: A critical commentary on william golding's 'lord of the flies.

JD Casias Mr. Butt English 2 April 12, 2023 Humans are animals after all. In the book Lord of the Flies, William Golding depicts human nature in a way that depicts how animals act in their own environment. When they first arrive on the island the boys try to enforce rules, their desperate attempt to be civil until they're rescued. Eventually however one of the boys, Jack, gets sick of following the rules and steers away from the group, he starts to only care about hunting and killing. This is how animals act and Jack is described as a “savage” because of this. The boys eventually end up killing one of the other boys, Simon, who was a rule follower and tried to keep things civilized. They could not descend into full savagery until Simon …show more content…

One of these main rules is the conch. The conch is a shell Ralph found when he first arrived on the island. When the boys are having their first of many meetings, they declare that the person speaking must have the conch in their hands. This shell represents rules and civilization in this book. In the end, after Jack steers away from the group he shatters this shell into a hundred pieces, representing his complete turn to savagery and his total dexterity from rules and civilization together. During the course of the novel, Jack becomes a hunter and starts to be obsessed with hunting. When he first started he could not kill a pig, he could not take another life. He feels like a coward because of the fact he cannot kill the pig and starts dedicating all of his time to killing a pig. He starts painting his face to blend in with the trees and sneak up on these pigs. It's almost like a game to him, however, he still feels cowardly. This all changes when he kills his first pig. Once he kills his first pig he starts obsessing over hunting and moves on to killing Simon. Because Jack killed many pigs before taking Simons's life almost felt like a game to him. The same game he played with his

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(41) But soon, Jack takes hunting too seriously, and he attains a thrill by killing pigs. He becomes more violent and aggressive and now this mean character is Jack's lifestyle. Jack changes into this harsh, impatient person because he is tired of always coming in second place to Ralph.

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851 Words | 4 Pages

In chapter 4 it states, “I cut the pig’s throat, said Jack, proudly”(69) illustrating that Jack enjoyed cutting and killing the pig. Jack now shows that he is capable of killing and the possibility for more cruel and harsh killing is very likely. Jack shows his cruelty by the animals he kills when he “held up the head and jammed the soft throat down on the pointed end of the stick which pierced through into the mouth”(136) analyzing how instead of fearing the beast Jack is offering him the head of the pig that he just brutally murdered. When the boys kill the pig, they stick its bloodied head on a sharpened stick as an offering to the beast, which they believe is out in the forest somewhere and that they can please with an offering, showing cruelty and the lack of humanity inside Jack and the rest of the boys. After their first successful hunt, Jack chants “Kill the pig.

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Jack now decides to put face paint on so he will blend in with the surroundings and look like a real hunter. “Jack planned his new face. He made one cheek and one eye-socket white, then he rubbed red over the other half of his face and slashed a black bar of charcoal across from right ear to left jaw” (63). This is allowing him to forget his morals and rational thinking. Jack now will lose all rational thought when he kills a live pig for the first time, the first time he has ever killed

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997 Words | 4 Pages

Turning into a savage was one of the most significant reasons that caused this change. Jack became obsessed with hunting, and that was all he ever did. He lost a sense of reality and was focused on hunting and only hunting. He was violent and merciless when he killed, and looked at hunting as a hobby as opposed to a necessity. He lost his civility and turned into an animal, which caused him to become a savage.

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Jack did not succeed in hunting down the pig but said that he will kill it next time. Jack did not kill the pig because he was afraid of the blood from the pig. He was embarrassed that he could not do it and he wanted to show people that he is a hunter and he is strong enough to do it. In the novel it says, "Kill the pig! Cut her throat!

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However, "They knew very well why he hadn't; because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood”. (29) At this point, Jack could not handle the idea of harming a pig. Killing animals, enjoying blood, killing for no reason— these actions are not acceptable in civilization (#8). Therefore, the instinct of savagery is still suppressed in Jack because of the order maintained by

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809 Words | 4 Pages

First, Jack disregarded all of his important duties in order to prove his strength when he finally killed his first animal. He knew that it would be more beneficial to keep a fire going as a ship passed by, and it had been explicitly demanded of him by the members of his tribe, especially Ralph. However, finally conquering his fear was all that he could think about, while avidly exclaiming, “I cut the pig’s throat” (Golding 52). His hubris during this moment made it clear that his wish for approval and respect is much greater than his desire to escape from the island, or his original skepticism to lose his innocence by shedding blood. Also, at the beginning of the novel when Jack is introduced, he taunts Piggy, immediately, saying, “Shut up, fatty” (Golding 15).

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Jack having no empathy for the animal and feeling fulfilled after killing the sow so brutally is not a normal feeling that a normal human being would experience. Usually hunting will generate some remorse but Jack feels pride and accomplishment after killing the sow which are not normal feelings. Although Jack possesses aggression on his own involving hunting, there were factors that fueled it along the way. One of the first few times Jack hunted, he had nearly killed a piglet, but at the last second it had gotten away, leaving Jack frustrated and angry. “Jack, knife in hand, reflexively hesitating long enough on the downward stroke to allow a trapped piglet to escape.

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According to the author, Jack is realizing that the only way he can have power is by hunting for others, but the more he hunts the most violent he becomes, but since he does not think fondly of piggy he does not give him meat, but when Simon gives him meat, throws meat at him and yells, "Eat! Damn you!" (pg 67). This short quote reinforces my answer because it shows how jack has become more aggressive, violent, and power-crazy. The examination of this quote reveals jacks blood-lust for power, and I'm not just talking about jack, in the book Jack represents savagery in society, violent acts when no one is looking, he represents that anyone can feel bloodthirsty for power, so furthermore Jack is exposed by that quote showing that he becomes more savage and his true nature rolls in, but he is also aware of it, he wears a clay mask towards the end of the book to cover up his insecurity and how he feels about his actions so he can have the power to not realize his actions and do things without thinking realistically.

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Jack uses a ‘mask’ when he goes hunting to hide in the forest better and blend in. The mask, however, also serves another purpose. The mask allows Jack to hide his face, insecurities, and shame. With the mask on, Jack “began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling” (Golding 64). Upon putting the mask on, Jack begins to act very rashly and even starts to scare the other hunters.

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1035 Words | 5 Pages

Jack ignored him again. “Who’ll join my tribe and have fun?”(150). Jack’s idea of fun for the boys is conducting strange rituals and killing others. He ultimately wants to be free from Ralph’s grasp to commit violent and evil acts. At the end of chapter nine, Jack and his tribe altogether kill Simon.

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839 Words | 4 Pages

The Evil Within Imagine a group of boys brutally beating a child to death with their bare hands. Without even recognizing the damage they have done, the boys leave the corpse to wash away in the ocean. William Golding, the author of Lord of the Flies, wrote the novel to portray the relationship between savagery and civilization. The novel is about a group of boys who become stranded on a deserted island during a nuclear war; however, the boys fail to create a working society. As a result, a multitude of horrific events occur.

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431 Words | 2 Pages

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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778 Words | 4 Pages

Bundle of Rights The bundle of rights consists of the owner’s legal rights. This term was first used in the late 1900’s and is still popular till this day. There are a total of five rights: the right of possession, the right of control, the right of exclusion, the right of enjoyment, and the right of disposition.

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These impulses, often sexual, seek to provide pleasure without regard to the cost” (Henningfeld). Jack continuously exhibits such impulses in addition to openly violent ones throughout the novel. At the conclusion of the very first chapter of the novel, he foreshadows his sadistic tendencies when he very nearly kills a pig. Later, he is shown acclimating to his environment (i.e. the forest) and refining his hunting abilities. All of these events lead up to Jack’s eventual split from Ralph’s rule and his complete succumbing to his negative impulses.

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