“The Lord of the Flies,” by William Golding is a computer novel that addresses philosophical debates and offers Golding’s perspective views on the natural state of man. The story takes place on a deserted island in which a plane full of British school-boys has crash landed. The boys on the island come together by sound of a conch to choose a leader, which we learn is the charismatic boy named Ralph. Soon after, the antagonist of the story, Jack, is introduced and begins to lead wild hunting expeditions and savage face painting. This impedes upon Ralph’s leadership, as well as going against his morals and the morals of his supporters like Simon and Piggy, who want to keep a signal fire lit in hopes of being rescued while Jack is more focused on hunting. The on-going power struggles between Ralph and Jack represents the human struggle between the natural state of man and civilization. The natural state of man …show more content…
The location of the island is somewhere in the Pacific ocean where the pilot was forced to crash-land, but the importance of this location after being shot down by “The Reds” was the isolation it created. The pilot himself became more than just a childish fear upon the island, because isolated from society and adults the British school boys had to make explanations of their surrounding for themselves. As the boys were driven mad by this isolationism and life on the island, we can see “The Beast” representing the savagery in all humans. This is a realization Simon also reaches while talking to “The Lord of the Flies”, a pig’s head on a stake. The pig tells Simon there is no use in escaping as the evilness and chaos lies in everyone, showing how “The Beast” is not in fact an actual monster that terrorizes the boys, but instead the monster inside of each boy that represents chaos and savagery, which is often dying to be let