The Devolution Of Boys In Lord Of The Flies, By William Golding

Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding illustrates the devolution of young boys and makes the argument that nature is more influential than nurture. The young boys are stranded on the island as proper British schoolboys, and quickly turn into people they don't recognize. The boys start out united under a sense of nationalism, which was a predominant theme during this time period, but loses it along the way. Through the 12 chapters, we see that evil is inside of all of us, and without the discipline and structure that keep us good, we could go back to primal stages.

Goldings boys are British schoolboys under the age of 14 during the time of a war. The boys come from different backgrounds, but all have something in common in terms of

We are introduced to Piggy, who comes from a lower class family that just consists of him and his aunt. Throughout the novel, Piggy is degraded and made fun of. At first, it was because of Piggy's weight. “You’re talking too much”, said Jack Merridew, “Shut up Fatty,” (Golding 21) Because he is a lower class, he seems socially inferior to the other boys and is treated as so. When Jack orders Piggy to be quiet, he obliges because he knows his place in the class system, and knows Jacks. As soon as Jack is introduced, he tries to make it known that he is superior. When voting for who would make the best chief, Jack says, “I ought to be chief… because I'm chapter chorister and head boy” (Golding 22) Jack has a great amount of confidence in himself and is very arrogant. Although Ralph wins chief, Jack consistently uses his power and superiority to

It starts with hunting, which is a predominant example of devolution in this novel. The first time Jack tried to hunt a pig, he couldn't bring himself to complete the kill. The first sign of devolution we see is Jack's determination to kill, he thought, “Next time there would be no mercy. He looked around fiercely, daring them to contradict.” (Golding 31) This pulled him into a new mindset: to kill. He had a lot of internal conflict with this, because as the head boy he describes himself as, hunting does not come naturally to him. Jack cannot bring himself to kill so he comes up with a solution; change his identity. He does this with face paint, and is able to hide his identity and everything that is holding him back from hunting. “He began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling...The mask was a thing of its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness.” (Golding 64) Jack is completely transformed in this mask, making him unrecognizable to his former self. However, this is just the beginning of