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Theme Of Cruelty In Lord Of The Flies

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In William Golding's The Lord of the Flies, boys trapped on an island turn into deranged savages and kill each other after they fail to follow the rules of their made-up tribe. Cruelty is used by Golding as a way to communicate his theme which could be that cruelty is in nearly everybody, but civilization’s laws and control prevent that trait from prevailing. The author leaves some evidence of him trying to convey this theme throughout the book. A part of the book that shows this theme being shown would be the demise of Piggy and civilization. The author of the story decided to add in this quote to link the most cruel thing that the boys did with the destruction of order: "The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch …show more content…

Roger and one of his friends abuses the kids in the story by destroying their sand castles and nearly hurting them. To show how much Roger had distanced himself from society’s laws, the author said this about Roger as he was throwing rocks at the kids: “Here, invisible yet strong, was the taboo of the old life. Around the squatting child was the protection of parents and school and policeman and the law. Roger’s arm was conditioned by a civilization that knew nothing of him was in ruins” (56). Of course this isn’t as bad as murdering a hippie and a nerd, but this shows that he’s violent because there’s no one to tell him to stop. In the quote itself it says that Roger was taught by society that it wasn’t okay to pick on other kids, but him being away from society has allowed him to disobey that rule. Even if Roger wasn’t taught that he still wouldn’t dare harm the children because, as the quote says, the parents, school, and police would immediately stop him and punish him for his actions. Cruelty is something that’s present not only in The Lord of the Flies but also within reality. Golding used cruelty well in his book to convey his theme that cruelty is inside a majority of people, but society prevents it from ever appearing. Golding picked a very serious topic to talk about, and that topic is very much true in our world as we see tyrants and other such people cause suffering and

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Roger chose to torture the boys, and eventually he chose to kill Piggy. The experience of the island pulled something ugly out of him specifically, but in all the ways that matter, he was fully aware and in control of his choice to murder another person. The other murder, Simon’s, is different in that no one person chose to kill the boy. No one in particular summoned the malice to beat him to death, but the group as a whole lost their individual values and assimilated into the group. Chapter 2 of Opening Skinner’s Box explains that people abandon their core beliefs in order to satisfy some primal need to conform.

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Additionally, the conch shell symbolizes organization and authority, and when it gets smashed, so does the civilization left in the boys. They first elected their leader, Ralph, based solely on the fact that he was attractive and he had the conch. During the moments when it seemed the boys were contemplating their choice, they did an overview of each of the candidates including Ralph, “there was a stillness about Ralph as he sat that marked him out. There was his size, attractive appearance and most obscurely, yet most powerfully, there was the conch… the delicate thing balanced on his knees and set him apart.” (22).

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This is shown through the killing of Piggy, which is confirmed by the citation, “’the rock struck piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee’ ‘Piggy fell forty feet and landed on his back across the square red rock in the sea” (Golding pg. 181). In addition to the death of Piggy, Roger also tortures Samneric. This is verified by the passage, “the yelling ceased, and Samneric lay looking up in quiet terror. Roger advanced upon them as one wielding a nameless authority” (Golding pg. 182) soon after the torturing of Samneric, Roger plans to murder Ralph in a similar way to the death of the sow; this is illuminated by the citation, “Roger sharpened a stick at both ends” (Golding pg. 190). These horrendous acts of violence depict Golding

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There are conditions in which cruelty and violence become very present, “Chaos is one, fear is another” (Golding). Chaos and fear can cause the boys on the island to become aggressive, leading Roger to Piggy’s death. Chaos is especially present on the island when the boys are hunting down a pig and doing insane dances with chants. The boys all chant and dance, which makes them more violent than ever before on the island. Fear also comes into play when all the boys believe that there is a big beast that comes in the night.

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William Golding’s fictional, British novel, Lord of the Flies, presents a character that serves a two-part function as a “scapegoat” and a certain commentary on life. During WWII, a group of British boys are being evacuated via plane when they crash and are stranded on an island without adults. As time progresses, the innate evilness of human nature begins to overcome the savage society of young boys while Piggy, an individual representation of brains without brawn, becomes an outlier as he tries to resist this gradual descent of civilness and ends up shouldering the blame for the wrongdoings of the savage tribe. Up until his untimely death, Piggy is portrayed as the most intellectual and most civil character in the group of stranded boys. Right from the beginning, Piggy realized that “[they] got to do something,” (8) and he recognized the shell Ralph had picked up as a conch.

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The hidden savagery of humans that is dormant because of civilization is presented in Lord of the Flies through its symbolism, repetition and diction. The struggle for power and control on the island led to the exposure of savage nature that is present in the boys who were forced into a lawless place. Throughout the novel reason and logic are abandoned, causing the boys to act on whims and be controlled by their instincts rather than control themselves. Civilization has dampened human’s savage ways, but believing that there are no consequences could lead to the downfall of humanity and the return of the primitive ways society believes it has abandoned. Golding wrote Lord of the Flies to expose the hidden savagery that humans possess and how if humans aren’t careful they will become the savages

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