What Is The Loss Of Civility In Lord Of The Flies

How would surviving a plane crash and being forced to create a civilization out of nothing affect an individual? In such an environment, would the survivors be able to maintain a sense of civility? In William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, a group of boys crash land on an island and become stranded. The boys attempt to cooperate to survive and are initially peaceful and orderly, holding meetings together to address problems. The end of this time of peace is led by Jack Merridew, who encourages the other boys to embrace their violent and barbaric nature, eventually causing the group to become divided and fall into chaos. Jack facilitates the growth of their violent behavior, leading to the boys' loss of civility. Through the character Jack

When Jack first arrives on the island, his savage nature does not show itself yet, and he is unable to fathom taking life from this Earth: “They knew very well why he hadn’t [killed the pig]: because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood” (Golding 31). Jack is unwilling to commit acts of violence with the conditioning of his previous environment fresh in his mind. However, the longer Jack stays on the island, the more violent he becomes; he begins to obsess over hunting and killing pigs, eventually even taking part in taking a human

In the novel, Jack leads the rest of the boys in a dance while they chant "Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood! Do him in!" (Golding 118). During the dance, they see Simon and mistake him for the beast, and “the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt on to the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore” (Golding 118). This horrible incident is a sign of Jack's utter surrender to his primal instincts and the destruction of the moral fabric that holds a society together. His animalistic behavior causes him to ignore any rationale and ultimately attack Simon. Due to Jack’s savage behavior, the order and structure of the island fall apart, forcing everyone to fend for themselves. Unity is destroyed within the island, causing division between the boys, ultimately leading to their downfall. Similarly, an example of this degradation of society is seen in World War I. The University of Oxford in their article “How hunger shook Europe and the Ottoman Empire after World War I”, states that a “blockade that prevented ships carrying food and weapons from getting to Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey until 1919, caused malnutrition and starvation across Europe and the Ottoman Empire—for years after the war ended” (par. 4). Due to the violent and animalistic nature of the opposing nations, many places were plunged into famine and