Savages William Golding’s Lord of The Flies is about a group of British schoolboys who get stranded on an island. As time passes, they become savage, disorderly and sadistic, all of this without authority. Golding’s main idea behind the novel is based upon his own personal experience from World War II. He expresses that without laws or rules any human being young or old can become savage. When people are out of society and left to their own resources, humans are more likely to return to their inner savagery.
With nobody to tell him otherwise, Cole convinces himself that neither of his parents want him. Cole is always angry and irritated as a result of his bottled up emotions, but after he is sent to the island, he learns to release his anger by preforming physical disciplines. The first physical discipline Cole preforms while inhabiting the island is dancing out his feelings. When Edwin and Garvey introduce Cole to this new way of releasing his anger, Cole is skeptical (pg.167). In Cole’s eyes, dancing and prancing around a fire is stupid and embarrassing, but gradually, his attitude towards this exercise changes.
His power was very strong in the beginning of the novel but as Jack began to rebel against Ralph, the rest of the boys went along with him. Jack wanted the power from the beginning of the novel. Jack wanted everyone to vote for him while the other boys nominated Ralph to be their leader. He had a small amount of power with his hunters at the start but as the time on the island progressed, he bribed people with food and threatened them to gain more. Ralph pushed Piggy to one side.
He thinks of building shelters to protect them and to start a fire for their rescue. He becomes friend with Piggy, the fat boy that receives taunts and teases from the other boy, and gets used to rely on Piggy's intellectual reasoning. Ralph is brave when the occasion presents it, but he really miss for the secure world of adults, especially when order starts to break down on the island. He dreams about a rescue and insists that the signal fire always has to burn so that they can be seen. Ralph considers that the main reason for the disorder on the island is Jack, the antagonist and representation of evil in the novel.
At the beginning of this novel Adam comes off as an ignorant, foolish boy. Moses Cooper who is Adam’s father and himself seem to disagree on many things and not get along so well, partly because of this foolishness. Fast writes on page four, “I should have known enough to keep my mouth shut, because he replied that he was gratified to be enlightened and laid onto me ten times more, and then wanted to know whether I deemed seventeen to be a superstitious number?” This quote came right after the situation of Adam Cooper being caught by his father reciting a spell while fetching water. From this quote it is obvious that there is a lack of respect between Adam and his father. He continues to lash out on his disagreements with his father until he truly understands his father’s true feelings for him.
We tried keeping the signal fire going but we couldn’t. And then you, playing at hunting…”(Golding 178). He is also probably mad because his tribe is all work and no play and he sees that it’s not fair that Jacks tribe is all play and no work. His emotion turns to anger for Jack because the main objective is to get rescued but Jack is too arrogant to want to work to make it happen. Anger is an important emotion because it leads to violence like in the death of Piggy, Simon, and the attempt to kill
He gives in to this enemy at times, playing “a game” with Jack and the hunters, and participates in Simon’s death dance. Ralph undergoes major changes in the novel and is left crying at his new discovery of how evil people can be at the end. Just like Ralph, Jack is all about the rules. He is a natural leader, but unlike Ralph, wants all the power for himself. Jack is clearly Dove 2 hurt when Ralph is given authority over him.
Lord of the Flies “Savage peoples are ruled by passion, civilized peoples by the mind. The difference lies not in the respective natures of savagery and civilization, but in their attendant circumstances, institutions, and so forth.” - Karl von Clausewitz.This quote not only applies to some of our barbaric history, but it applies to everyone. Golding confirms this in the Lord of the Flies by using English schoolboys in order to emphasize the fact that no matter how old someone is, where there from, or any other contributing factors that nothing protects the borders of civilization and savagely. In this novel, young boys are abandoned on an island, given no choice but to fend for themselves. Throughout the story the two opposites of civilization and savagery, are represented through the two main characters, Ralph and Jack.
For fourteen-year-old Elliot Sutton, the move to a new school in a new town where nobody knows him represents a chance to leave behind years of being bullied and start a new life, which is not actually true. Sick and tired of being a victim, he decides to change himself, subtly altering his physical appearance, and pretending to be far more confident and 'cool' than he actually is. His aim is to 'stand out just enough to fit in'. The plan works, but too well. While he is no longer the victim, he finds himself fast being pulled into the dark world of the Guardians, a secret society of older boys who are orchestrating a reign of terror at his new school.
At the beginning, they try to set up a small society similar to the adult's and elect Ralph as a leader. Each elder boy has his own post and responsibility. Everything seems fine at first until the emergence of the beast - the fear grows up in the children's minds and changes everything. The hunters, with Jack as the chief become savage, kill Simon and Piggy, and finally try to kill Ralph. The beautiful island becomes a hell at the end of the novel.