Lord of the Flies - Downfall of the Boys

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Lord of the Flies Events Leading up to the Downfall of the Boys Lord of the flies begins with boys who are for the most part, civilized and well behaved boys. They are British boys in particular who many at the time would believe to be superior in behavior, manners and intelligence. However William Golding shows that in the absence of restraint of rules and laws of the adult world, things will quickly disintegrate into savage anarchy. This is because he believes dictatorship is stronger than democracy and all people have evil within them. There are many events that led up to the downfall of the boys, all of which are important to ending result of the island. Had these events not occurred or been resolved differently, the fate of the island would not be the same. The passing of the ship, the murder of Simon, and the murder of Piggy are all important events leading up to the boys’ downfall. The ship passing the island is an important event leading up to the disintegration of the island. Up until this moment in the story, the boys are doing well, but they make the foolish mistake of letting the signal fire out. They do this because they want to hunt the pigs and they leave the fire unattended. In the absence of adult law and rule, the boys disregard Chief Ralph’s instructions and instead participate in hunting, led by Jack. “I was chief; and you were going to do what I said. You talk. But you can’t even build huts – then you go off hunting and let the fire out”. Had the fire been going the ship might have seen the smoke and rescued the boys. This makes Ralph very angry and a clear division is made between Jack and his hunters and Ralph. Because of the savage nature brought out from within the boys, they make an irrational choice to hunt rather than the reasonable choice of keeping the fire going. The murder of Simon is the first real savage act
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