In brief, the novel, Lord Of The Flies by William Golding, shows that without adults on the island, the boys became vicious, disorderly, and evil. The ironic rescue at the end of the book shows that the boys are not only savages. After all, the adults who rescued them were engaged in their own war. That was the main reason why the boys ended up on the island in the first place. Although it may look as if the boys are doing something adults wouldn't have let them to do, they did almost exactly what the adults would have made them do back in society.
Ralph represents the goodness left on the island, while Jacks worst got the best of him. He then becomes very violent “He's like Piggy. He says things like Piggy. He isn't a proper chief.”(Gift for the Darkness, p.138) Jack challenges Ralph whom he calls a coward; Ralph had insulted Jack's hunters as "boys with sticks”. He wants to turn everyone against Ralph so they join his tribe and become hunters leaving Jack in charge and chief of the island.
Finally, by the end, he becomes the chief of the savages. Merridew performs his cruelties by killing and stealing. Throughout the novel, Jack's devolution from a civilized British boy to a complete savage perfectly demonstrates that humans are naturally evil. All the boys are civilized at first. Jack agrees to the laws formed to govern the island.
Robert and Roger talk about Jack going to beat up one of their tribe members, “‘He got angry and made us tie Wilfred up.’”(159). They find this cruel act funny and exciting. Their humaneness is disappearing and they are taking pleasures in the most twisted things. Moreover, the disappearance of their humaneness leads them to killing people. Piggy went to talk to them in a civilized manner but they ended up killing him.
The Evil within Us All humans have some evil inside of them, waiting for the right moment to appear out of the person they are inside of. William Golding, author of Lord of the Flies, writes to have us know that evil lurks within every person. Jack changes throughout the story, symbolizing the evil everyone could posses. When we first start, Jack was known for the choir boy who wanted to hunt. Although, when they were on the very first hunt, he was frozen and did not cut the pig’s throat.
Ralph considers that the main reason for the disorder on the island is Jack, the antagonist and representation of evil in the novel. There is a continuous conflict between the two boys. Ralph stands for civilized ideals, while Jack leads a tribe of savages and “organizes” primitive rituals. In the middle of the savagery, Ralph stays rational and hopes of rescue. There is only one occasion when Ralph falls into that same savagery; it occurs when he joins the ritual dance at the feast, the same feast where Simon gets killed.
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.
Right here Jack already tries to imply that his choir is more savage than the rest of the boys by calling them hunters. Secondly, Jack once again expresses his need for control by going against the rules that were instilled among the boys in the beginning of the book. Jack says, “Bollocks to the rules! Were strong- we hunt…we’ll close in and beat and beat and beat,” (Golding 99). The excessive control demonstrated by the boys undoubtedly supports the idea that humans are innately evil, and it is also shown in many other ways such as how the boys mistreat each other.
Omaka English II Pre-AP, 7th Sep 27, 2014 The Loss of Innocence in Man Annie Lennox says, “Humankind seems to have an enormous capacity for savagery, for brutality, for lack of empathy, for lack of compassion.” Lennox is referring to the covert animalistic, impulsive nature that lives in all humans. This statement reigns true for all age groups as an inherent reminder of human’s instinctive sense for cruelty. No matter how tame or how civilized, ranging from boys to men, evil lives within the heart of everyone. Therefore, in the novel Lord of The Flies, William Golding expresses the facial paint, rocks, and pigs as a symbolic representation of the lust for violence and how this internal instinct of savagery, if allowed to flourish, can lead to the decline of innocence in those who are affected. The theme of the loss of innocence is first exhibited when the boys in the novel are encountered with the task of killing a pig and they begin to paint their faces to keep themselves hidden from their prey.
The beautiful island becomes a hell at the end of the novel. Finally, when Ralph is escaping from the hunting of other boys, he is saved by a navy officer who takes all boys back to the ship. Towards the end of the last chapter, the passage "Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man' heart, and the fall through the air of his true, wise friend called Piggy" demonstrates the main theme of this novel: man is evil by nature. The three things that Ralph weeps for are the lessons he has on this island: innocent boys become savage; all human beings have evil deep inside their hearts and the fall of science and rationality before the evil of human. These three issues are developed throughout the whole novel with this passage as the conclusion of the main theme - human beings are evil by nature.