When they gather around for the first time after Ralph summons them, he declares “We’ll have rules…lots of rules! Then when anyone breaks ‘em-.” (Golding 33). The boys are excited to have rules; they are comforted by this thought, even Jack, who is in obvious competition with Ralph to become chief from the very start. They are welcoming to the thought of punishment if rules are broken, because this is how they function in their civilized lives. When Jack finds out there are animals on the island, he wants to hunt them.
There is tension that is built up during the survival of the boys on the island: tension between social responsibility and individual needs, tension between rational and emotional reactions and tension between mortality and immortality. These tensions contribute to the disintegration of order as the boys begin to lose control because Golding shows that the savagery inside them is instinct and everyone is born with evil inside them. Golding uses a variety of techniques to portray the disintegration of order. In the novel, he uses hunting and violence as one of the main themes to convey the boys as savages. There are six main hunts shown and as the hunting proceeds the boys lose their identity as the little children in England.
He starts to take part and witness violent acts such as the boys on the island hunting pigs. Although as the novel progresses, Ralph's self identity begins to disappear. He is part of Simon's "accidental" death and he constantly argues with Jack. Towards the end of the book, it's obvious to see that Ralph completely forgets why he was leader in the first place. "Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of a true, wise friend called Piggy.
This shows his intelligence, because this is exactly what the boys need: fun to counteract the fear of the beast, and meat to avoid being hungry. However, his need of power often blinds his intelligence. For instance, he doesn’t realize that by setting the whole island on fire to eliminate the last element of opposition to his dictatorship - Ralph -, he’s committing suicide, as there won’t be any food more for them to eat. The opposition between Jack and Ralph can be noticed throughout the book. Whereas Ralph wants to be rescued as soon as
This is the moment when he realizes that there are no consequences on the island anymore. After this point, Roger becomes the most savage boy of the group; he throws the boulder at Piggy, tortures Sam and Eric and burns the whole island down while hunting Ralph. Golding is pointing out through Roger’s character that some people have a more savage nature than others, and can’t be expected to be civil through morality. He shows the cruciality of the establishment of laws, and more importantly, the set consequences for breaking them, in order to keep people from committing acts of savagery. The
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.
Even the forest fire in the end of the story, that was meant to destroy, ended up being the boys key to rescue. In the beginning of this book, one of the most important parts is when Jack let the fire go out to go hunting. Although hunting is not necessarily barbaric or a loss of civilization, it is still what leads up to the loss of civilization. When Ralph realizes the power of the fire and admits that if everyone does not do their duty and cooperate in keeping the fire going, all hopes in contacting civilization outside are shattered. The fire is their
Reasons Jack and his tribe painted their faces The war paint is also a symbol. It symbolized the rejection of society. In a way, when they put on the mask of war paint, they took off the mask of society and revealed their true inner self which was savage. Jack's mask is used to represent the unleashing of evil nature that the polite society leashes. The painted mask initially scares the hunter Bill, but he then laughs and backs away into the jungle.
Unlike Ralph's peaceful, democratic leadership, Jack believes in violence as a way to rule. Jack uses anarchism, the absence of government, as his method of winning over the boys and convincing them to leave Ralph. When Jack is originally unsuccessful as convincing the boys to convert over to his own methods, he resorts to savagery in order to become successful in gaining power and sovereignty over the boys. Jack's disrespect, desire to hunt, and violent tendencies are all ways in which he gains and maintains power over the converted boys. Most importantly, Jack's disrespect towards the other boys makes him fearful to the others, and therefore the boys feel obligated to follow his orders if they want to avoid consequences.
So don’t try it on, my poor misguided boy, or else…” (Goldman 131). The Lord of the Flies also tells Simon that the beast is real, because he is the beast. Simon does not fall for the trap or give in to temptation because it is against his moral values. “Pig’s head on a stick” (Goldman 130), Simon says to the Lord of the Flies. By not allowing his civilization to slip away, Simon is able to understand what the beast truly is: it is a savage instinct that is inside all of the boys that influences their every decision.