The boys prove man to be inherently evil through control, mistreatment, and murder. In The Lord of the Flies the boys on the island prove that humans are innately evil through excessive control. At the very beginning of the book Jack tries to control his choir, making them hunters. Jack said to Ralph, “I’ll split up the choir-my hunters that it,“ (Golding 42). Right here Jack already tries to imply that his choir is more savage than the rest of the boys by calling them hunters.
“At once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock. Leapt on to the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore.” The “beast” here is referred to Simon. Simon is mistaken by the boys as a beast so they beat him up. The boys are so caught up in the beating as they use as many parts of their body they can to exert violence on Simon: verbal violence in “screamed”, the use of fists and hands in “struck, bit”, and teeth in “tore.” This is significant because Simon is killed by the delusion of the boys and he is the
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 pig’s ultimate symbolism begins to show from this moment onwards in the novel. As they attempt to capture the pig, they are apprehensive when it comes to killing the pig, but as they build courage they also begin feeding their irrepressible, barbaric nature. As they finally seize their first pig, they introduce their incantation, “Kill the pig[…] Cut her throat […] Spill her blood”, which is in essence blood thirsty and terrifying. (Golding 69) Though he chant may have been born out of their frustration of constantly being eluded by the swine and finally being successful, as time goes on the chant becomes more of tradition when they take an animal’s life.
This is an example of how savage the boys had truly become. The turpitude that the boys possessed during this hunt shows how the evil in them had taken oven. Later, Jack told the boys that they would offer the head as a sacrifice to the beast of the island. He told them to "sharpen a stick at both ends...as he stood up, holding the dripping sow's head in his hands... and jammed the soft throat down on the pointed end of the stick" (Golding, 126). The ability of Jack to perform this atrocious act shows his complete digression from propriety to absolute
Hunting gives Jack an adrenaline rush which he very much enjoys. He talks about the experience of killing a pig during one of their assemblies: “‘There was lashing of blood,” said Jack, laughing and shuddering”(69). Jack starts enjoying these violent acts of killing and falls deeper into savagery. He takes his group down this dark and violent path even further. 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).
He is resentful of the success of others, and has attitude problems. He is the first to kill the chickens too, just like Jack killing the pigs. After Jack and a couple other people got done beating up Roger, acting like he was a pig, he then said “That was a good game.” (115). Jack did not care about others, he only cared about himself. Greg from Kid Nation was just like that, after he found out that they gave a gold star to someone who the council thought did the finest, that’s all he wanted.
The fact that the pig went from being ‘in maternal bliss’ to ‘dim-eyed and grinning faintly’ is also terrifying, because they took something innocent and turned it into something wicked, which is essentially what happened to them. The point that tells the reader that the boys have completely lost their innocence and civility is the brutal, but accidental, murder of Simon. They let their fear warp their vision and ultimately killed their friend because of their ignorance to what the beast actually was. The flashes of lightening and chanting work the boys up
Later on towards the end marks the downfall of society and intellect when they get shattered by Jack and his minions. Jacks knife is also a symbol. His knife symbolizes murder and evil. Having the knife made him feel like he needed to use it and he sought to complete its purpose by killing an animal for food. When he did kill a pig, he was filled immense pleasure and he grew in love with the feeling of killing.
He can catch his own pigs. Anyone who wants to hunt when I do can come too.” Being angered because Jack’s tribe stole Piggy’s spectacles and because no one was listening, Piggy goes off to Jack’s side of the island with Ralph and the twins to show who’s boss around here and to retrieve his glasses. Once arriving there, Jack and Ralph have a mini battle. As this goes on, Roger tries to interfere, and ends up killing Piggy with an extremely large boulder. Piggy’s death signifies that all intelligence on the island has ended.
Jack's second anarchist method of leadership is made up of his passion for brutal hunting. Jack leads the boys in a chant of "Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood" (Golding 69). Jack pursues the pig in a tremendously hostile manner.