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Analysis Of Why Boys Become Vicious By William Golding

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On a daily basis, does one think of him or herself to be cruel or violent? Many think that mankind has a nature of being savage. People believe that we acquired the trait of viciousness and that it is inside every one of us. One person that focuses on the savagery of humans is writer William Golding. In his novel Lord Of The Flies and article “Why Boys Become Vicious”, he tells of the production of savagery. Golding speaks of the circumstances that cause fierce behavior. Chaos, fear, and the corruption of power breed savagery. Without these components, savagery can not flourish. The first contribution to violent behavior is chaos, providing desperation during a time or event. Desperation causes people do things they would usually not do. In “Why Boys Become Vicious”, Golding writes of the effects of chaos with people, telling of a story about gangs of homeless children roaming Russia after the First World War attacking and killing. Golding states, “There was, at the time, social chaos in many countries, and, left to themselves, these children found a kind of elemental cohesion in their viciousness...Without the support …show more content…

In the book Lord Of The Flies, the main characters are young boys that are afraid, causing them to act violently after killing a pig. One of the boys “held up the head and jammed the soft throat down on the pointed end of the stick which pierced through into the mouth. He stood back and the head hung there, a little blood dribbling down the stick” (Golding, 136). This boy spears the head of a pig into the ground to show off that he killed it and leave it as an offering to the beast that he fears will kill him. Usually, one would describe this act as violent, however he believes that it is the only way to not be killed by the beast. His feelings of being threatened by the beast cause him to act in these cruel

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