Civilization Vs Savagery In Lord Of The Flies Essay

Under the palms there wasn’t deadly silence. ‘Hands up!’ said Jack strongly, ’who wants Ralph not to be chief?’”(139) This created a rift between the boys because after this, Jack goes away from this tribe and eventually creates his own. This creates a rift by having two sides, Jack’s tribe and Ralph’s tribe. He also tries to get people in his way out of his way by any means possible. When Ralph had went to Jack’s tribe, he had a conversation with Samneric.

People are shaped by society, but when deprived of this structure they are forced to adapt, and as Golding argues, peoples learned behavior is quickly overcome when placed in a difficult environment In the book many of the characters started to detach from civilization, and descend into savagery. One specific character, Jack, was affected the most. At the beginning of the book he was presented as intelligent and a strong leader, and was respected by his choir members. However, as the book progressed he turned into a vicious control freak and he bullied most of the boys into focusing on hunting instead of being rescued. At the start he was hesitant to kill a pig, on page 28 it says, “Jack drew his knife with a flourish.

Later Jack manipulates the fearful environment to create his own "tribe," structured around totalitarianism. At one point in his manipulation, Jack proclaims, "‘Who's going to join my tribe? '(…)‘I gave you food, (…) and my hunters will protect you from the beast" (Golding, 150). He uses the fear of not being able to provide food for oneself and protect oneself from the "beast" to get the boys conform to his totalitarian tribal government. Since the two things he offers are necessary to survival, it makes it hard to not want to join his tribe.

Loss of innocence is ultimately what leads to the war which takes place on the once “good island” (Golding 34). In the Lord of the Flies the boys lose their innocence in exchange for savagery or for maturity because of the attitudes towards killing animals and people. Ralph and Piggy lose their innocence and transform into mature people because they oppose killing people and do not enjoy killing animals. While Jack and his hunters are out hunting Ralph and Piggy focus on the more important things such as shelters and the fire. Jack and his hunters are also supposed to keep the fire going but they continuously forget.

Due to Jack’s increasing obsession with hunting pigs, his clear dislike for anyone who disagrees with his thoughts and the fact that he is slowly gaining more support from the other boys, leads me to believe the novel will end with Jack murdering Piggy, symbolizing complete detachment from morality since Piggy symbolizes civil thought. If I were to rewrite this conclusion I would have Jack realize the importance of order, make a compromise with Ralph, and peacefully have the group rescued from the island. In my opinion, Ralph is the one of most compelling characters in this novel. Although Ralph symbolizes order and civilization during certain points of the book he struggles to overcome savage desires. Despite being angry with Jack for letting the fire go out, when Jack and his hunters tell the rest of the group about their hunt Ralph sits quietly and is filled with envy.

For someone who is dependent on fire it will be hard for Ralph to be without it. Seen in this quote ‘“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-.”’ (Golding 77). Jack is starting to fall off of society by not doing what he is assigned.

There are three main characters of the book: Jack, Ralph, and Piggy. Jack is where the immorality on the island originates from, and it spreads to the other boys. Jack is very reckless and careless in his decisions. Ralph was the leader of the island, until Jack took control of the tribe and turned all of them into savages. Ralph was an image for the boys to follow but spoke Piggy’s words.

This causes a fight between Ralph and Jack, because Ralph thinks that getting rescued should be the number one priority. Jack feels that he would be a better chief, so he starts a tribe of his own, full of people who want to hunt to survive. This rivalry between the two tribes becomes savage, as some blood is shed, fear is

Jack is always wanting to go hunting and have a more savage “tribe”, while Ralph wishes to keep the group civilized and neat. Because they both have contrary beliefs, they butt heads and disagree very often. Readers can see this play out when a few boys (Including Ralph and Jack, who’re the main two arguing) who went off to decide if they need to let Piggy know what’s going on. “Jack cleared his throat and spoke in a queer, tight voice. ‘We mustn’t let anything happen to Piggy, must we?’” (117).

The Lord Of The Flies by William Golding takes us to an abandoned island, where there is a fight for leadership among boys. Jack and Ralph were friends but when civilization is tested. Jack turns to savagery. Ralph struggles to survive and bring back order and civilization. The two boys Jack and Ralph although became enemies have similarities.

From the start, Piggy and Ralph strive to make a stable society while they await for rescue. Later on in the novel, Jack’s tribe raids Ralph’s shelters and takes Piggy’s glasses, their only way to start a fire. In order to be rescued, Piggy and Ralph go to Jack’s tribe and demand that they get Piggy’s glasses back. “Which is better – to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill?” (180). Here, Piggy is trying to convince Jack that Ralph’s human nature, which is about being just, is better than Jack’s human nature, which is about savagery.