Civilization Vs Savagery In William Golding's Lord Of The Flies

Navneet Sidhu

Ms.Henze

English 11

January 20, 2018

Title: Subtitle

In the novel “Lords of The Flies”, “William Golding”, extensively focuses on the theme civilization versus savagery thoroughly. On the island, we can clearly see the quarrel taking place between Jack and Ralph, where jack represents savagery while Ralph represents civilization through their actions. This results in affecting the boys to reach deeply into savagery. This distinctly shows how the laws are the only thing keeping human beings from savagery. This novel is a record of civilization giving the way to savagery in human activities.

Firstly, the novel tells us about the boys who are stuck on an island where there are no grownups or adults, without any law and order, they are on their own. There are two main characters which represent civilization and savagery. One of them is Ralph, who makes rules like a civilized person and makes jobs for the boys to do. The other is Jack who is more into hunting pigs to prove himself as a good hunter, like a savage person. He makes the rules but doesn’t follow them at all. This is shown when Jack ordered all his tribe member including Samneric, even though they were on the duty to keep the fire going, to join in the hunt. Jack said “The rest are making a line. Come on!” ‘But -’ ‘- We -’ “Come on! I’ll creep and stab-” (67). This shows that Jack and his tribe was responsible for keeping the fire going, which is the only hope for the boys to get rescued. At that time,