Cruelty In Lord Of The Flies Essay

Another act of savagery is that he raid Ralph’s shelter in the company of a couple of his savages and snatches away Piggy’s spectacles. Subsequently when Piggy insists on getting his spectacles back, Roger kills Piggy with a rock. The deaths of both Simon and Piggy are thus attributable to Jack’s brutality which is due to the great change that has come over Jack during the period of his stay on the island. When Ralph has fled to save his life, Jack orders a thorough search for Ralph. He gets a stick sharpened at both ends, evidently to torture Ralph to death after Ralph has been seized.

They find what they think to be the “beast”, and attack it. “At once the crowd surged after it… leapt onto the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore.” As the crowd dissipates, they “could see how small a beast it was.” It was in actuality Simon, who ironically died to what he came to tell them of. This savage nature that humanity was capable of was frequently alluded to by the book, and commented on by Golding himself, ultimately showing us the true meaning of the “beast”. Throughout “The Lord of the Flies”, the “beast” is ever present and ever changing. It manifests their fears, the war, then their savagery.

The boys reenact killing the pig, pretending to hurt Robert, and even for Ralph, “The desire to squeeze and hurt was overmastering” (Golding 115). Also, going to Jack’s feast causes a crime that Ralph commits. Ralph and Piggy join the other boys and partake in the feast, the dance, the killing. Ralph knows that he killed Simon and he knows that his innocence is gone. He regrets the things he does and “cradles the conch to and fro”, wishing for order again (Golding

Ironically, the children in their deranged mental state believed Simon to be the “beast,” even though they were the ones who “stuck” and “tore” him to pieces. “At once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, lept on the beast [Simon], screamed, struck, bit, tore,” (Doc. F). Their savagery is also demonstrated by their near-vile chant, “‘Kill the beast! Cut his throat!

Ralph, alone and afraid. Is a victim of Mob mentality. The other boys, in fear of the beast, have all sided with Jack, ganging up against Ralph to kill him. Mob mentality is everywhere in Lord of the Flies, and some of the most memorable moments are the most obvious examples of Mob Mentality. Mob mentality is portrayed many time throughout Lord of the Flies, for example, when Ralph is hunted, Simon is killed, or the choir follows Jack when he leaves the group.

His good senses are replaced with chaos, disorder, and evil. With jacks evil actions the his savagery is really starting to show us that he is getting violent. Jacks use of hunting turns him into the most savage out of all the boys. Everything he did after this point made him into the young savage that he was in the end of the book. “His mind was crowded with memories; memories of the knowledge that had come to them when they closed in on the struggling pig, knowledge that they had outwitted a living thing, imposed their will upon it, taken away its life like a long satisfying drink.” This quotation, also from Chapter 4, explores Jack’s mental state in the aftermath of killing his first pig, another milestone in the boys’ decline into savage behavior.

When Jack killed a pig, he tortured it by cutting it open, and cutting its head off. Being the sick and twisted person he is, he decides that it will be a sacrifice for the “Beastie”. We now know that the Beastie does not exist, but this was more than a sacrifice. It was a symbol to show that the boys have completely lost their civilized part of them, and they are now being true ‘savages’, and becoming more and more evil by the minute. In the book Lord of the Files, there are many signs of symbolism in the book.

Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in!" (Golding 104) They go after the sow and torture it, which fills the boys with excitement even more. Even after the pig is dead, they still feel the need to torment and jump on it.

His true savagery comes out when they kill Simon – a younger choir boy. They are all caught up in the dancing and the meat and when Simon comes with news about the beast, they do not even realize it is him. The fear of the

When morals no longer apply, the savage heart appears. When the boys are in their enraged frenzy they chant ‘Kill the beast, slice his throat, spill his blood’. When they hear a rustling in the woods they quickly attack the being by tearing it apart with their bear hands and biting at it with their mouths. They did not realize that this was actually Simon and during the comotion Simon accidentally trips and falls over a cliff to his death. This leads to anarchy and can relate to our society as war, greed and fear.