How Does Golding Use Masks In Lord Of The Flies

In Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, a group of boys’ are forced to live on an island without law and order. Therefore, many of the boys experience a savagery phase on the island, causing them to constantly resort to violence over an issue. These boys primarily consist of Jack’s tribe in the novel. Through the boys’ use of face paint and Jack’s tribe killing people and animals, the reader learns that masks are used to disguise people who aspire to commit evil acts and become savages.

The boys adopt face paint to disguise themselves whilst committing destructive acts and become savages through masks. During the boys’ conversations about how to obtain fire, Jack states, “We’ll raid them and take fire. There must be four of you; Henry and you,

After he kills his first pig, Jack, “... his face smeared with clays, [reaches] the top first and [hails] Ralph excitedly, with lifted spear. ‘Look! We’ve killed a pig-’” (69). Jack did not have the courage to originally kill a pig, but is ecstatic when he executes his first pig. The mask that Jack wore allows him to not feel guilty about killing a living creature. It has the ability to turn him into a savage. Furthermore, when the hunters attempt to recreate the pig killing scene, they overemphasize, “All at once, Robert was screaming and struggling with the strength of frenzy. Jack [has] him by the hair and was brandishing his knife” (114). All the boys participate in assaulting Robert because they believe it is just a game and that nothing will go wrong, but this is not true. The mask plays a part in this as it disguises the boys from their civilized sides, and brings out their savagery causing them to brutally beat Robert even when not wearing it. Moreover, as Simon attempts to inform the boys about how the beast is actually a dead parachutist, they mistake him for the beast and , “The sticks [fall] and the mouth of the new circle [crunches] and [screams]. The beast was on its knees in the center, its arms folded over its face. It was crying out against the abdominal noise…”(152). The mask here is used to hide the