Dangerous Ideas In William Golding's Lord Of The Flies

SPEECH

Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the 2018 Festival of Dangerous Ideas. I strongly believe that humanity is most definitely the greatest threat to civilisation. Lord of the Flies has many parallels with our real world, with leaders such as Adolf Hitler and Kim Jon Un, who, like Jack in the play, have proven that it is mankind’s lust for power, control and violence that makes humanity the main threat to civilisation and social order.

“Which is better - law and rescue or hunting and breaking things up? To have rules and agree or to hunt and kill like a pack of savages?” Piggy asks these questions in Act 3 just before he is murdered. These questions go to the core of the main theme in the play – the conflict between civilisation and savagery. This theme is communicated through the power battle between Ralph and Jack who each represent civilisation and savagery respectively.

He uses his authority to protect the common good of the group by enforcing morals and laws. Ralph supports Piggy’s idea and introduces the conch shell rule to allow each boy to speak freely in turn. In Act 1, Piggy explains the conch shell rule “must never be broken.” The conch is a symbol for democracy and represents civilisation which at the beginning unifies the boys. However, as Jack’s hunger for power and violence grows, the conch begins to lose its affect as their society moves away from democracy, to a dictatorship, where one person – Jack, has absolute power. In Act 3 Jack rejects the conch stating: “The conch doesn’t count at this end of the island.” It shows that as a dictator gains power, rules and laws are abandoned which results in savagery and the destruction of