Savagery Vs Civilization

Lord of the flies, a novel, written by William Golding demonstrates the differences between savagery and civilization. The book opens up with a group of british school boys aged 6-12 that have survived a plane crash during a time of war. The plane crashes on an uninhabited island which also kills the pilot of the plane. The group of boys soon realize that there is no adult to take care of them. The first two boys introduced in the book are Ralph and Piggy. Ralph is among the oldest of the boys, confident and good-looking, while Piggy is an anti-social, corpulent asthmatic boy with glasses and the most intelligent person on the island, who are also the main protagonists of the story . Ralph finds a conch shell and being power-hungry, he quickly

Ralph wins the argument but Jack leaves the group and forms his own hunting group. They paint their faces and put mud on their body and they start looking for a pig to hunt. After finding a pig, they brutally kill it and cut its head off and leave it as an offering to the beast. This shows that the boys have completely forgot civilization and have become savages. Simon finds the head and sees that it’s the “Lord of the Files”. While Jack and his tribe celebrate and have a feast, Simon climbs the mountain and sees the dead parachutist. Simon realizes that there is no beast on the island and the beast is within all men. Simon quickly goes to Jack to tell him the truth about the beast not being existent. Jack and his tribe doesn’t recognize Simon and they kill him like a pig. Simon’s dead body sweeps away in the

Ralph, Piggy, Sam and Eric, go to get the glasses back. Jack’s tribe captures and tortures the twin boys. Piggy takes the conch shell and tries to control the situation, because as per the rule, whoever has the conch shell can speak and everyone else listens to him. Roger rolls a boulder from the top of the fort that hits Piggy and kill him, it also smashes the conch shell. The breaking of the conch shell symbolizes that no civilization is left among Jack and his tribe. Ralph runs away as he realizes that he has no authority left and Jack and his tribe has fully become savages. Jack and his tribe hunts Ralph and they set the forest on fire. Ralph finds himself cornered and has no hope of surviving. But the burning forest attracts a british naval ship, and an officer comes to the island. Ralph and the boys stare at the officer, being shocked. When the officer asks Ralph about what happened, he tells him about the casualties. The officer gets very disappointed. Ralph weeps and the other boys start crying