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Theme Of Cruelty In Lord Of The Flies

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In William Golding's The Lord of the Flies, boys trapped on an island turn into deranged savages and kill each other after they fail to follow the rules of their made-up tribe. Cruelty is used by Golding as a way to communicate his theme which could be that cruelty is in nearly everybody, but civilization’s laws and control prevent that trait from prevailing. The author leaves some evidence of him trying to convey this theme throughout the book.
A part of the book that shows this theme being shown would be the demise of Piggy and civilization. The author of the story decided to add in this quote to link the most cruel thing that the boys did with the destruction of order: "The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch …show more content…

Roger and one of his friends abuses the kids in the story by destroying their sand castles and nearly hurting them. To show how much Roger had distanced himself from society’s laws, the author said this about Roger as he was throwing rocks at the kids: “Here, invisible yet strong, was the taboo of the old life. Around the squatting child was the protection of parents and school and policeman and the law. Roger’s arm was conditioned by a civilization that knew nothing of him was in ruins” (56). Of course this isn’t as bad as murdering a hippie and a nerd, but this shows that he’s violent because there’s no one to tell him to stop. In the quote itself it says that Roger was taught by society that it wasn’t okay to pick on other kids, but him being away from society has allowed him to disobey that rule. Even if Roger wasn’t taught that he still wouldn’t dare harm the children because, as the quote says, the parents, school, and police would immediately stop him and punish him for his actions.
Cruelty is something that’s present not only in The Lord of the Flies but also within reality. Golding used cruelty well in his book to convey his theme that cruelty is inside a majority of people, but society prevents it from ever appearing. Golding picked a very serious topic to talk about, and that topic is very much true in our world as we see tyrants and other such people cause suffering and

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