What do you think William Golding was saying in "Lord of the Flies" about the capacity of human race to behave in a civilized way?


I think William Golding is trying to tell us that the human race always has two personalities, one civilized, another primitive. Civilization is living with rules, always with morals in mind, act peacefully, think about the good of group and respect others. Primitive is brutal, wild, a mess and life in the jungle. If there is no civilization to put pressure on human beings and make them to control themselves, the primitive face inside them will come up to replace their civilization, and eventually, they will behave like animals. «Lord of the Flies» also tries to tell us the story of how man can lose their civilization to become savages.

A group of school boys arrive on a desert island without any grown-up to take control of them, which means they are completely isolated from the world and they must decide right things to do on their own. They can continue their civilization by creating a small organized society of their own. If not, they will turn wild. The story begins with all the boys civilized and ordered, with their wish to return to the world and society that they have been lived before. But as time passes through, they lose their initial hope of being rescued, they enjoy in hunting and life without adults. This enjoyment gradually takes away their civilization.

Ralph and Piggy are the two boys to keep civilization; they always want to put everything organized. Jack adapts quickly into the forest. He soon becomes a brilliant hunter. He finds that with painted faces, the boys could be more successful in hunting. Actually, with painted faces boys can lose their conscious feeling that have always been with them, so they can perform more wildly and freely.

The conch is an important symbol of civilization and order. It is used to call assemblies and whoever has the conch has the right to speak. It represents democracy and freedom to speak. The conch loses its power on boys as they transform into savagery, it has less and less influence on the boys. Finally, the conch is destroyed by Roger, and this event represents the death of civilization on the island.

The signal fire represents the rescue, the boys' hope of joining again the society and having an ordinary life that they have lived in past years. Every time the signal fire goes out, we can see that boys lose more patience of keeping it, they have forgotten their desire of returning to the society. They have adapted to wild and are having fun about being savages.

Jack's initial intention of telling other boys to joining him is for the boys to have fun in hunting and feast, instead of working hard on keeping the fire on. Then, Jack becomes the chief of his group, any boy who does not obey him; he and Roger will torture the boy. This looks like the change from communism to tyranny, the initial intention is to make all people equal and free, but when the leader gains power he forgets about the aim and enjoys his own good.

The beast is a great influence in the boys. It begins with a nightmare in some littluns' dreams to something very real for them. It is the fear of the beast of the boys that makes Jack raise his power, by offering protect to them. This means that when people are scared they see things in a distorted way, and leaders can use people's fear to their own advantage. The beast also represents the evil that resides inside everyone, the dark side of human beings. Through the novel, the boys become more scared of the beast as they behave more savagery. This means their evil face is coming up and they fear of themselves. The Lord of the Flies represents the physical existence of the beast, on this stage; the savage feeling of the boys is very big so the beast is very real.

William Golding also wants to tell us that it is a part of human nature to kill. A boy with a mark on his face who is not found anymore after lighting the signal fire is probably dead during the fire. He is the first person dead and is killed by other boys indirectly, by accident. After him, Simon is killed directly by the group of boys. Although it is a mistake, this shows the evil inside the boys are coming up. Piggy is murdered by Roger individually, Roger is the first boy who intends and performs the killing of other boy. These changes are completed at the end when all the boys agreed to hunt and kill Ralph. These show the transformations from innocent school boys who play around lagoon to cruel savages who want to kill Ralph.
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