Chloe Escobar
Mr. Jennings
Honors English III
April 8, 2013
Lord of the Flies: Innate Human Nature
William Golding’s “Lord of The Flies”, is a novel about a group of young, British, private school boys whose flight has crashed and left them on a stranded island somewhere in the Pacific. After realizing the state of emergency, the boys made attempts to construct a somewhat civilized society that would perhaps mimic the one they had known back home. Unfortunately without the boundaries of a true civilization, human nature reverts back into its primitive, barbaric ways and the boys turn on one another. In this novel we see the themes of civilization versus savagery.
When I say that human nature is “reverting”, this is to refer to the caveman, survival of the fittest ways, of an animal like instinct. The boys in no way were savages when they first arrived on the island. They were indeed civilized and higher class young English men following the footsteps of the adults in their lives. Once they landed on the island and realized that there was no adult present to formulate things, the older ones took it upon themselves to make sense of the situation. The protagonist and main character, Ralph, seemed to have a natural knack for leadership which caught the attention of the younger boys. By electing him their leader the boys showed signs of democracy and humanity, which would lead you to believe that things were going to go well the remainder of the book. According to James Baker, “There is little forewarning of this eventual collapse of order” (Baker 22.) Yet, there are slight and quiet signs that the antagonist Jack will deviate from the plan and drag the group towards savagery.
Jack Merridew being the antagonist is perhaps the main force driving the boys away from humanity, with Ralph being the gleaming light of civilization. As the novel progresses the central conflict unravels as a struggle for power. It seems that both boys are at first on the same page with the goal, but evidently Jack shows his true colors as the savage. Do the boys listen to Ralph who has provided them with guidance and rules in order to survive? Or do they follow Jack’s example and do what is fun, and give in to their child like urges.
After several failed attempts to hunt and kill a pig for the group as instructed by Ralph, Jack lets the hunt get the best of him. The goal ends up not being about the food for the good of the group, but rather just the act of killing and taking life in some sort of masculine quest. Jack goes so far as to put war paint on his face as a camouflage, and set out on his mission. Eventually he and his hunters come back with a pig, chanting the barbaric lyrics of “Kill the pig! Cut her throat! Spill her blood!” signifying the steady downfall of the boys’ innocence and morale. Even with the gain of meat, it was at the cost of the signal fire they were supposed to be tending. In the hunters’ absence they had abandoned the fire, which evidently may have saved their life as a ship had gone by in the horizon. Ralph, with the help of the nagging but intelligent Piggy, reprimands Jack for his forgetfulness. At this point it is clear that Jack is losing sight of what is important in the scheme of survival, and so are his followers. “His mind was crowded with memories; memories of the knowledge that had come to them when they had closed in on the struggling pig…taken away its life like a long satisfying drink”(Golding 63.) It is also apparent that there is a division, between those who put survival as first priority and those who prefer to exploit their power for selfish gain.
After the encounter between Ralph and Jack, the animosity continued to escalate. With many of the boys refusing to build shelters or cooperate with Ralph’s delegations, Jack continued to push for selfish gain and power. Jack was the extreme of complete savagery, while Ralph tried to keep things in civilized order. It also becomes apparent at this point that a “beast” is haunting the island and strikes fear into the smaller children, or littluns. Jack uses the boys fear to his advantage by saying that he will keep everyone safe, which makes him somewhat of an idol. He realizes that swaying the feelings of the majority will result in respect toward him. The fact that Jack is even toying with these children’s feelings suggests immaturity, and also points to the fact that he would rather give into barbaric fun than focus on getting rescued.
It seems at this point that the boys still retain a chance of keeping their civilized, British school boy manner. Then, things take a turn for the worst as the boys happen upon pig droppings and decide to go on a hunt which does not end up getting them meat but does in fact rile up their spirits. The boys get so excited that they go back to the beach and prance around their fire, and perform a reenactment of their hunt using a boy named Robert as their prey. In the rush of things they almost end up killing him. Could it be that because there were no adults or constraints around to mediate the activity, that the boys let their inner savage get the best of them? Or perhaps they had just been at play. Doubtful of the latter, I believe that the once well-mannered children slowly lost their humanity because they no longer had a higher order to serve; there was no external driving force which resulted in each boy including Ralph giving into their savage instinct.
Despite any lingering hope you may have had at this point, the internal divide separates the boys and things go spiraling out of control. After Jack declares that he is leaving the group and that anyone else is welcome to join, he gains not just his original hunting pack but also some of Ralph’s followers. Jack’s group ends up killing a pig, and keeping its head on a stake as an offering to the beast, suggesting that they have completely lost all sense of reality. In the midst of all the insanity, Simon is on a late night walk and stumbles upon the pig head and goes into some sort of trance in which he talks to “The Lord of the Flies”. It tells him, “We are going to have fun on this island. Understand? We are going to have fun on this island! So don’t try it on, my poor misguided boy, or else-“(Golding 131.) Examined closely, the pig head is in synchronization with Jack which represents the evil in all human beings. Simon ends up unconscious and somehow discovers a dead parachute man which the boys had thought to be a beast. Seeing this he decided to go share the information with the boys who were at the time having a feast. Simon never got to share his information, because he was brutally killed in the midst of the pig killing reenactment. In the boys’ defense, one could say that they were so caught up in their game that they had not realized Simon for who he was. But would young boys really kill their peer? The answer to that is no, not unless these boys were of a primitive sort with no respect to mankind. Really at this point, any hope of being “normal” is gone. They have managed to kill of a member of the group and truly do not feel remorse. The only people who had good will within them were Ralph, Piggy, and a few of their younger followers.
And so, the book ends with Jack declaring an all-out war against Ralph which ultimately ends up killing Piggy, the wise and kind hearted boy. Jack and his crazy band wagoner tribe go so far as to burn the island down in an attempt to smoke out Ralph, ignoring the fact that their resources are ablaze. A normal human being with a sense of reality would realize the fatality of these actions, but not them. To Ralph’s luck, he ends up sprinting for the beach and finding a naval officer to his rescue. As an outsider, the officer seems astonished at their appearance and the fact that children had been killed. He failed to realize that the boys fell victim to their innate savagery which had slowly consumed them because they had no boundaries from which to live in.
So you see, the descent of the boys civilization was just a timeline of events. From first arriving on the island with a plan to get out, to Jack being a hunt crazy fiend, and finally to the separation of the group into a tyranny, they steadily lost a sense of who they were. It could be appropriate to wonder whether this theory would hold true in all age groups rather than just minors. This would probably not be mirrored in an older group of beings, seeing that they have more of a sense of purpose such as the brilliant Ralph. Of course the boys were changed forever, but one can hope that by the signs of their tears and wailing to the officer toward the end of the book that they had come to grips with what they had become, savages. “Ralph wept for the end of the innocence, the darkness of a man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy” (Golding 184.)
Works Cited
Baker, James R. . "Why It's No Go." Critical Essays on William Golding N/A (1963): 22-30. Print.
Golding, William. Lord of the flies. New York: Coward-McCann, 1962. Print.
Fitzgerald , John F., and John R. Kayser. "Golding's Lord of the Flies: Pride as Original Sin." EBSCOhost 24.1 (1992): 78. Search.more.net. Web. 27 Mar. 2013.