Civilization vs Savagery in Lord of the Flies Essay Example

In the Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the concept of Civilization vs Savagery reoccurs and affects the characters' mental state progressively negatively.

Civilization vs Savagery starts off being a not compelling factor, and is represented by the conch and the fire. It doesn’t affect the boys much at first, because they don’t care about it. In return, that carelessness gets one of them killed by ‘the savagery’. Most boys aren’t yet aware that their survival and sanity on the island means that they can’t play all the time. The only boy who realizes this is Piggy, who, after the boys finish building the fire, argues with them all, “How can you expect to be rescued if you don’t put first things first and act proper?” (Golding 45). This demonstrates that the boys don’t listen to Piggy. They don’t care about their situation on the island, and they don’t care to learn about it from Piggy. The only thing that gets them to care is the missing boy. When they realized that he was gone “The crowd was as silent as death” (Golding 46), and suddenly they weren’t so unruly. This is a huge contrast from when they were arguing with Piggy, clamoring to take the conch from him. Their reaction to the missing boy's death is one step into realizing their circumstances, but even so, they still have yet to figure out how serious their situation is, and how easily they will go off the deep end.

Civilization vs Savagery carries on becoming relevant, represented by Ralph and Jack's fights and the fire. It also begins to have a greater impact on the characters mental state because of fear of the beasty and high tensions. The tensions between Ralph and Jack are tight, and they’re extremely upset with one another: “They were both red in the face and found looking at each other difficult.” (Golding 52). Jack's growing need to hunt represents the crumbling of civilization into savagery, and Ralph wanting to build shelters shows his want to build up civilization. Their desires clash, causing them (or Civilization vs Savagery) to fight. Adding on to Ralph and Jack's tension is the death of the fire: “The fire was out, smokeless and dead; the watchers were gone.” (Golding 68). There were no watchers making sure the fire didn’t go out because Jack had taken them to go hunting. The fire is the boy's only landline to civilization, so letting it go out just so Jack could hunt is a direct attack on civilization. This of course makes Ralph and Jack fight again. Jack is fully representing savagery, so now in the concept of Civilization vs Savagery, Savagery is winning.

By the end, savagery has beaten civilization, in a final show of the shattering of the once all important conch, and loss of fire. All the kids have been impacted negatively by the victory of savagery, some kids having died or gone mad. The loss of fire is Jack's fault because, “From his [Jack’s] left hand dangled Piggy’s broken glasses.” (Golding 168), Jack stole Piggy’s glasses. Piggy’s glasses are the only way to make fire, fire being the only way back to civilization. The conch’s destruction is caused by a rock that the tribe attacked Piggy and Ralph with, and the conch being gone means to Jack: “There isn’t a tribe for you anymore! The conch is gone-” (Golding 181). What Jack attributes to Ralph’s tribe is civilization. Which means that the conch being shattered is equivalent to civilization being shattered, unable to be repaired. Savagery has completely won on the island, and everything that represented civilization got conquered.

In short, the idea of Civilization vs Savagery in the Lord of the Flies by William Golding was repeated and had great negative effects on the characters mental states.