Loss of Civilization and Innocence in Lord of the Flies

How long can a man remain civilized before descending into savagery in the world? Society provides rules and laws to live by in a civilized way, but can we really hide the true evil of mankind that will always exist within? The Lord of the Flies by William Golding starts with boys stuck on an island after their plane crashed. Throughout reading the novel it is apparent how each character changes and, engages, or plays a role in savagery. Through the novel, you start seeing how being stuck on the island is starting to get to them. They start becoming violent and blood-hungry, they start to wander further and further off from civilization and humanity. Golding shows the natural effect of kids alone with no guidance similarly to how they have no laws or rules from civilization. This helps portray an understanding of the theme of how  “the beast is within us”.  In Golding’s The Lord Of The Flies, the descent into savagery is traceable as they create rules and follow law and order, but eventually fails with rules being ignored, cruelty being shown towards some of the boys, and ends with death and the burning of the island.

At the beginning of the novel, they are scared but also fawned by the idea of being alone on the island with no grown-ups. Ralph believes that his father is going to find him and the boys and save them. Piggy is trying to create a balance of law and order. Piggy finds the conch and they use the conch as a tool to help with law and order. They follow a school system where they raise their hands to talk, whoever has the conch has the turn to speak and the attention is on them. Piggy and the conch symbolize law and order as well as how they are trying to maintain civilization as well as order and structure. This is shown in the following quote: “We can use this to call the others. Have a meeting. They’ll come when they hear us” (Golding., W 12)  The use of the demonstrative word “ this” is referring to the noun “conch” and that implies that the conch is important in signalling everyone to come back. From this, we can infer that the conch is important to maintaining law and order as well as how it was an important factor as it could help them with the gathering and communicating of the boys. After the boys started realizing that they needed to find a way to survive to get out of the island they spread jobs and responsibilities and duties.  They are starting to realize that they might be there for a while.  “ If a ship comes near the island they may not notice us. We must make a fire’’ (Golding., 38) This quote shows how they want to attract a passing ship’s attention and get rescued which also implies that they are trying to make contact with others and with civilization in order to be saved. “Jack snatched from behind him a sizable sheath-knife and clouted it into a trunk. The buzz rose and died away.” (Golding., 18) This demonstrates that Jack is acting in a brutish, unchildlike way by threatening Piggy with a knife. This implies that he is starting to lose his innocence and staying on the island is getting to him. In conclusion, at the beginning of the novel, they had kept a connection to civilization, and their homes but they will start falling apart and going through conflicts which will lead to their descent into savagery. 

Between chapters 7 and 8 “ Gift for the Darkness” and, “Shadows and Tall Trees”,  the boy’s true descent into savagery starts becoming more apparent. For example, Ralph was innocent and wanted to enjoy himself and the freedom he gained at the beginning of chapter 1 whereas, in chapter 7 we can see how he started descending into savagery. Moreover, a topic being highlighted is the breakdown of civilization, and they are starting to further away from civilization and society. This is shown when the boys start killing a pig. “Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in!” (Golding ., W 132) It is evident how excited and savage they are towards hunting and killing, in comparison to how they were at the beginning of the novel when Jack tried to kill the pig and failed. He started talking about how he will kill the pig next. “But I shall! Next time! I’ve got to get a barb on this spear! We wounded a pig and the spear fell out. If we could only make barbs-” (Golding., W 55). It is evident that Jack is determined to kill the pig but couldn’t. The 2 quotes somehow show savagery, but the first quote represents their descent into savagery they are indeed killing the pig, and afterwards, they want to see the murder and the blood. This is represented in the following quote: “ Ralph too was fighting to get near, to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh. The desire to squeeze and hurt was overmastering” (Golding ., W 132) This implies that Ralph was descending and giving into savagery as he wanted to see and hurt the pig. This was concerning because he was the leader and was trying to not give in to savagery and maintain civilization but yet started giving in. The first two quotes resemble the want of the kill. The first quote showed them chanting while going to do so and in the second it shows Jack acting determined and promising that he will indeed kill the pig. In contrast to the first two quotes, the last quote shows the feeling of it after it has happened they have killed the pig and the boy trying to lead and get saved is slowly falling into savagery. 

Hunting, killing of pigs, bullying, and making fun is shown in The Lord of the Flies showing savagery, but what happens in the last few chapters shows the complete loss of civilization and savagery. Murder and rituals. The Lord of the flies is the pig’s head that had been killed by Jack, Roger, and the hunters. It was an offer to the beast and is a representation of Belzebub and the evil within all of us. They chant around the pig’s head on a stake: “ Kill the pig! Cut its throat! Bash her in! Drink its blood” (Golding ., W PDF 88) The use of the phrase “Drink its blood”  shows just how savage they have become and into savagery they are to drink blood and murder the pig and make it a ritual. when Simon figures that out and goes to tell the other boys but gets murdered. The boys dancing around the pig chanting also implies the topic of the breakdown of socialized behaviour which links to savagery as it gets further away from civilization and goes deeper into savagery. Later on in the novel, when Simon finds out that evil is within and goes to tell the other boys and get murdered. The boys mistake him for the beast and bite him and eventually kill him. They are turning into cannibalism without knowing and have reached a very intense level of savagery. “Roger took up a small stone and flung it between the twins, aiming to miss […] some source of power began to pulse in Roger’s body” (Golding., W 206). This quote reveals how he wanted to frighten them and reveal his dictatorship. This relates to the descent into savagery as he is acting sadistic and power-hungry as an impulse in him. Piggy died and the boys don’t take the time to grieve and talk about it. With that, the conch breaks, and by the destruction of the shell, the boys have lost all civilization, link to civilization and have fully become savages. This is shown in the quote: “ Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of a man’s heart, the fake through the air of a true, wise friend called Piggy”. This also shows how the evil truly is within because they were scared of not surviving because of not having someone else there but died and suffered because of one another.

In conclusion, throughout the novel, it is apparent how the loss of civilization and innocence led to descent in savagery even to the purest characters. Certain events showed how they descended into savagery and let that take over. They went from trying to maintain civilization to turning on one another. The novel ends with a dramatic Irony of the island being burned by fire as they used it as a signal fire in the form of a tool to help get rescued and was used as a weapon but got them saved. They went through many challenges, themes and topics that are completely different from how we live life and were secluded from society and civilization. What I’ve interpreted from the novel is that a man can never truly hide behind a mask and never reveal his true evil within even in the most minor way possible whether it’s from bullying or all the way to murder. Their own rules fail on the island and corrupt the civilization they try to make out of a thought of the need to be safe till rescued.