LOTF Final Essay Example

📌Category: Books, Literature, Lord of the Flies, William Golding
📌Words: 694
📌Pages: 3
📌Published: 12 June 2021

It can easily be said that people in the present day are far more evolved than those during much more primitive times. The human race has advanced into civility and more intelligent groups. Common and basic decency was developed and used. However, this still brings up the question: what makes man savage and violent? In Willam Golding’s Lord of the Flies it is to be assumed that isolation and fear cause man to descend into savagery and violence. 

Humans heavily rely on communication with each other to survive. When the boys become separated from others, their mental health declines into depression and anxiety. This can be the cause of their irrational fears of a beast. “Tell us about the snake-thing." "Now he says it was a beastie." "Beastie?" "A snake-thing. Ever so big. He saw it." "Where?' "In the woods” (Golding 33 ). Their paranoia emerges and manifests the lingering fear of something that does not even exist. The fact that they are stranded on a deserted island haunts them and affects how rationally they think and react. This causes their island society to become weaker and deteriorate into savagery. Natural survival instincts and primitivity take over. Social standards and rules fall into oblivion and needs such as food and water gain more importance. Jack was the first one to fall into this primitive thinking. In chapter 3 he “tried to convey the compulsion to track down and kill that was swallowing him up. "I went on. I thought, by myself—" The madness came into his eyes again. "I thought I might kill” (Golding 50). There’s even foreshadowing and objects to symbolize the decline of civilization among the boys due to isolation. A prime example of this is the conch, the conch is a symbol of authority and procedure. It even becomes a comfort item to the boys because it becomes a tradition among them to be used for assemblies and turns for speaking. Once Jack and the boys split from Ralph and became savage, the conch breaks by getting smashed the great rock. This represents how all authority and civility is lost and the relationships between Ralph and the savages cannot be mended. Isolation causes defensive and aggressive behavior towards others, clearly causing the divide of the boys. Fear also is a factor in their separation from each other.

As the novel progresses and the society on the island falls to ruin, fear is a very prominent motivator towards that. The boys first believe the beast is a creature in the sea, land, or sky, but it soon becomes evident that the beast is in themselves. “Maybe… there is a beast… What I mean is… maybe it's only us.” (Golding 89). Simon is the only one who seems to truly understand things for what they are. Ralph worries that the boys will resort and succumb to savagery and primitive nature, losing all rational and logical thinking. This is the reason Ralph fights for his side to the end. Even when no one is left on his side. “ Which is better—to be a pack of painted Indians like you are, or to be sensible like Ralph is?" A great clamor rose among the savages. Piggy shouted again” (Golding 184). This is where Ralph symbolizes the greater good of man and basic mannerisms and decency. He is the backbone of the society they had, it’s a shame he couldn’t keep it running on his own. Controversially, fear can be used as hypervigilance and alertness for self-defense. Isolation can equally be used as a way of time to one’s self for reflection, Simon demonstrating this by stating, “I wanted—to go to a place...just a place I know. A place in the jungle” (Golding 92). However; the likelihood of isolation and fear-producing something good for the boys is quite insignificant and they are overridden by the negative outcomes from them.

The savagery from the boys stems from isolation and fear. Due to their lack of compromise and communication, they slowly descend into savagery and lose all means of the people they once were. Isolation prevents communication from happening and can alter the mind of the ones affected by it. Unfortunately, this happens to the stranded boys, and their lives are forever scarred and some even lost. If they were able to get along better then the outcome of the novel would have been a different story. Isolation and fear lead to selfish thinking, which is the corruption of their democracy and humanity.

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