Civilization Vs Savagery In Lord Of The Flies Analysis

The Lord of The Flies is a novel written by William Golding. The novel is based in the 1950s and tells the story of a group of young boys who find themselves on a deserted island. They establish rules and a system of organization, but without any adults on the island to serve as a civilizing authority, the young boys ultimately become savage and violent. Golding incorporates a number of themes throughout the novel like savagery vs civilization, this theme changes throughout the whole novel from beginning to end. At the beginning of the novel, the boys set up a democratic society to maintain order, in the middle the boys start to abandon their democratic society and their behavior becomes increasingly savage, fearful, and violent. 

At the beginning of Lord of The Flies, the boys set up rules and a system of organization. They elected Ralph as their leader and used the conch that was found at the beach to call the boys to come together for meetings on page 20 Piggy states “We can use this to call others. Have a meeting. They’ll come when they hear us” (Golding). The group of young boys also had built shelters and displayed concern for the youngest among them which shows that they are using their knowledge from back home to start a civilized community. Piggy’s glasses also play a big part in creating a civilized community because they are a symbol of survival and knowledge. The glasses created the signal fire which was used for the group’s survival, however, Jack gets frustrated when he gets blamed for letting the signal fire go out so he takes it out on Piggy, breaking piggy’s glasses. This act of assault symbolizes savagery, and the broken glasses symbolize the loss of intellectual thought on the island as things begin to fall apart.

In the middle of Lord of the Flies, The theme of civilization vs savagery becomes evident as Jack’s thirst for blood becomes apparent in chapter 4 when he is excited that they have killed a pig (Golding 97). Since this is Jack’s first time killing a pig his mind becomes obsessed with savage thoughts which lead the rest of the boys’ to lose civilization and become savage. The rest of the boys’show savagery behavior in chapter 9 when they kill Simon because he believed that the best was not real and that the“best” was a dead man wrapping in a parachute Jack and the others do not believe him and think that Simon is the best so they kill him ( Golding 219). Jack is one of the main reasons for the downfall of the boys’ civilization throughout the novel he tries to hide his true identity of being a civilized young boy with the identity of a savage and violent young boy. On page 89, Golding states, “Jack planned his new face he made one cheek and one eye socket white, then rubbed red over the other half of his face” (Golding). This mask, that Jack is creating replaces his true civilized face with a savagery one. 

At the end of the Lord Of The Flies, civilization is not restored due to the death of piggy preventing the revival of civilization. On page 290, Golding states, “Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called piggy” (Golding). The civilized boys would not be the same and the thought of going back to who they once were seems very unlikely to happen. However, there is still hope as the boys go back to being civilized English boys after they meet the officer. Jack started to cry as he remembers that they are children and not savages, “The tears began to flow and sobs shook him” (Golding 290). 

All in all, Williams Golding’s novel Lord Of The Flies features many themes that change throughout the story from beginning to end, however, the most prominent theme that changes throughout the story from beginning to end is civilization Vs savagery. The characters Ralph and piggy represent civilization while jack represents savagery. Ralph tries to do whatever he can to create a civilized society and keep the group calm, while Jack continues to change the boys’ minds into cruelty and savagery. The Conch and piggy’s glasses symbolize the peace between civilization and savagery, however, when both are broken things take a turn for the worst, and savagery ultimately savagery wins over civilization. The importance of the theme civilization vs savagery that Golding was trying to prove or get at is that there is no such thing as a perfect society which means that civilization will always become savagery at a certain point.