The Corruption of Humanity and Savagery in Lord of the Flies Essay Example

When you look at society today you see regulation and order, is this human nature or society's domestication? In the novel Lord of The Flies, by William Golding, this topic is explored to the extreme. The year is 1954,  it's the middle of a war, a group of young Private school Britain boys ages 6-12 have crash-landed on a desert island where they must figure out how to survive on their own. They’re alone with no sight of rescue, it’s a fight for survival, and the true nature of the boys begins to seep through society's cage. This forces the boys to go through many different changes both mentally and physically, but one of the most dynamic is Jack Merridew who we see composed, unraveling, and then in a deranged state of mind.  

In the beginning, when we first meet Jack he is an imperious and organized young boy with a leader mentality and methodized mindset. His first appearance is very early on in the book when he is seen on the beach walking with his choir boys. The author states, “The tall boy shouted at them. ‘Choir! Stand still!’ Wearily, obedient, the choir huddled into line and stood there swaying in the sun” (Golding 20). Right off the bat, Jack shows strong leadership skills but not in the democratic technique we see when Ralph is in power. Jack prefers to use more of an iron-fist approach similar to a dictator or tycoon; however, his actions are motivated by the regulations he was constantly exposed to in civilization. This is also the reason Jack’s actions were so restrained when not being voted chief when the author states, “He started up then changed his mind and sat down again while the air rang” (23). In school, kids are always taught not to talk back or argue with decisions, especially when they arrange the terms in the beginning. Jack may have been made aware that he was not selected as chief but is still smart enough to understand that if he would have spoken out it would have almost indefinitely caused conflict to arise. Following this logic, Jack respects Ralph as a leader and for the most part, follows the rules he had put in place. Jack may be a very headstrong individual, but he still understands that without order a community will not function correctly. 

Later in the novel, we see this mindset start to shift after multiple experiences he goes through and this is when readers really start to see Jack unravel. We first clearly see this happening after Jack's fluke in the pig hunt when “ The pause was only long enough for them to understand what an enormity the downward stroke would be. Then the piglet tore loose from the creepers and scurried into the undergrowth” (31). There are no adults to assure Jack or the other boys that his halt in action was just human nature and killing the pig would change them for the worse. After the fact, Jack did not take time to think and reason why this might have occurred and instead made the conclusion that he was just weak. This causes Jack to slowly become consumed with the desire to kill a pig and prove himself, as he would if he had made a mistake in society, until the point when it is almost all he talks about. Once he finally kills a pig, his mental state starts to decline even further to the point when he no longer cares about being rescued and believes the boys should just have “fun” and hunt all day. Finally, Jack's last string to humanity is cut after the feast in the dance when the author describes, “At once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt on to the beats, screamed, struck, bit and tore…. Simon’s dead body moved out toward the open sea” (153-154), he along with everyone had participated in killing Simon. He later shows no sign of sympathy and convinces himself that it was the beast disguised. This pushes Jack even further into insanity and shows he has abandoned all morals he might have had. These events put together, show all ties Jack previously had to society have been severed and he has completely lost himself. 

Then, at the end of the novel Jack caves in and unleashes all of his deep dark desires that were born from his experiences on the island. Jack no longer feels he needs to be sorry for his or his tribe's actions and if some kind of guilt does happen to creep in, he'll most likely find a way to suppress it. An example is shown towards the end of the book when the boys mistook Simon for the beast and ended up killing him. The next day when one of the “savages'' tries to talk to Jack about what happened at the dance last night, he is quickly shut down and Jack says, “‘I expect the beast disguised itself”’ (161).  Jack refuses to admit that he is capable of doing something so horrendous and instead convinces himself of a scenario that justifies his inconsequential actions. This in turn plunges Jack even further into disarray until eventually, he won't be able to tell reality from fiction.  Then, later in the book Jacks’ tribe and Ralph’s “tribe”go through a conflict in which a terrible loss happens and the author states, “Piggy fell forty feet and landed on his back across a squash red rock in the sea.… Piggy’s arms and leg twitched a bit, like a pig’s after it has been killed” (181). Right before this scene Roger, a member of Jack’s tribe, pushed a rock from above which would end up being the object that knocks piggy off. Jack barely had a reaction when this happened. He hardly even acknowledged the event at all. This adds to the development of Jack showing he has lost touch with the sympathetic part of him and is no longer appalled by events that would leave adults traumatized. Jack has gone from an innocent young boy to an unraveling mess and is now a deranged savage in just over the course of a year. 

This novel does a great job of demonstrating how an ungoverned environment can cause a person to abandon their morals by illustrating Jack’s journey from humanity to savagery. The author also makes sure to capture the whole picture and shows Jack’s change through multiple perspectives. It shows that civilization regulates a large amount of how humans behave and if left unchecked they will revert to their natural state of savagery.