Stripped From Society and Descended to Savagery Humans are animals just as much as a pig is an animal, but humans have grown to believe that the humanity they possess separates them from the savagery found in other animals. William Golding’s Lord of the Flies offers a perspective of what occurs when people lose touch with their humanity. Lord of the Flies follows the lives of British schoolboys during WWII who crash onto an uninhabited island. The perspective of Ralph, the chief of the boys, is followed as he and the other boys struggle with surviving, organizing themselves without help from adults, being rescued, and fearing a mysterious beast. When Jack, Ralph’s main rival within the boys, breaks away from the group, alliances within the
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This leads to pig hunts lead by Jack, where after the boys fail to kill a pig, they hold a mock pig hunt and they “[...] got his [Robert’s] arms and legs [...] Jack had him by the hair and was brandishing his knife [...] The chant rose ritually, as at the last moment of a dance or a hunt. ‘Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in!’” (Golding 114). Whenever this chant was said, the intensity of a situation, whether during a hunt, feast, or other increases. At this point, the intensity within the boys is prompting them to treat one of their peers as a pig. The boys treat another peer as an animal more than a human when they kill Simon, an odd, Christ-like figure among the boys, as he crawls out of the forest with news about the beast. Mercilessly, the boys kill Simon while chanting “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” (Golding 152-153). The chant drowns out Simon’s cries and just encourages the boys to kill. Because of the chant, the rational thinking society had instilled in them was gone. Without the society on the island, the boys focus only on the chant and who was next to be killed. Friends and peers become victim to savagery of the boys because of a chant meant for pigs. If the boys see their peers as animals no better than pigs, they themselves must be savage animals as …show more content…
Roger, a violent and sadistic member of Jack’s tribe, kills Piggy, a social outcast and main source of reason, by dropping a boulder on his head causing him to fall “forty feet and landed on his back [...] Piggy’s arms and legs twitched a bit, like a pig’s after it had been killed” (Golding 181). Piggy is the only person on the island who reinforces societal ideas, like how they must follow the rules of who gets to talk, and how they must stop acting like kids. The boys often ridiculed him, finding him an annoyance to the fun they were trying to have on the island. With his death, society dies with him and their actions of savagery become more justified to them. William Golding’s Why Boys Become Vicious provides insight of “When people are afraid they discover the violence within them and when they are afraid together they discover that the violence within them can be almost bottomless” (“Why Boys Become Vicious” ). The boys result to violence not just because they find Piggy an annoyance, rather they do not want to be reminded of the rules and society Piggy represents. Without society, the humanity is lost in the boys. As well, this killing cements the savagery into their heads, as the one thing that reminds them of society is
This leads to pig hunts lead by Jack, where after the boys fail to kill a pig, they hold a mock pig hunt and they “[...] got his [Robert’s] arms and legs [...] Jack had him by the hair and was brandishing his knife [...] The chant rose ritually, as at the last moment of a dance or a hunt. ‘Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in!’” (Golding 114). Whenever this chant was said, the intensity of a situation, whether during a hunt, feast, or other increases. At this point, the intensity within the boys is prompting them to treat one of their peers as a pig. The boys treat another peer as an animal more than a human when they kill Simon, an odd, Christ-like figure among the boys, as he crawls out of the forest with news about the beast. Mercilessly, the boys kill Simon while chanting “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” (Golding 152-153). The chant drowns out Simon’s cries and just encourages the boys to kill. Because of the chant, the rational thinking society had instilled in them was gone. Without the society on the island, the boys focus only on the chant and who was next to be killed. Friends and peers become victim to savagery of the boys because of a chant meant for pigs. If the boys see their peers as animals no better than pigs, they themselves must be savage animals as …show more content…
Roger, a violent and sadistic member of Jack’s tribe, kills Piggy, a social outcast and main source of reason, by dropping a boulder on his head causing him to fall “forty feet and landed on his back [...] Piggy’s arms and legs twitched a bit, like a pig’s after it had been killed” (Golding 181). Piggy is the only person on the island who reinforces societal ideas, like how they must follow the rules of who gets to talk, and how they must stop acting like kids. The boys often ridiculed him, finding him an annoyance to the fun they were trying to have on the island. With his death, society dies with him and their actions of savagery become more justified to them. William Golding’s Why Boys Become Vicious provides insight of “When people are afraid they discover the violence within them and when they are afraid together they discover that the violence within them can be almost bottomless” (“Why Boys Become Vicious” ). The boys result to violence not just because they find Piggy an annoyance, rather they do not want to be reminded of the rules and society Piggy represents. Without society, the humanity is lost in the boys. As well, this killing cements the savagery into their heads, as the one thing that reminds them of society is