Theme Of Civilization In Lord Of The Flies

Lord of The Flies by William Golding is an allegory of civilization and how human nature can easily corrupt what may seem like a perfect society. The protagonist of the novel, Ralph, immediately takes charge of a group of boys whose plane crashes onto an island. His innocence to the dynamics of a community symbolizes the belief that human nature is to be civilized. This completes the theme of the novel which is that civilization is compromised by the savagery of human nature. Ralph’s symbolic nature develops the theme of the novel by representing the idealistic perspective of society. At the beginning of this novel, Ralph is a simple boy who wants to establish order in this chaotic situation. The conch is one of the many tools Ralph uses in order to make …show more content…
When in conflict with Jack’s tribe, Piggy is killed and Ralph is stripped down from a leader to an actual person with raw emotions, “And in the middle of them, with filthy body, matted hair, and unwiped nose, 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 229) Piggy is portrayed in the novel as Ralph’s assistant, but readers never get to see what their relationship is like. Ralph’s emotional downfall due to Piggy’s death concludes the small journey of a civilization that without a strong foundation, but just the idealistic mindset of democracy. In the final stages of development of the main theme, this shows how the downfalls of civilization can affect individuals and ruin their innocence. In Ralph’s opinion, he was leading a democracy which meant that everyone was getting what they wanted, but in reality that is not what was happening. This raw moment is a realization for Ralph that civilizations can not be kept in order forever, therefore, completing Ralph’s symbolic purpose in the