In William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, human nature is placed conspicuously in view as a group of British boys find themselves stranded alone on an island without any adults to supervise or lead them. The conflict between the human as a civilized entity and the human as an unsophisticated animal are represented by two of the main characters in the novel, Ralph and Jack, respectively. Being in their youth and thus not totally biased towards the workings of a civilized, adult world, Golding portrays what he believes is the typical human’s natural state; cruel, selfish, and wanting of instant gratification. It becomes a wonder then, how society operates and is seen as civilized. Golden attacks this notion and demonstrates that society’s workings are not as civilized as they may appear. If we only alter our perspective, we see that what is assumed to be civilized may regardless draw parallels to the uncivilized world that these boys find themselves in, and that it all becomes clear when we remove the façade created by civilization.
We see in the novel that …show more content…
While we pretend that our world is just and civilized, the mask of savagery beneath is thinly-veiled. At the end of the novel, the soldier that unwittingly rescues the Ralph and the boys is a savior in only one respect. He will just as soon go out to war and kill as many if not more than he has saved on the island. When he rescues the boys, he does not even realize that Jack and his gang are about to murder Ralph; he merely attributes it to boys playing games. So deluded is he in his impression of the situation that he does not even realize the pure savagery in front of him. And yet with war after war and tragedy after tragedy, we can’t see the savagery in our own “civilized”
We see in the novel that …show more content…
While we pretend that our world is just and civilized, the mask of savagery beneath is thinly-veiled. At the end of the novel, the soldier that unwittingly rescues the Ralph and the boys is a savior in only one respect. He will just as soon go out to war and kill as many if not more than he has saved on the island. When he rescues the boys, he does not even realize that Jack and his gang are about to murder Ralph; he merely attributes it to boys playing games. So deluded is he in his impression of the situation that he does not even realize the pure savagery in front of him. And yet with war after war and tragedy after tragedy, we can’t see the savagery in our own “civilized”