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Theme of Savagery in Lord of The Flies’

Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies depicts a group of English boys who are isolated in a

desert land. These boys are left and expected to try and live out as a civilized society. Golding

attempts to demonstrate how the boys slowly descend from practicing civility into savagery as

their form of leadership s democracy slips away from them gradually. The aim of this paper is to

demonstrate how savagery is demonstrated in the beginning of the book, at the middle and at the

end of the book.

At the beginning of the novel, the characters Ralph and Jack are observed as getting on

extremely well. The character Jack is able to share the burdens he was suffering from. This is

because there was a “strange invisible light of friendship, adventure and content” (Golding n.p).

This friendship was between the boys and the as the novel progress, the character Jack

transforms and changes significantly. This is because, he is first observed mentioning “I agree

with Ralph we’ve got to have rules and obey them” (Golding n.p). This depicts that from the

beginning of the novel, the character Ralph aims to have a caviled society. This true even when

the author mentions about having the most powerful conch. The conch in this case acts to

represent the tenets of democracy and the boys are ready to uphold and sustain a powerful

society guided by the precepts of democracy.

However, the democratic society envisioned in the beginning of the novel does not last

long. This is due to the children such as Jack fail to show respect towards the rules and the
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conch. Hence, when the character Jack decides that “We don’t need the conch anymore, we

know who should say things” depicts how democracy as form of governing is being done away

in the desert and instead savagery is allowed to take roots. The society is in the novel is further

broken down when the character Jack mentions that “Bollocks to the rules!” (Golding N.p). This

shows that the character Jack seems confused due to him giving up on the powers of the conch.

This view is shared by the author who shows from the beginning of the novel how two boys can

be normal yet as the novel progresses, either of them is ruled by the powers of the desert leading

in turn into having them become savage when civilization completely crushes and collapses in

the novel.

At the middle of the novel, it is still evident how savagery mutates itself and portrayed by

the character more often. The character Ralph does point out “There’s going to be a storm”

(Golding n.p). This clearly shows that savagery is going to be practiced full scale by the

characters. However, this progression of events of having savagery at its best in the novel, sadly

leads into the death of the character Simon. The characters Piggy and Ralph are also observed as

proceeding into a savagery mode as they “found themselves eager to take place in this demented

but partly safe society” (Golding n.p). This does show that the author’s perspective is that every

character has his own savage side that is attached to them. For instance, during the murder of the

Character Steve, the characters are observed as “Leapt on to the beast, screamed, struck, bit and

tore” (Golding n.p). The authors Li and Wu note also note that “Ralph is aware of the reason of

the savagery at the end of the novel. When he is hunted by the “hunters”, Ralph has found the

lord of the flies—the Beelzebub”(Li and Wu 120)

At the end of the book, the boys are still observed practicing savagery more often than at

the beginning of the book. This evidenced from the manner in which the respect for freedom is
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totally not observed. Since there are no adults in the desert to control their actions, the boys go

into a craze of breaking each and every that can be used towards modulating their behavior.

Living with such kind of freedom in the desert, the boys forget all the rules that they can use to

live harmoniously, and instead, become very uncontrollable, rowdy, violent and wild. The

influence of the character Jack and the beast, leads the boys into being enthralled by the

mannerisms of savagery. Hence, the influence of the character Jack as well as the beast turn the

boys slowly into gaining delight in torturing, spilling blood and killing of animals. This behavior

enlightens them so much to the extent of them enchanting “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill

his blood” (Golding 152).

Furthermore, the boys become violent and wild to the extent of killing other boys through

pretending that the boys were pigs. They defend themselves from this act by mentioning that “It

was dark. There was that - that bloody dance. There was lightning and thunder and rain. We were

scared!” (Golding 156). The same sentiments are shared by the Author Ahmed and Al-said who

note down that “When the hunters return, chanting in triumph after having killed a pig, Ralph, at

odds with the torrent of enthusiasm, states that the signal fi re was out when there was a ship

passing by (Ahmed and Al-Said 130i)

In summary it is evident from the argument above, the theme of savagery is one which is

evident throughout the book. The behavior of the boys in the desert is one which is characterized

with excessive freedom. The excessive freedom leads into them committing any acts they think

of. Savagery arises in individuals who are ready to practice something that is out of the norm in

normal individuals. They boy exemplify in this aspect by acting savage throughout the book.
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Works Cited

Ahmed, Afaf, and Hasan Al-Saidi. Studies in Literature and Language Savagery and the Heart

of Darkness in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Vol. 4, no. 1, 2012, pp. 129–34,

doi:10.3968/j.sll.1923156320120401.2009.

Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. Educational ed., Faber and Faber, 2012,

http://www.worldcat.org/title/lord-of-the-flies/oclc/809086647.

Li, Xiaofang, and Weihua Wu. On Symbolic Significance of Characters in Lord of the Flies.

2009, https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1082261.pdf.