Lord Of The Flies Analysis

Lord of the Flies is a film, based on a book written by William Golding. It begins during an evacuation at the time of war. We are shown two schools, a state school and a private choir school. The choir school is more upper class and posh, whereas the state school is middle class. We are shown that the plane crashes after being hit by lightening in an electric storm. It lands near the south pacific. After we are shown the images of the plane crash, we are shown the first two characters in the film, Ralf and Piggy, who both appear lost and slightly distressed. Piggy introduces himself and begins to talk to Ralf about himself. He asks if there are any grown ups, clearly being used to the authority and guidance of adults in society. Ralf then asks Piggy if he is going to join him for a swim in the lagoon. Piggy says that his auntie wouldn't let him on ‘account of his asthma', showing that he still respects the guidance of adults. They find a shell on the beach and refer to it as a ‘conch', a name that they have learned in previous society. This conch later becomes a symbol of authority to prevent argument. Ralf blows the conch to attract attention, so that he and piggy can begin to restore social order. The conch gives the desired effect, a young boy approaches, then more children begin to appear, including a group of choir singers, being led by Jack, a young boy giving orders to the other choir members. The boys begin to introduce themselves, many in the way that they have been taught through secondary socialisation, Piggy asks one boy for his name, to which he responds ‘Percival Reams Maddison' this boy also gives his home address and telephone number, as he has been bought up with this being acceptable social behavior. Piggy pipes up, asking that a name be repeated. But Jack says, â€Å"You're talking too much. Shut up, Fatty. † There is laughter all around; he is singled out because he is different. Ralph says, â€Å"He's not Fatty, his real name's Piggy. † Ralf means well but further embarrasses Piggy; there is more laughter, louder this time. To maintain social order, the children decide to select a leader using democracy, something which they have also learned during secondary socialisation. They vote to give somebody the higher status as leader. All of the choir boys vote Jack as they are clearly used to him as their leader and he is an authoritative character. All of the other boys vote for Ralf, selecting him as ‘chief' of the island. The boys go on an ‘expedition' to find out if the island is completely uninhabited and to see if it really is an island or if there is land attached further on. Most of the older boys are selected to go on the expedition, but Jack tells Piggy that he can't come. Ralf tries to resolve this situation by telling Piggy that they need him to look after the younger children. The children play about on their expedition. They may be acting like adults, but they are still children, going along with their childlike instincts to play. Eventually they come to a high point on the island and can clearly see that it is an uninhabited island. A group of the boys become the hunters; they set out to find food for the children, but cannot bring themselves to kill their find – a pig. This is because it is against the norm and would probably be seen as deviant in the society that they have been brought up in. To them, this seems inhumane and wrong. When the boys return to the rest of the children, they explain that it is an island. Ralf is reassuring about the situation, telling the others that it will be alright. Jack uses ethnocentricity to bring up the mood of the children saying â€Å"We're British and the British are best at everything! † You can tell at this point that Jack wants to be leader. Piggy is more negative about the situation, claiming to have seen a beast on the island. Some of the other boys begin to fear this ‘beast'. Piggy states that nobody knows where they are, but the others take no notice of this intelligent contribution. The boys start a fire and the choir boys promise to keep the fire going to attract attention in case of the chance of rescue. At this point, the boys have begun to look far more scruffy, they are wearing torn clothes, no tops and carrying wooden spears, rather than the neat, thick layers of uniform that they began with. They begin to build huts, but as they do so, they still play about in the sea because of their child instincts. After a few days on the island, we can clearly see that their behaviour has changed dramatically, their faces covered in mud used as tribal paint, their clothes scruffy and dirty, carrying spears and hunting animals. Now they can bring themselves to kill the pig and even chant ‘kill the pig, slit its throat, batter it' as they carry it back to he huts on a spear. When the hunters reach the huts, Ralf and Piggy are both angry with them for letting the fire go out because of a passing plane. If there was fire, it may have caught the attention of the aircraft and they could have been rescued. When Piggy tells them off, Jack hits him and Piggy's glasses break. Piggy is clearly very hurt by this. The other boys laugh at this while eating like savages, showing their changes in behaviour and forgetting manners that would have been important in British society. Piggy is hungry with no food. Jack tells him that he hasn't done as much work as the others. He says that he has done as much work as Simon and Jack and therefore deserves as much food. Simon gives Piggy his food and Jack, almost unwillingly, gives his. After this, the other boys continue to chant â€Å"Kill the pig, slit its throat, batter it! † This further upsets Piggy. At this point, an assembly is called while the boys continue to chant in a humiliating fashion. During the assembly, a young boy once again brings up the apparent sightings of ‘the beast'. Many of the young boys begin to talk about this, talking of ghosts and the beast coming out of the sea. We then see a distant large object coming towards them from far out in the sea. Simon says ‘maybe there is a beast' and the boys begin to ponder the idea of ghosts. Piggy says that there is no supernatural beast, that there are scientific explanations. He is being reassuring and making intelligent contributions to the discussion. Simon is also reassuring, claiming that he doesn't believe in the beast. Jack wants power and says that Piggy is making up stories, like his ‘teacher' implying that Ralf also makes up stories. The twins, Sam and Eric, explore the island and whilst doing so, they find what they think to be ‘the beast'. They run away screaming, claiming to have seen ‘the beast'. Sam and Eric run back to the others and tell them of their findings. The older boys decide to go in search of ‘the beast' while Piggy stays at the main camp and takes the role as teacher, teaching the young ones the history of the name Cambridge. The boys come to find what they think is ‘the beast' and run away screaming, without seeing that it is not a beast, but the pilot, hanging from a tree by his parachute. Later on that evening, Jack tries to turn the others against Ralf and leaves the group to be his own leader. Others begin to join him gradually and they attack the area of the island at night where Ralf and the others are. They are wearing mudded face paint all over, like a separate tribe. They attempt to steal fire wood and in the process create a frenzy. In this time, Simon has gone in search of the beast which he claims to not believe in. This turns out to be a disastrous mistake, as the others mistake him for ‘the beast' when he is crawling through the bushes. He is murdered by his peers. The next day, Jack asks who of the boys are left. Piggy says that only the two of them and some of the younger boys are still on their part of the island, the others have all joined Jack. This shows us that they have created a sub-culture on the island with common values and similar behaviour patterns. Ralf talks to Piggy about the night before, saying that it was murder. Piggy denies this and can't even bring himself to say the word murder. This is clearly out of regret. It is because he knows that this is deviant and that normality has almost vanished on the island. When the boys steal Piggy's glasses in an attack, he says that he can't see without them. He and Ralf go to the other part of the island in an attempt to retrieve his glasses. Ralf tries to reason with the others. He tries to inform them of what wrong they are doing, but the boys don't take him seriously. Some of the boys on the top of the cliff decide to push off a large boulder, which lands on Piggy and kills him. This is murder and shows that much of their norms and values have changed during their time away from society. Eventually, the others chase Ralf through clouds of smoke caused by a fire, which turns out to have attracted the attention of members of the Navy, who come to rescue the boys by boat. Ralf cries at this, clearly glad that he is to get way from this disaster and return to the society that he is used to. The film shows us how peoples' values can change over a short period of time, their views of things and what they have learned from secondary and even primary socialisation can be altered by changes in their surroundings, culture and lack of authority. They create cultural diversity in having different values to their previous society e. g. the killing of the pig, which was previously thought of as deviant and wrong, became a norm of the children on the island. The film benefits me as a Sociology student, it shows me that instincts are something that can be learned and changed over a short period of time and that people will often follow the stronger leader rather than the leader with good intentions. Lord of the Flies Analysis â€Å"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†¦ † Written in 1954, when the world was trapped in a state of utter confusion and disarray as a result of the aftermath left by World War Two as well as the unpredictable conditions brought by the Cold War, William Golding's â€Å"Lord of the Flies† is an allegorical novel that centers on the darkest depths of human souls. Lord of the Flies†, on the surface, may resemble any other children adventure story. Beyond its literal sense, however, it actually has a lot more to offer: it is an attempt to unfold the superficiality and fragility of civilization, a pessimistic and dark commentary on our innate human nature and a downright challenge to the deep-rooted societal belief that children, British children in particular, must be naturally virtuous. Such unprecedented thematic focus, together with the extraordinary degrees of political realism portrayed symbolically in the novel, make â€Å"Lord of the Flies† a truly brilliant, remarkable and ground-breaking classic of all time. The novel opens with a group of British schoolboys who find themselves stranded on an unidentified Pacific island after a serious plane crash. With no adult surviving the crash, the boys are left to fend for themselves. Ralph, our protagonist, plays the role of a leader by summoning them all to the beach with the help of a conch shell. Here is where our antagonist, Jack and his choirboys are introduced. As seemingly educated and civilized children, the group is absolutely rational at the outset: they hold an election to vote for a chief (Ralph is elected); they formulate rules to maintain discipline; they take up different responsibilities and duties. Unfortunately, the children's goodness and self-discipline are quickly overridden by their underlying evil, barbaric and sadistic instincts. Without restrictions or rules created by civilization, the children sink deep into a life of sheer savagery and immorality – hunting, chanting and killing all day long. This results in a series of horrible, bloody and frightening events, including oppression of the weak, power struggle and even murders. Toward the end, Jack who is atrocious and animalistic replaces Ralph who is sensible and far-sighted as chief on the island, suggesting the complete collapse of morality, both within the characters and on the island. The novel ends with the return of order and sanity only when a British naval officer comes to their rescue. True that the children are now saved from the lone island, but is there any rescue or escape from our innate darkness? Read also Analysis of Characters in Flannery O’Connor’s â€Å"The Life You Save May Be Your Own† The above mentioned intriguing and melodramatic plot of â€Å"Lord of the Flies† is definitely creditable. Yet, the gist of the novel, in my opinion, lies not in the plot but the many sophisticated and powerful symbolisms that it embodies. For example, it is obvious that Ralph and Jack are employed as a symbolism of two competing impulses in men, and the conch shell described above is also used as a symbol of rule and order. One may ask then, what about the book title â€Å"Lord of the Flies†? What does this book title symbolize, and what insights can we obtain from it? The Lord of the Flies, as a matter of fact, is both a telling imagery and symbolism. It primarily refers to an image that can be found in Chapter 8 of the novel – the image of a black blob of flies flying around a sow's head that is put on a sharpened stake. This imagery denotes the very essence of Golding's dark look at human nature, and it is so significant and powerful that even the novel is titled according to it. To understand the symbolism of the Lord of the Flies, we must first comprehend the representation of the pig's head and the buzzing flies that revolve around it, as these are the two essential elements that construct the imagery. In the novel, the pig's head is a representation of everything that is evil, not only because it is created out of the children's ruthlessness and sadism but also because the pig's head is instilled with very sinister qualities, for example, it grins malevolently at Simon, the only purely good character in the novel. The buzzing flies, on the other hand, is meant to be a symbolism of human beings in general. By depicting in details how the flies are instinctively drawn to the filthy and grotesque pig's head, therefore, Golding satirizes the fact that human beings make no difference from the blind and sightless flies, as we are also naturally drawn to evilness and savagery when civilization is not present. In fact, this imagery recurs in the last scene of the novel, when the children are running across the hill under the led of Jack, wishing to hunt Ralph down. When viewed afar, the group of children appear as black dots that resemble the flies, and their frenzied attraction to Jack is just like the flies' natural inclination toward the unpleasant pig's head. As such, with the use of such compelling symbolism, Golding's notion on humanity is reinforced – Evilness does not arise from external sources. It is always there in us, looking for a chance to be unleashed and released. I am also tremendously impressed by Golding's ingenious use of contrast between the exposition and resolution in the novel. Distinct contrast can be seen in terms of setting, physical appearance of the children and even the dictions that Golding utilizes to address the boys. These effective contrasts highlights the fragility of the veneer of civilization, showing how readily humans can return to our primitive nature. In the opening of the novel, the island that the children are marooned on is one that is beauteous, if not paradise-like. There is a lagoon where water shimmers, a beach with warm sand as well as a palm terrace filled with all sorts of tropical fruits. Butterflies also flutter across the island elegantly, heightening the sense of tranquility and harmony on it. The children, on the other hand, are in absolute order. Dressed in neat uniforms, Jack and his choirboys are â€Å"marching approximately in step in two parallel lines† and are â€Å"wearing a square black cap with a silver badge on it†. These exquisite descriptions suggest that the boys do in fact come from an educated background, and therefore are expected to have a high sense of civility in them. As everything is still orderly and undisturbed, the group is referred as â€Å"children† or â€Å"schoolboys† by Golding. Yet, as civilization and order collapse, and as the children willingly turn away from civilization, tremendous changes take place. The earthly paradise that is offered at the beginning is gone, and is replaced by an image of an earthly purgatory. This is due to the fact that toward the end of the novel, the children's insanity and wickedness have reached such a peak that they have set the whole island ablaze for the sake of smoking Ralph out to kill him. The appearances of the boys, on the other hand, are also far from what have been presented at the outset. Instead of tidily uniformed, the children are now naked, with their faces camouflaged like â€Å"demoniac figures with faces of white and red and green†. The choirboys are also no longer singing but are chanting and howling in a frenzy of madness. Basically, everything on the island has been so eroded and devastated that now Golding does not see any ‘human' quality in the boys and thus addresses them as â€Å"savages† and â€Å"animals† only. As such, the clever use of contrasts reveals the rapid process of moral decay inside the characters, reinforcing the idea that morality is only conditional. Golding's attempt to delineate the inherently wicked nature of men is certainly successful and thought-provoking. Yet, the ultimate reason that constitutes my strong sense of admiration for him is due to his ability to infuse political realism as well as political satire into his story. Written in the 1950s when the world was recovering from devastation of World War II, the horror of totalitarianism was still fresh in the author's mind. Hence, it is true to say that â€Å"Lord of the Flies† can also be read as a conflict between rival political systems. By telling a tragic story of how a group of children gradually betray their democratic and elected leader, Ralph to support a downright autocratic and dictatorial leader, Jack, Golding satirizes the blindness and short-sightedness of people in his time as a lot of them would really give their support to the totalitarian leaders frantically. In the novel, under Jack's rule in the Castle rock, the â€Å"littleluns† often suffer severely from oppression as the leaders of the often abuse their power. This creates a contrast with Ralph's rule in which all people regardless of age are granted a right to speak in the assembly. This stark contrast reveals Golding's political viewpoint: given that it is human nature to desire for more power and to abuse power, a totalitarian regime cannot be tolerated because this would mean a lot of weaker people having no voice in a society. On the contrary, democracy should be upheld and treasured at all times because it is only with democracy that citizens, regardless of backgrounds, can be sufficiently represented in a society. All the above paragraphs demonstrate the reasons why I consider â€Å"Lord of the Flies† a true classic. However, â€Å"Lord of the Flies† is in fact never my favorite novel at all. As far as the arrangement of the story goes, I think William Golding has done a brilliant job. Yet, what restrains it from becoming my â€Å"all time favorite† novel is that Golding's perception on human nature is too dark for me to agree with. While I understand that the novel was produced in the midst of a chaotic century, with wars and conflicts wrecking havoc on our earth, that did not mean one could easily make the conclusion that every person must be predominantly evil. For instance, even in a state of war, there are great personalities such as Oskar Schindler and Raoul Wallenberg who dare to risk their lives and reputation to save the innocents. In fact, The Yad Vashem Museum in Jerusalem is founded primarily to honor at least over 11,000 â€Å"Righteous Gentles† who secretly assisted or rescued the guiltless Jews. Golding certainly has no justification to deny the greatness that these people display. I do reckon that certain instincts within us are directing us to immorality but it is definitely not a fact that everyone would resort to unethical ways when there is no restriction to bound us. At the end of the day, whatever comes our way, we always have a choice, and there are people who choose to do what is right. â€Å"Fancy thinking the beast was something you could hunt and kill? † – this is a question posed by the Lord of the Flies in the middle part of the novel. Even after reading the novel for repeated times, I still believe â€Å"Yes, the process may be hard as it takes a great deal of courage, determination and faith but the beast can surely be killed, as long as we want to. â€Å" Lord of the Flies Analysis â€Å"Lord of the Flies† is a book written by William Golding in 1954, a decade after World War II that inspired the Nobel Prize winning novel. From 1939—1945 World War II had killed millions of troops and civilians alike, destroying the world’s economy with total war. Had this chaos continued on, the world would have been completely destroyed and civilization would have ceased to exist. Similarly, in â€Å"Lord of the Flies†, the boys start out with an orderly civilization but soon descend into chaos and violence resulting in the death of two boys, one on accident and one on purpose. Lord of the Flies† demonstrates how once the boundaries and restrictions of civilization are ignored or shunned, humans will use their savage instincts and chaos will reign over. Having witnessed all this with his own eyes as a naval commander, Golding wrote the novel to stop any more outbreak of war and to encourage peace but he also wrote it to show the world how all humans had an inner evil and a savage instinct that would take over once their rational side was gone. The novel is a microcosm of the real world, with each character or object representing an aspect of human nature, but at the same time a macrocosm of the human brain. The conch represents order and authority, Piggy’s glasses representing knowledge, insight and wisdom. Piggy himself is the scientific analytical part of society; Ralph represents the democratic orderly aspect of society; Jack the tyrannical ignorant society and Simon the innocent aspect. In a way, these children symbolize real life characters of World War II, Piggy Albert Einstein, as he knew the atomic bomb was a mistake, Ralph Franklin Roosevelt as he failed to prevent World War II, Jack Adolf Hitler a crazy dictator. In the earlier stages of the novel, Golding shows that when humans are in civilization and kept within rules they will follow them and be orderly. Ralph, then leader of the tribe, says, â€Å"We can’t have everybody talking at once. We’ll have to have ‘Hands-up’ like at school. † In this, he says that they will make rules and follow them in order to stay orderly for a better chance of rescue and staying alive. He is trying to stay rational: keeping the rules of his old life and ensuring that they don’t descend into savagery and become atavistic. This shows that humans do have the capacity to be civilized, peaceful and orderly if they are nurtured well enough and they are taught what is right and wrong. Secondly, Golding demonstrates how humans have an inner urge to hurt others and will only hold back due to past punishments and teachings. This is shown in, â€Å"Roger gathered a handful of stones and began to throw them – threw to miss †¦ here, invisible yet strong was the taboo of old life†. In this quote, Roger is throwing rocks at Percival Wenys Madison who is playing by the beach. It shows how society is starting to fall apart as the biguns are using their strength and power to bully the littluns. However, Roger can’t bring himself to hit Percival with the rocks, as there was still the â€Å"protection of parents and school and policemen and the law†, since the vestiges of his old life still held strong. In this Chapter, the tribe has just built their civilization and the civilized, rational side is stronger than their savage, instinctive side. However, it is obvious that the tribe’s sensible side will break down soon; the biguns will lose any respect or bindings they felt to these rules; and murder, violence and torture will rage through the tribe. This is conclusively shown when Roger rolls a massive boulder down at Piggy at Castle Rock when he is so savage he is no longer â€Å"throwing to miss†. This shows how humans have a inner urge to hurt and torment others as Roger throws stones holding back only due to his past life, but doing it freely the second civilization is gone. Next, Golding shows the continuing descent into savagery when Jack puts on a mask to hide himself from shame and self-consciousness. â€Å"Became a bloodthirsty snarling†¦ the mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness. † In this quote, Jack Merridew has put on a mask to hide himself from others, so that he can act however he wishes to, without his movements and actions being judged by others. Because of this, he acts savagely and primitively, snarling bloodthirstily. The verb â€Å"Snarl† is generally used on savage animals like lions and wolves; to use it on a human shows that they are being atavistic and becoming a primal being. While this is definitely savage behavior, as Jack puts on a mask, snarls at others and also goes hunting, it is not so bad as the mask is in a way a good thing. While the boys are increasingly savage, but they still refuse to succumb to the primal instincts in the open where everyone knows it’s them; of course a mask does not make much of a difference but it shows that they still prefer to have something to hide behind. Ultimately, the boys are still descending into savagery and civilization is breaking down, though not too badly. Moreover, Golding in the novel also suggests that also humans have an inner evil, a â€Å"beast† within them. We can see this from the quote found in Chapter 5 â€Å"Maybe there’s a beast†¦ maybe it’s only us. † Simon says this in the assembly the boys called to discuss the beast. While most of the boys laugh off this â€Å"preposterous† suggestion, Simon is the first to realize that the beast is not an external being, but a part of the boys themselves, a component of the human mind. These words are a vital part of Golding’s proposition that humankind has an inner evil within them, a â€Å"beast† that can be unleashed, a capacity to be evil. This is shown when the boys savagely kill Simon mistaking him for the beast and also when they stick a Pigs head on a stick, planning on doing the same with Ralph. These actions are considered savage and impossible for every human on earth, let alone a group of 8-year-old British children. Therefore, Golding demonstrates that all humans have an inner capacity to be evil, a â€Å"beast† within. Golding also proved that humans would lose control of themselves once the boundaries of civilization are gone and they will succumb to their savage instincts. â€Å"’If only they could get a message to us,† cried Ralph desperately, ‘If only they could us something grown-up†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢Ã¢â‚¬ . This quote shows that the tribe’s laws are starting to disappear and slip away. They are losing control of themselves and letting go of their civilized instincts. Ralph thinks this when the boys start to behave savagely and go hunting half-naked with masks on etc. They are completely losing control of themselves and letting their savage instincts overpower their civilized instincts. This shows Golding’s point that humans will lose control of civilization and their rational side of their mind when they are left alone for too long without a civilization to stick to. Also, Golding presents how humans all have an inner urge to hurt others and a desire to inflict pain upon others. This can be best seen in the quote: â€Å"Roger ran around the heap, prodding with his spear, whenever pig flesh appeared. Jack was on top of the sow, stabbing downward with his knife. † During this quote, the boys are on a hunt for the beast, after hearing about its existence on top of the mountain from Sam and Eric. However, they see a pig and they decide to stop for a pig hunt. After they successfully slow down the pig with a thrown spear and they catch it, the boys start savagely piling on to the pig and stabbing it to kill it. With Jack and Roger stabbing down whenever they see Pig flesh, this scene can seem very savage and uncanny for boys their age to act like this. This scene can not only be associated with murder which is already a extremely savage crime reserved only for perhaps the perhaps the worst of human kind but can also be associated with rape which is one of the most savage crimes mankind can commit if not the most savage, primal and barbaric act that exists. Also, the boys were not only killing the pig savagely, but they were also hard-driven by themselves to kill this pig, which can be seen from this quote. The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering†, this quote also shows that the boys acted out of instinct and desire, showing that their gradual descent into savagery is speeding up and this sudden moment is a very steep decline, which pushes the boys from civilized British boys, to tribal savages. Also, in this quote, the boys are not even hunting a pig, but playing a mock-hunt with a human! This fully proves that humans have a natural instinct to hurt others and inflict pain as they savagely killed the pig because the y had the desire to squeeze and hurt. Within the novel, Golding shows that humankind will completely stray away from civilization when given chance to not be restricted. â€Å"The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist. † In this quote, Roger – upon deciding that he was feeling left out of the confrontation down below between Ralph and Jack – leans his weight against a boulder which tumbles down the cliff and strikes Piggy, who is killed by the boulder, and the conch is destroyed oo. As mentioned earlier, the conch is a symbol of civilization the boys used to keep themselves orderly. However it is destroyed when the boulder rolls down symbolizing the loss of order and rationale to the boulder, likely symbolizing savagery and bloodlust. Also Piggy who represents the scientific, analyzing, smart side of the human mind is killed, showing that all that is left in the tribe is the savage and evil of Jack and Roger as Ralp h is completely disregarded by the tribe. This is showing that without civilization, humans (Jack and the tribe) will rid themselves of rational and order (Piggy and the conch) and act as they will instead of being civilized and orderly. Finally, Golding shows humans still have some good in them, as they will weep and regret their wrongs and act civilized when given the chance to be in a civilized orderly world, but also explicitly states that there is evil in all human hearts. This can be seen in the quote from Page 225 in Chapter 12: â€Å"Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart and the fall through the air of a true, wise friend called Piggy. This quote is the second last paragraph of the novel and occurs just after the naval officer has come on to the island due to being drawn by the fire caused by Jack’s tribe and his manhunt for Ralph. When Ralph sees the officer in his escape for life, he suddenly realizes that he will reach home safe and sound, away from his death on the island . However, for Ralph the prospect of rescue and home is not of joy beyond compare, as he has lost his innocence through their savage adventures upon this doomed island and he has also learnt and understood that evil lurks in all human beings. Through this quote, Golding connects clearly Ralph sense of despair and self-reflection to two vital themes within the novel: the boys loss of innocence and their rapid descent into savagery and the darkness in man’s heart that caused the trauma on the island and also World War II. Also, the noun â€Å"darkness† can be connoted with evil and savagery. However, Golding not only shows that evil lurks in man’s heart, but in this quote alone, I think Golding also wants to show that humans are capable of goodness and the ability to self-reflect and improve. This can be seen as Ralph â€Å"weeps for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart†. He feels regretful of what has happened on the island even though he himself had little or no part in the fall into savagery and process of becoming atavistic. â€Å"The fall through the air of a true, wise friend Piggy† shows that Ralph is reflecting what happened on the island and he finally comes to realize how important Piggy was to him and society, he was smart, intelligent and civilized, had they listened to him, all this would likely have never happened. This weeping and self-reflecting from Ralph shows that Golding still believes that there is some good within mankind and that they are not completely evil. In conclusion, Golding presents humanity as evil and shows humans have to be nurtured to be good. He is saying that in the battle of Nature vs. Nurture humans will usually succumb to Nature and Instinct and be Evil and Barbaric, if they are not nurtured by something or someone else to be good. To do this effectively, He has used young, innocent boys to show that even the ideal image of innocence (children) will be evil if they are not nurtured. Also, the fact that they are British shows that even with the best nurturing in the world: Britain, at least in perception has very good manners and being one of the most civilized countries in the world. If they are left not nurtured, they will be evil and follow natural human evil instinct. This connects to the overall message of the novel, which is saying that all humans will become evil if left outside of civilization, and the hidden overall message being that if the Second World War were continuously fought down the road, human civilization would be destroyed just like the boy’s civilization. And it is related to this story because it is showing the adults and the Nazis are also being evil because they are succumbing to nature and forgetting about nurturing. However, this story could be a fable because story is very unrealistic and had close to 0% chances of happening because 6 or 7 year olds would not want to stick a pig let alone a stick person’s head on a stick. Lord of the Flies Analysis â€Å"Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man' heart, and the fall through the air of his true, wise friend called Piggy† demonstrates the main theme of this novel: man is evil by nature. The three things that Ralph weeps for are the lessons he has on this island: innocent boys become savage; all human beings have evil deep inside their hearts and the fall of science and rationality before the evil of human. These three issues are developed throughout the whole novel with this passage as the conclusion of the main theme – human beings are evil by nature.The plot of William Golding's novel  Lord of the Flies  suggests that Golding supports the biblical idea that every human is born tainted with evil, and that men are born savage, driven by their instincts. Chaos and savagery come about as a result of men trying to attain pleasure without making any sacrifice or applying any effort. While order and civilization are situations in which humans are force d to suppress their instincts and follow rules to attain higher goals.In a world with rule and order we're forced to put on a mask of respectability and sacrifice some pleasures for the greater good of society. The society we live in shapes and forms us to act the way we do, but it cannot completely wipe out the savage nature of men, for that is our base foundation. Golding demonstrates this world-view by putting English boys alone to fend for themselves on an island without any adults to enforce civilization. Each of the characters define parts of society.Ralph represents law and democracy, Piggy represents innovation and discovery, Simon represents the natural goodness in humanity, Jack represents tyranny, Roger represents cruelty and injustice, the littluns represent the common poor people, and the bigguns represent the higher class in the society. The novel shows what happens when these elements of society clash without laws. At first, the idea of order and civilization is still fresh in the boys' minds as they decide to make laws and pick a leader. They pick Ralph as their leader because of his responsible attitude, which shows that they care for law and order.Ralph decides that whoever is holding the conch shell has the right to speak, a rule which suggests civilization through democracy, and which establishes the conch shell as an important symbol for civilization. The boys are then split into groups and are given certain tasks, an arrangement which also shows their civilized attitude. Ralph, sensing a savage streak in Jack, and feeling intimidated, decides to put Jack's savageness to use by making him the leader of the hunting team. Piggy is a rational and intellectual boy who gives them the best ideas.He is innovative and also represents order on the island. He wants to return to civilization so he tells them to light a fire so that passing ships might see it as an SOS signal. One night Jack and his hunters decide to steal Piggy's glasses (which they use to light the fire) and accidentally break them, causing Piggy to lose the ability to see the world as it is. The first time Jack tries to hunt he still has some feelings of order in him which make him afraid to kill the pig. Later his determination is driven by instinct, which releases his true human nature.With savagery awoken inside him he overthrows Ralph and persuades the rest of the boys to join his tribe. The boys, who are also now driven by their instinct as there is nothing enforcing civilization upon them, quickly agree. They hunt and kill a pig and fix its head to a pole. Flies then begin to circle around it, as do the boys themselves. The pig's head stands for the savagery of their hunt, which was motivated by instinct, an instinct that was driven by evil. Although Jack is the main representative of savagery, he is not the only one.Roger is another example. He is cruel and brutal, and his main goal is to please and impress Jack, from which he gets gratification. Inste ad of making an effort and trying different approaches, he follows his instincts which tell him to torture the other boys, and he eventually murders Piggy by rolling a boulder at him. Even the island serves as a symbol for order versus chaos. When they first arrive on the island everything is neat and beautiful, but once they are driven by instinct and savagery the island becomes dirty and damaged.Their savage instincts drive them to kill, they need something to believe in so they decide to believe in the â€Å"Beastie. † It gives them a reason to kill Simon. Their last shred of civilization is shattered along with the conch shell, which served as a symbol for order from the beginning. With that gone, and the death of the boys who died on the island, their innocence is lost. Society's impact on the suppression of human instinct become clear when the Naval Officer arrives on the island to see why the fire is lit.He is dressed in uniform and leads others to order. Since he is t he first adult to intervene he is seen as a suppresser of human instinct. He makes the boys realize what they have done. Realisation begins with Ralph, as he remembers the deaths of the other boys and the savage ways they turned to. Soon they all begin to cry as they realize that slowly and step by step they got carried away by instinct. Instinct was the only thing that taught them how to survive on the island but they see the faults and errors in it. Lord of the Flies Analysis Lord of the flies: A beast among us Stranded on an island, a group of young boys face the challenge of forming a healthy community. Ralph, in charge of the conch and with the aid of Piggy and his glasses tries to establish civilized order. The society lives on the island in harmony until Jack, in pursuit of power, creates his own tribe and degrades to savagery and murder. In Lord of the Flies, Golding suggests that there is a savage side to every one of us that leads and inclines to the abolishment of order. At the evident concern of the littleuns, Ralph and the hunters go on a mission to find the beast.Midway through their expedition, they are startled by a pig, which they were unable to catch. Quickly afterwards they made a ring and started doing a pig dance, using one of the boys as the pig, while chanting a chant. â€Å"Ralph too was fighting to get near, to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh. The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering† (Golding 114). In this scene, Ralph’s savage side begins to open up, his desire to hurt â€Å"over-mastering†. The phrase â€Å"over-mastering† hints at the idea that Ralph is a slave to his own desire; he does not govern it, but is governed by it.This scene is a major contrast to the state that Ralph is found in just a bit before this. He is sitting down and examining himself over while the boys stop to eat some fruit. â€Å" He pulled distastefully at his grey shirt and wondered whether he might undertake the adventure of washing it†¦He would like to have a pair of scissors to cut his hair†¦ he would like to have a bath†¦ then there were his nails –â€Å" (109). Unknowingly, Ralph’s lifestyle merged into a lifestyle of one who resembles a savage. This was now a new â€Å"normal†. Yet he tries to implement order back into his existence by making himself look presentable.By making an attempt to cleansing himself of the savage look on the outs ide, Ralph fails to understand that the true savage mark and distinction is hid under the skin, and that, is not possible to wash away. No mater how much he will try to maintain order, his fleshly lusts will master over his mind. Roger follows Henry, one of the littluns, and starts throwing rocks in his direction, for the mere purpose of his want and entertainment. â€Å"At first he had hidden behind a great palm, but Henry’s absorption with the transparencies were so obvious that at last he stood out in full view† (61).Roger tries not to be seen, for he is doing something he is not supposed to. The rules of his old life still have a hold on him. He starts throwing the rocks at Henry. â€Å"Yet there was a space around Henry, perhaps six yards in diameter into which he dared not throw. Here, invisible yet strong, was the taboo of the old life. Round the squatting child was the protection of parents and school and policemen and the law. Roger’s arm was condition ed by civilization that knew nothing of him and was in ruins† (62).The evident want to hurt and to taunt is awakening inside Roger; his savage side is questioning the order that he was raised in. The civilization meant nothing to him, Roger was just taught to obey it. Order was something he was â€Å"conditioned† to do, an acquired trait, a habit. Savagery was subdued from the very beginning, by the adults in his life. It was so natural; one didn’t have to think about what he was doing for the mere fact that it was done to feed that particular desire. Later on, Jack splits and forms his own tribe, and is accompanied by a vast majority of the children including Roger.Ralph and his troops march up to Jacks guarded camp and try to implement and reestablish the order that once used to exist. As Piggy tries to talk some sense into the children, holding the conch, Roger once again starts to throw rocks. â€Å"High overhead, Roger, with a sense of delirious abandonment , leaned all his weight on the lever. Ralph heard the great rock before he saw it†¦the rock struck Piggy†¦ the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist† (181). On the beach with Henry, Roger had a sense of boundary that he knew he could not cross.His body was aware of the order that was taught to him. Yet he still pushed the limits ever so slightly, throwing rocks but not reaching his target. Here, intoxicated from his savage desires Roger catapults a huge rock down at Piggy, shattering the conch that Piggy held. Through out the book, the conch is a symbol of authority and order, as it used to call assemblies together and organized the children in the first place. Not being able to cross the boundaries of order before, Roger crushes it after giving in to his primitive impulses. Simon seems to be the only one who lacks this savage like aspiration.Finding the beast after witnessing the horrible death inflicted upon the sow by Jack and the hunt ers, Simon now confirms his idea; that there is no beast, maybe it’s just us? â€Å"Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!†¦ You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you† (143). The beast is also referred to as â€Å"Lord of the Flies†. It translates into Beelzebub. â€Å"†¦ The prince of Devils. And it is the beast – the beast that is part of all men. â€Å"The materialization of this devil coincides with the emergence of evil in the boys, revealed in the act that they commit† (Bufkin 4).There is something evil lurking in all , and seen through the children on the island, most of them denied that it was indeed their own self who was causing the destruction to their own society. Bibliography Bufkin, F. C. â€Å"Lord of the Flies: An Analysis. † The Georgia Review 19. 1 (Spring 1965): 40-57. Rpt in Children’s Literature Review. Ed. Allison Marion. Vol. 94. Detroit: Gale, 2004. Literature Resou rce Center. Web. 23 Oct. 2012 Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. London: Penguin Books, 1954. Print.