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"Lord of the Flies: Dark Human Nature"

Lord of the Flies explores the dark side of human nature as a group of British boys become stranded alone on a tropical island after a plane crash. Initially the boys try to govern themselves with rules and elect Ralph as their leader. However, Jack challenges Ralph's authority and draws others to his hunter group. Conflict grows between their factions representing civilization and savagery. The boys' fear of a mythical beast is exacerbated when they mistake a dead body on the mountain for it. Jack's group becomes increasingly savage, even killing a pig. Only Simon discovers the truth about the beast but is killed by the other boys in their hysteria. In the end, Ralph alone remains civilized as Jack's tribe devolves into a

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Iulia Matei
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64 views2 pages

"Lord of the Flies: Dark Human Nature"

Lord of the Flies explores the dark side of human nature as a group of British boys become stranded alone on a tropical island after a plane crash. Initially the boys try to govern themselves with rules and elect Ralph as their leader. However, Jack challenges Ralph's authority and draws others to his hunter group. Conflict grows between their factions representing civilization and savagery. The boys' fear of a mythical beast is exacerbated when they mistake a dead body on the mountain for it. Jack's group becomes increasingly savage, even killing a pig. Only Simon discovers the truth about the beast but is killed by the other boys in their hysteria. In the end, Ralph alone remains civilized as Jack's tribe devolves into a

Uploaded by

Iulia Matei
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Summary

Lord of the Flies explores the dark side of humanity, the savagery that
underlies even the most civilized human beings. William Golding intended
this novel as a tragic parody of children's adventure tales, illustrating
humankind's intrinsic evil nature. He presents the reader with a chronology
of events leading a group of young boys from hope to disaster as they
attempt to survive their uncivilized, unsupervised, isolated environment until
rescued.
In the midst of a nuclear war, a group of British boys find themselves
stranded without adult supervision on a tropical island. The group is roughly
divided into the "littluns," boys around the age of six, and the "biguns," who
are between the ages of ten and twelve. Initially, the boys attempt to form a
culture similar to the one they left behind. They elect a leader, Ralph, who,
with the advice and support of Piggy (the intellectual of the group), strives
to establish rules for housing and sanitation. Ralph also makes a signal fire
the group's first priority, hoping that a passing ship will see the smoke signal
and rescue them. A major challenge to Ralph's leadership is Jack, who also
wants to lead. Jack commands a group of choirboys-turned-hunters who
sacrifice the duty of tending the fire so that they can participate in the
hunts. Jack draws the other boys slowly away from Ralph's influence
because of their natural attraction to and inclination toward the adventurous
hunting activities symbolizing violence and evil.
The conflict between Jack and Ralph and the forces of savagery and
civilization that they represent is exacerbated by the boys' literal fear of a
mythical beast roaming the island. One night, an aerial battle occurs above
the island, and a casualty of the battle floats down with his opened
parachute, ultimately coming to rest on the mountaintop. Breezes
occasionally inflate the parachute, making the body appear to sit up and
then sink forward again. This sight panics the boys as they mistake the dead
body for the beast they fear. In a reaction to this panic, Jack forms a splinter
group that is eventually joined by all but a few of the boys. The boys who
join Jack are enticed by the protection Jack's ferocity seems to provide, as
well as by the prospect of playing the role of savages: putting on
camouflaging face paint, hunting, and performing ritualistic tribal dances.

Eventually, Jack's group actually slaughters a sow and, as an offering to the


beast, puts the sow's head on a stick.
Of all the boys, only the mystic Simon has the courage to discover the
true identity of the beast sighted on the mountain. After witnessing the
death of the sow and the gift made of her head to the beast, Simon begins
to hallucinate, and the staked sow's head becomes the Lord of the Flies,
imparting to Simon what he has already suspected: The beast is not an
animal on the loose but is hidden in each boy's psyche. Weakened by his
horrific vision, Simon loses consciousness.
Recovering later that evening, he struggles to the mountaintop and finds
that the beast is only a dead pilot/soldier. Attempting to bring the news to
the other boys, he stumbles into the tribal frenzy of their dance. Perceiving
him as the beast, the boys beat him to death.
Soon only three of the older boys, including Piggy, are still in Ralph's
camp. Jack's group steals Piggy's glasses to start its cooking fires, leaving
Ralph unable to maintain his signal fire. When Ralph and his small group
approach Jack's tribe to request the return of the glasses, one of Jack's
hunters releases a huge boulder on Piggy, killing him. The tribe captures the
other two biguns prisoners, leaving Ralph on his own.
The tribe undertakes a manhunt to track down and kill Ralph, and they
start a fire to smoke him out of one of his hiding places, creating an islandwide forest fire. A passing ship sees the smoke from the fire, and a British
naval officer arrives on the beach just in time to save Ralph from certain
death at the hands of the schoolboys turned savages.

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