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Lord of the Flies - Savagery Essay

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Lord of the Flies - Savagery

“There are too many people, and too few human beings.” (Robert Zend) Even though there are many people on this planet, there are very few civilized people. Most of them are naturally savaged. In the book, Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, boys are stranded on an island far away, with no connections to the adult world. These children, having no rules, or civilization, have their true nature exposed. Not surprisingly, these children’s nature happens to be savagery. Savagery can clearly be identified in humans when there are no rules, when the right situation arouses, and finally when there is no civilization around us.

Without rules, savagery takes over. Without rules, man is free to do whatever he …show more content…

The boys don’t put into practice their teachings from church/school on the island, but become savage beasts. This shows us that man is civilized in our society, only because of the fear for higher authority, not because that’s their nature.

Man can only cover up inner savagery so long, before it breaks out, given the right situation. This states that with or without rules man will become savage when given the right situation. Every single man in this world is filled with inner savagery. But in this society, they tend to restrict the savagery from escaping. Given the right situation, their true nature, savagery, will be released. For example in the Simpsons, Ned Flanders, is the most civilized person. But yet on one particular episode he becomes savage when he is presented with the perfect circumstance. Golding quotes beautifully, “Then dog-like, uncomfortably on all fours yet unheeding his discomfort, he stole forward five yards and stopped. There was a loop of creeper with a tendril pendant from a node. The tendril was polished on the under side; pig, passing through the loop, brushed it with their bristly hide.”- Lord of the Flies (pg. 48) Jack is the leader of the church choir, but yet he shows no qualities of a church choir leader once he starts hunting for boars. It is not necessary that we need an island to break out into savagery, because even in our society, when man is given the right situation, his savagery will break

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