Lord of the Flies Savagery
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November 2, 2010
The Savage Within
British author Joseph Conrad once said, “The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.” Joseph Conrad understands that when evil things happen or we do something evil we may tend to blame someone else for something we did because we are scared to accept ourselves. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies he illustrates these feeling amongst boys who crash on an island. They boys start out as innocent boys, as time progresses the boys begin to turn savage and the evil within them shows itself. The boys often place the blame on something else in the story such as the “beast”, a character they make up in their minds that causes fear. The story illustrates how William Golding uses certain symbols to illustrate the theme of evil throughout the book to show how evil is within people and things in nature.
William Golding uses a fire to express the unexpected consequences evil can bring to our lives. For example, when the Officer arrives to rescue the boys he comes up to Ralph and says, “We saw your smoke, what have you been doing? Having a war or something?” (234). The fire is the most important thing on the island. It is a possibility to be rescued, and therefore a way to communicate. It also represents the origin of mankind. The fire gives protection and comfort at night. However, there is also something negative about the fire. The fire represents the evil growing furiously within the boys as they spend more and more time on the island. In addition, when Ralph watches as the fire gets to the shelters and begins the process of bringing them down, he watches as they burn…“He saw a shelter burst into flames and the fire flapped at his right shoulder" (182). When Ralph sees what the fire has done to the shelters that he spends so much time building he gets really upset. The fire shows the intention of humans to control nature by destroying it....
The Savage Within
British author Joseph Conrad once said, “The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.” Joseph Conrad understands that when evil things happen or we do something evil we may tend to blame someone else for something we did because we are scared to accept ourselves. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies he illustrates these feeling amongst boys who crash on an island. They boys start out as innocent boys, as time progresses the boys begin to turn savage and the evil within them shows itself. The boys often place the blame on something else in the story such as the “beast”, a character they make up in their minds that causes fear. The story illustrates how William Golding uses certain symbols to illustrate the theme of evil throughout the book to show how evil is within people and things in nature.
William Golding uses a fire to express the unexpected consequences evil can bring to our lives. For example, when the Officer arrives to rescue the boys he comes up to Ralph and says, “We saw your smoke, what have you been doing? Having a war or something?” (234). The fire is the most important thing on the island. It is a possibility to be rescued, and therefore a way to communicate. It also represents the origin of mankind. The fire gives protection and comfort at night. However, there is also something negative about the fire. The fire represents the evil growing furiously within the boys as they spend more and more time on the island. In addition, when Ralph watches as the fire gets to the shelters and begins the process of bringing them down, he watches as they burn…“He saw a shelter burst into flames and the fire flapped at his right shoulder" (182). When Ralph sees what the fire has done to the shelters that he spends so much time building he gets really upset. The fire shows the intention of humans to control nature by destroying it....