Lord Of The Flies Civilization Analysis
Ms Teacher
Boston Cribs
English 10¬ —Period 1
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Stripped of Civilization
Are we born savage? Is civilization the only factor that domesticates us and keeps us in check? William Golding answered these questions in his novel, Lord of the Flies. In the story, a group of boys crash landed on a deserted island with no adults and initially tried to set up order and government. Ralph and Piggy were the ones who represented this desire for order. But as time went on they slowly became increasingly corrupted. Some say that the island itself corrupted them. However, it must have been the lack of civilization that merely enabled them to reveal their true inner savage. Lord of the Flies serves as a philosophical allegory …show more content…
The hunters felt uneasy about a thunderstorm but then Jack leapt up and ordered them to “Do our dance! Come on! Dance!” (179) The act of making the boys dance like this served as a sort of brainwashing technique. It cleared their minds of any traces of civilization, thus making them unconsciously forget about the social contract entirely. Near the end of the story, Ralph was talking to Samneric. They said that the tribe was “going to hunt” (224) Ralph and they did not know what the reason for it was. At this point the tribe had sunk down so deep into savagery that they were perfectly ok with admitting that they were going to kill Ralph with no inclination at all. At this point, it is very clear how the honorable choirboys were taken so far away from society that they could easily ignore the social contract in a quite very extreme form. In the end, this book serves as a perfect example of how a lack of civilization triggers the loss of morals and failure to abide by the social contract.
Lord of the Flies shows us that even the most innocent in society is savage in nature. Any human being, no matter how civil, will become pure evil when not part of a functional society. Through the gradual corruption of the children on the island, we could clearly see a proof to the theory that people do not abide by the rules of the social contract when not part of society. Without civilization, we are
Boston Cribs
English 10¬ —Period 1
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Stripped of Civilization
Are we born savage? Is civilization the only factor that domesticates us and keeps us in check? William Golding answered these questions in his novel, Lord of the Flies. In the story, a group of boys crash landed on a deserted island with no adults and initially tried to set up order and government. Ralph and Piggy were the ones who represented this desire for order. But as time went on they slowly became increasingly corrupted. Some say that the island itself corrupted them. However, it must have been the lack of civilization that merely enabled them to reveal their true inner savage. Lord of the Flies serves as a philosophical allegory …show more content…
The hunters felt uneasy about a thunderstorm but then Jack leapt up and ordered them to “Do our dance! Come on! Dance!” (179) The act of making the boys dance like this served as a sort of brainwashing technique. It cleared their minds of any traces of civilization, thus making them unconsciously forget about the social contract entirely. Near the end of the story, Ralph was talking to Samneric. They said that the tribe was “going to hunt” (224) Ralph and they did not know what the reason for it was. At this point the tribe had sunk down so deep into savagery that they were perfectly ok with admitting that they were going to kill Ralph with no inclination at all. At this point, it is very clear how the honorable choirboys were taken so far away from society that they could easily ignore the social contract in a quite very extreme form. In the end, this book serves as a perfect example of how a lack of civilization triggers the loss of morals and failure to abide by the social contract.
Lord of the Flies shows us that even the most innocent in society is savage in nature. Any human being, no matter how civil, will become pure evil when not part of a functional society. Through the gradual corruption of the children on the island, we could clearly see a proof to the theory that people do not abide by the rules of the social contract when not part of society. Without civilization, we are