Lord Of The Flies Savagery Analysis

As Annie Lennox said,“Humankind seems to have an enormous capacity for savagery, for brutality, for lack of empathy, for lack of compassion.” This can be seen in on numerous occasions and is one of the biggest reasons that society did not develop among the boys in William Golding’s novel, Lord of The Flies. Savagery prevents society from flourishing because it makes it easy for the boys to break the rules with no real consequences. William Golding wants us to know that society needs structure in order to function properly.
The mask that Jack gives himself and the masks that his tribe use are a prime example of savagery and how it prevents society from flourishing on the island. At first, the masks are being used by Jack and his hunters to
Jack’s tribe can be defined as a society but it is not a society that flourishes on the island, as it purposely leaves out some of the boys who are arguably the most important on the island, such as Ralph and Piggy. Jack’s tribe keeping people out can be seen on page 160 in paragraph 3 when Jack is telling his tribe the plans for the next day, “‘Some of you will stay here to improve the cave and defend the gate. I shall take a few hunters with me and bring back meat. The defenders of the gate will see that the others don’t sneak in.’” A society of the Tribe’s nature cannot function properly, eventually one of the other boys, like Roger, will likely usurp Jack in the same way he did to Ralph. So, while Jack’s Tribe can be defined as a society it is certainly not a stable one, and is closer to being anarchy than anything. In conclusion, the masks of Jack’s Tribe and the instances of stones being thrown throughout the book are prime examples of savagery. These acts of savagery are what prevented society from fully developing on the island. As evidenced in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies Annie Lennox was not too far off when she said, “Humankind seems to have an enormous capacity for savagery, for brutality, for lack of empathy, for lack