William Goulding's Lord Of The Flies

Lord of the Flies Research paper
Lord of the Flies by William Goulding is a compelling fantasy in which a group of young boys is stranded on an island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. The boys were being evacuated from England because of a nuclear world war when their plane was shot down and all the adults aboard died. Goulding displays the savagery of man as it is slowly dragged out of young boys stuck on an island divided in war. Some of the boys get tired of only eating fruit so the try to go out and hunt a pig. This group of boys is led by Jack and is known as the hunters. The hunters eventually break off from the main group and start a new one based on hunting rather than being rescued, and become savages, throwing the society into war.
Some of the boys started devolving into savages simply by being on the island with no adults. “The children... return to a primitive and infantile morality…” (Rosenfield). With no one to tell them they are doing wrong, they lose their knowledge of right and wrong. Next, the savage boys force the civil boys to either convert to their side or die. “... And pain is in the struggle between the boys who revert, through fear, to the primitive and turn into savage hunters, and those who are trying vainly to preserve foresight and order” (Pritchett). This struggle is what starts the war. Even though there are no adults on the island, the kids end up becoming like the war-like, adult society they were fleeing. “ The children... degenerate into adults” (Rosenfield). The children “degenerated” into adults because adults lose their innocence and doing things like war. The civil boys side slowly decreases, and eventually the few that are left are forced into a “cold
When Jack and Ralph first meet, they immediately become friends. “Eyes shining, mouths open, triumphant, they savored the right of domination. They were lifted up: were friends” (about Ralph and Jack) (pg. 22). Jack and Ralph are both natural leaders so they get along at first but they clash when there isn’t enough power to go around. When the fire goes out, their friendship takes a turn, but they are not enemies yet. “Ralph spoke… Jack checked, vaguely irritated by this irrelevance but too happy to let it worry him” (pg.52). Ralph is angry, but Jack doesn’t care, he just does whatever he wants to. Finally, Ralph and Jack become mortal enemies by the end of the book. “Viciously, with full intention, he (Jack) hurled his spear at Ralph” (pg.142). The once friends, Jack and Ralph, are now mortal enemies and are in an all out war. The bond between Jack and Ralph represents the bond between Civil and savage. The savagery of man being extracted from these young boys shows the raw nature of humans. The story of the boys stranded on the island turns into the story of the human race, destroying each other for no other reason than we can. This story can be used as a lesson for mankind as to what will happen to humans in