Lord of the flies

Lord of the flies – Text Analysis
In what way is Lord of the flies a picture of society today?
Lord of the flies is about a small society of boys formed by chance on an isolated island. The isolation from their parents and adults forces them to think for themselves and work together. William Golding shows a representation of society in his novel by including today’s issues such as violence, laws, power, greed and how easily civilisation can turn to savagery. In the boys lives before they were on the island, they had set laws and rules and parents who guided and protected them. Now, on the island, they have no guidelines and no one to instruct them. ‘The world, that understandable and lawful world, was slipping away.’ Chapter 5
At the beginning of the book, it all kind of seems like a bit of a game for the boys. They keep optimistic about survival and think of the moment they will be rescued. They decide to vote for a leader which is the moral thing to do for a group of boys who have always had a leader and know of nothing different. ‘We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we’re not savages. We’re English, and the English are best at everything.’ (Chapter 2) Everything doesn’t go to plan and the island soon turns to chaos. Chaos is created when rules are not obeyed which produces even more disorder. During the fire dance scene in chapter 4, William Golding describes Jack ‘He began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling.’ The book shows how evil some humans can be or become when put under pressure or responsibility.
William Golding uses the beast to show that evil is within the boys on the island. ‘Maybe there is a beast… maybe it’s only us’ (Page 80). The beast is a ‘supposed’ creature that the kids on the island see. However Simon later realises that the beast is actually within them and that the only thing that they are actually fighting is themselves. The evil inside the children gets the best of them when Simon comes and tries to tell the truth about the ‘beastie’ and he shows this evil by making the children rip Simon into shreds. Jack and his hunters also represent evil from their power and overpowering leadership. In the first chapter Golding wrote ‘The creature was a party of boys, marching…’ The book represents how our society is every man for himself and how anyone, even those who are supposedly your friends, will stab you in the back just to get what they want. With the lack of humanity and civilisation around them, the boys are lost and feel compromised by the quest for survival and power.
‘We was on the outside. We never done nothing, we never seen nothing.’ (Chapter 10) Sam, Eric, Piggy and Ralph deny that they took part in the death of Simon. This represents today’s society by showing that humanity can be extremely naïve and vain and can often hide themselves from the truth. ‘After all, we aren’t savages really…’ (Chapter 11)
At the very end of the book, Golding wrote ‘Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy.’ Through the duration of the book, Ralph has seemed arrogant and brutal towards Piggy, never really giving him a chance. Ralph realises that Piggy was the one who stood by his side and always very wise, was Ralph’s second voice and best friend. Society is represented again about how naïve humanity can be and not respect the people that actually respect them until it is too late.
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