William Golding Lord Of The Flies Society Analysis

In Lord of the Flies, William Golding presents pessimistic view of society. He uses

the story of a group of boys stranded on a deserted island to examine a multitude of

specific social issues, such as leadership, sadism, and the role of intellectuals in society.

Taken together, this presentation of opinions on social issues brings the reader to the

question of the nature of society. As to this question, Golding asserts that society is an

inherently corruptive influence and illustrates this through the breakdown of social order

on the island.

Golding begins his indictment of society with an illustration of innocence. One of

first things that Ralph, the central character of the novel, does upon his arrival on the

island is
At the first meeting, the boys collectively

acknowledged a need for shelters and a signal fire, yet these tasks fell to only a few of

them, while the others went swimming or hunting. Specifically, at that first meeting, Jack

volunteered the choir, himself a member, to keep a lookout and a signal fire going on top

of the mountain, yet the job soon fell to Samneric. Likewise, Piggy constantly made

suggestions as to what needed to be fixed, yet never acted on any of it. He espoused his

opinions on how to keep the fire going properly and how everyone should participate in

building the shelters, yet he never did any of this work that he suggested, himself. This

brings us to the idea of the desire for privilege. Piggy wanted work done, but did not

want to have to do it. Jack wanted to only have to hunt and not participate in Ralph's

ideas of how the group should run. Jack was also envious of Ralph's position as leader

and wanted that privilege for himself. It was this desirethat eventually led to the schism