![]() The novel Lord Of The Flies the conflict between civilization and barbaric savagery are presented in contrast. Yet, as the novel continues, the boys are faced with difficult decisions between right and wrong. These British boys have crashed on a island that’s far from home. A group of British school boys find themselves struggling to remain civilized as they were in school. William Golding has presented this real life situation in his novel. Who would be in charge with no adults there? Who would make the rules? What type of person would emerge as a leader? In the novel Lord Of The Flies such a situation occurs. Golding implies that civilization can diminish but never wipe out the inner evil that exists within all human beings.Can you imagine you and your class mates on a deserted island with no adults present. But Golding does not portray this loss of innocence as something that is done to the children rather, it results naturally from their increasing openness to their inner evil and savagery. The painted barbarians in Chapter 12 who have hunted, tortured, and killed animals and human beings are a far cry from the innocent children swimming in the lagoon in Chapter 3. As the boys on the island progress from well-mannered, obedient children longing to be rescued to cruel, murderous hunters who have no desire to return to civilization, they naturally lose the sense of innocence that they possessed when they first crash-landed on the island. ‘Loss of Innocence’ is the other major theme of the book. Among all the characters, only Simon seems to possess anything like a natural, innate goodness. This idea of innate human evil is central to Lord of the Flies, and finds expression in several important symbols, most notably the beast and the sow’s head on the stake. Golding imp lies that without the influence of society’s norms and morals, people naturally revert to brutality, savagery, and barbarism. Golding sees moral behavior, in many cases, as something that civilization forces upon the individual rather than a natural expression of human individuality. Generally, however, Golding implies that the instinct of savagery is far more primal and fundamental to the human psyche than the instinct of civilization. Piggy and Simon, for instance, have no savage feelings, while Roger seems hardly capable of grasping the rules of civilization. As the novel progresses, Golding shows how different people feel the influences of the instincts of civilization and savagery to different degrees. He represents the struggle between civilization and savagery in the conflict between the novel’s two main characters: Ralph, the protagonist, who represents order and leadership and Jack, the antagonist, who represents savagery and the desire for power. Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel, which means that Golding expresses many of his main ideas and themes through symbolic characters and objects. The conflict between the two instincts is the main focus of the novel, explored through the dissolution of the young English boys’ civilized, moral, disciplined behavior as they accustom themselves to a harsh, ruthless, barbaric life in the jungle. Throughout the novel, Golding associates civilization with good and savagery with evil. Savagery deals with fulfilling one’s immediate desires, acting violently to obtain supremacy over others, and enforcing one’s will. Civilization deals with following society’s rules, law and order, acting peacefully and having basic human ethics and morals. Savagery’ is the conflict that exists throughout the book. The two major themes of William Golding’s novel “Lord of the Flies” are ‘Civilization vs.
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