A Little Bit of Civilization, a Little Bit of Savagery

Madison Siegel

Ms. Pahomov

English 2

6 April 2018

A Little Bit of Civilization, a Little Bit of Savagery

In William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies”, the author portrays the fluctuating identities of a group of boys who are stranded on an island. What makes a person civilized or savage? How do the things that happen to a person affect their actions? Some people think that things happen to them for a reason. Some people wait to see what the future holds and then make their decisions based off of that. In the book, the characters of Ralph and Piggy view the world differently from the way Jack sees the world. That’s why Jack is known as savage and Ralph and Piggy are known as civilized. The environment that these characters were in before they were stranded on the island-shaped their decisions and the other characters in the book. The idea of civilized vs. savage creates many scenarios in both the book and in real life. People who possess normal minded behavior can resort to savage behavior when put into a desperate situation or stay their normal self.

People can be faced with the pathways of choosing a civilized or savage way. It might be better to take the civilized route because then you know you followed the rules, but if you take the savage route it might benefit you more. In an article written by Hamid Dashabi, he points out a quote saying, “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man.” Dashabi is explaining that the reader is more likely to choose the person who follows the rules than the person who doesn’t. Something that should be recognized is the fact that even a rule-follower can have some savage traits. This observation fits into the Lord of the Flies because there was a war between the different gangs lead by Jack and Ralph. Readers may support the civilized group with Ralph because they wanted to follow the rules that they were taught. First thing to remember is how Jack came to be identified as a savage. This is a war between a civilized and savage person. Goldingsets the book up so the readers support Ralph more than they support Jack because he wanted Jack to be known as the villain. In the book, the narrator says, “[Jack] tried to convey the compulsion to track down and kill that was swallowing him up. "I went on. I thought, by myself—"The madness came into his eyes again. "I thought I might kill."”(51)  The author shows the struggle Jack has when he is stranded on the island. The readers are able to realize that Jack has some civilized qualities hidden in his savage actions. Based on the quote, the readers see that Jack was doing what he thought was best. He saw that the only way that he can survive is by looking out for himself and bossing everyone else around. This proves that civilization left room for both to happen.

Something that should be considered is that this book was written to demonstrate the problems of society and the sinful nature of each and every person. With that being said, the world was created with good and evil inside everyone. There is a struggle for every human being to tell the difference of what is right from wrong; it depends on personal opinions. They wanted to keep a very order-based community, but they also fought with others and wanted to survive.

Ralph says, “If we have a signal going, they’ll come and take us off. And another thing. We ought to have more rules. Where the conch is that’s a meeting. The same up here as down here.” (42) Without any rules, how would life look like? How would anyone know the difference from right and wrong if the world didn’t have rules? There is no real way to determine what is right and what is wrong. Ralph was pulling from what he knew before he got stranded on the island to try to keep a more civilized community. Ralph was trying to do what he thought was best for not only him, but everyone stuck on that island. People need rules or else everyone would be identified as savage. With that being said, there is a greater chance that people are savage than civilized because even with rules, people can be savage. Ralph still had a little bit of savage in him even though he was identified as civilized.

The identity of civilized against savage nature plays a huge role in the theme of the book. The people in the government are the ones who make the rules. They make the laws that guide each and every human being. Then, there are the people in the government that don’t follow the rules, creating a corrupt society. For example, Donald Trump can definitely be identified as both civilized and savage. He is this country’s president, but yet he can probably relate more to Jack’s morals than to Ralph’s morals. Jack and Ralph can be identified as political parties too. Weebly says, “The formation of two separate groups in Lord of the Flies, Ralph's "followers" and Jack's "followers," leads to the total loss of unity on the island. In The United States' government, there are two main political parties that often struggle against each other: the Democratic Party and the Republican Party.” Those two teams are often pitted against each other in today’s society, but they aren’t identified as savage. This creates interest because when two people get into a fight, they are known as being on opposing teams, and are quickly identified as savage. Some people would like to think that there is just a good and a bad, a right and a wrong, and a savage and a civilized, but the truth in the matter is that human beings are in between. In Lord of the Flies, Jack was in between because he thought he was doing the right thing, but he was doing it in a savage way.