Humanity's Inherent Savagery

There seems to be a frequent analysis of Lord of the Flies by William Golding regarding the children and their resortment to savagery as opposed to remaining civil. However, while they may appear more savage than people who live in a civilization, they are only showcasing what humans are naturally. The only reason the children can be considered savage is because they were able to live in an environment where society’s restrictions of people don’t have their full effect, so they can showcase humanity’s inherent savagery.

At the beginning of the book, there is a plane crash to start the story. Two survivors of the crash are young boys, around the age of 8-12 years old. They were having a discussion about the crash and whether there had been more survivors of the crash. When “the fat boy”, who we eventually learned is called Piggy mentions to “the fair boy”, who we learned to be called Ralph, the prospect of surviving adults. When Ralph thinks about this, he reaches the conclusion that no adults would have survived, and grows excited. “[The] fat boy hurried after him. ‘Aren’t there any grownups at all?’ ‘I don’t think so.’ The fair boy said this solemnly; but then the delight of a realized ambition overcame him. In the middle of the scar he stood on his head and grinned at the reversed fat boy. ‘No grownups!’”(8). What this quote from the book shows is a rapid change from a civil mindset the boys were in before the crash to this new, savage mindset that humans inherently possess. This is very clearly shown in the section about “the delight of a realized ambition”. This realized ambition is an escape from society’s rules and standards that people don’t want to have. Children haven’t lived long enough to understand the importance of these rules, so given the opportunity to escape, they immediately jump on it, as Ralph did. Him standing on his head represents him escaping from the rules of society. People aren’t supposed to stand on their head; they stand on their feet. Ralph standing on his head is him saying “I don’t have to follow the rules anymore, so I am going to do this.”

This idea can also to be related to current Republican candidate Donald Trump’s speeches, during which he speaks about the sponsorship that candidates usually get to help with their campaign. While doing this, he brings up that he doesn’t get sponsors and uses his own money to fund his campaign, and how sponsors control the candidates in their speech and actions. He doesn’t need that, so he isn’t corrupted by the sponsor’s ideas and gets to say what he wants. “[The other candidates’] lobbyists...will start calling President Bush, President Clinton. And they’ll say: ‘You have to do it, they gave you a million dollars to your campaign.’” Trump is able to use his money in a similar way Ralph and the other boys use the island. He doesn’t have to follow the societal norms that people usually have to. He is allowed to say what he wants without having to deal with the rules that others in his society of politicians has to follow. He can do and say what he wants without repercussions that he will usually have because he lives on this island, or a world different from the others and society. Trump creates this platform where he can say what he wants and act as savage as he wishes, just as the children from the book did.

In addition, Trump, during his speeches, has a habit of spreading his ideas that people who read or hear about think are savage in nature. However, Trump currently is high in the standings of political polls that have been taken. An example of one of his ideas is his idea of building an enormous wall along the Mexican-American border. This would prevent almost all immigration from the people of Mexico to the US. He says, “I will build a great wall—and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me—and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.” This idea would be generally considered savage. The USA is heavily built on the idea of liberty and freedom, and what this wall does is it completely contradicts that idea. In addition, the wall idea is Trump basically saying that the people of Mexico are of a lesser caliber than the people of the US. This wall would not be in place to keep people from the US in, but to keep the people from Mexico out. That sounds like a very savage idea, something that no other candidate running for office would ever say publically. However, Trump basically crashed the plane himself, leaving him on this island where society’s rules can’t touch him. The US is generally considered to be a civilized nation, and Trump, who is running for the right to be leader of the country, should not be able to propose these sorts of ideas that completely ignore the basis of the country, but Trump is able to hide on his island.

Ultimately, the argument of whether children are more savage than adults isn’t really an argument that has any reason to be discussed. Instead, the focus should be placed on whether humans in general are inherently savage. This quote by Woody Allen from “Hannah and Her Sisters” sums up the idea nicely. Regarding the Holocaust, generally considered to be very savage, he states that “[t]he reason they can never answer the question ‘How could it possibly happen?’ is that it's the wrong question. Given what people are, the question is "Why doesn't it happen more often?’”.