![]() Prior to the plane crash, it seems that these boys were well-behaved and cultured young men who were attending school and focusing on their education and social upbringing. Ralph is devastated the next morning, when he realizes that despite all his efforts to remain civil, he has lapsed and let his innate evil out during the killing of Simon. This shows the view that no matter who we are or where we come from, we each have the potential for good or evil within us (civilization or savagery). When Simon comes upon the scene, they perceive him as an outsider and rip him apart with their hands and teeth, no questions asked. Many of the boys struggle to maintain some level of order and civility amongst them, but eventually all relinquish the struggle and engage in acts of violence, chaos, etc.įor example, all the boys work themselves into a frenzy, even Piggy and Ralph. ![]() When the social conditioning is removed from the situation, anything could happen. Social conditioning helps us to curb this impulse and focus more on acts of good. Even the most cultured of the boys eventually succumb to the impulse to act wild and throw caution to the wind. Although the boys were probably “proper” English boys before their plane crash, they slip into savagery over time. This is how the terrors of war are able to spread unchecked, for example. Using children as the characters removes decades of learned behaviors that could impede the expression of the wild nature.Īccording to the author, William Golding, humanity contains vast evils just like it contains vast goods. The Lord of the Flies removes two things from humans that help us see this dichotomy most clearly-the presence of a well-established social order and way to maintain this social order, and the lack of age. When we are a part of a healthy society with order and every person is cared for, we are less likely to notice these wild impulses. This conflicting desire is that of humanity’s wild instincts. However, a conflicting desire can often be noticed-sometimes in subtle behaviors and sometimes outright, like in the case of these boys living on a deserted island. Part of human nature involves a desire for organization, rules, contributing towards to society, and maintaining social order. The central thematic element to this novel is the fight between civilization and savagery. What are the major themes of Lord of the Flies? Each of these motifs serves to highlight an overarching dichotomy that exists as the action unravels-the conflict between human instincts to be wild and the more intellectual desire to overcome any type of savagery or will to act in a way that is at odds with human order/intelligence. There are many motifs in The Lord of the Flies that help to support overall thematic elements: nature’s beauty, biblical references, bullying, and symbols of savagery. ![]() The global strife is reflected in the behaviors of the stranded boys who are trying to make a sort of makeshift society work for them while the world around them crumbles. Historically speaking, this is not long at all after the end of World War II, so the audience can either guess that WWII never ended in this fictional world, or that World War III broke out not long after. We know that the plane-crashed boys were being evacuated from war-torn England in the midst of a heated global war sometime in the early 1950s. While the location for the island does contribute to the story, the interesting thing about how setting functions in this novel is that it’s what’s happening outside this isolated island that carries the most weight. This novel takes place on a deserted tropical island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.
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