Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies

Although problems in everyday life are normal, they can get out of control at times. Therefore, without society in life, chaos is destined to occur. For example in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, the boys divide into two groups; the civilized and the savages, leading to serious drama and chaotic behaviors. Because of their loss of their loss of society, Piggy and Simon are brutally murdered. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding illustrates that society is needed in order for people to survive.

Arrival to the island Ralph and Piggy find each other with hopes to form a society. They know there are more boys on the island and want to find them. Piggy finds a shell, “…It’s a shell…A conch he called it. He used to blow it…”(Golding 33). They decided to use it to summon the other stranded boys. It was also used later to allow an individual of the group to speak with no interruptions. When Piggy introduced the conch to the other boys, Jack Merridew told him to shut up and called him fatty, “He’s not fatty…his real name’s Piggy”(Golding 21), Ralph replied. Ralph knew that all the boys would have to work together so they can last until they are rescued.

The stranded boys decided they would need a leader so they can survive while on the island. The election was between Ralph and Jack Merridew. With a couple of votes more than Jack, Ralph wins the position as leader, “…the society splits into two halves: the firewatchers and the choir turned hunters”(F. Dick 22). Ralph soon found that survival on the island would not be easy for any of the stranded boys.

Ralph decides to make some rules to keep things in order and keep everyone alive. He calls a meeting with the other boys, “when the meeting was over they’d work for five minutes, then wander off or go hunting”(Golding 51). “Their first aim is abide as much as possible…they have to adopt, by the standards of life that the civilized world of adults has infused them, and to wait for rescue”(Michot 2). The first rule was that at meetings, whoever is holding the conch shell has the right to speak. A few boys get an idea for quicker rescuing, “A fire! Make a fire”(Golding 38)! Ralph decides to build a signal fire on top of one of the mountains, so if a ship passes it will see the fire and know that someone is stranded. At first nothing they tried would start the fire they needed, then Jack got an idea involving Piggy who he continuously makes fun of, “His specs-use them as burning glasses”(Golding 40)! Jack then starts talking about food and wanting to hunt animals for meat, disregarding Ralph’s orders, “The group splits into two groups; the hunters deviate further…from the standards of civilized life that the other group strains to preserve”(Michot 2). Jack then tells the other boys that he saw a pig that was stuck in the woods leaving Ralph, Piggy and few boys alone while the rest go hunting wildly.

Ralph comes up with the thought to have the boys get organized into pairs to watch the fire and make sure it does not go out, “The fire…is the symbol of their hope for rescue, of their attachment to civilization, for it will reveal their presence on the island to the outside world”(Michot 3). The first time the fire remains unattended when Jack forgets about it and prefers to go hunting instead. As some of the younger boys gradually join Jack’s tribe, it becomes much more difficult to keep the fire going, “ The boys in charge of the hunting have become so intent on killing that they no longer understand that the aim of hunting was originally to provide the community with food”(Michot 2). Ralph realizes that the society he once created is quickly deteriorating and becoming chaos.

With no order on the island, the boys must defend for themselves to survive. In the woods, one of the boys, Simon finds a pig head that is impaled on a stake and is covered in flies, “The hunters deification of the Pig’s head which becomes the Lord of the Flies himself, and the horror of their rituals stress the fact that the children have fallen into a state of savagery in which evil is all powerful…”(Michot 2). The head seems to come to life and speaks to Simon telling him that he is the beast, which represented the evil in the boys leading to less likely of survival.

Simon is climbing up a hill when he sees the dead pilot the hunters mistaken for the beast. “Simon now holds the clue” that there is no beast, but that the evil is within the children