Lord Of The Flies By William Golding: Understanding True Human Nature

Society’s curtain always falls over the actions of mankind and influences people. It is not until someone pulls the curtains wide open, bringing in a ray of darkness that ignites one’s innate savagery. In the book Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding, a group of young British boys get plane wrecked onto an unknown island due to the overarching effects of World War II. With only themselves and the rest of the mysterious island, they must be able to survive during desperate times. The boys fail as a society, but more importantly, they fail due to the weaknesses of human nature. The group’s developed disregard of the conch, pride, and fear of the beast lead to events such as the brutal deaths of Simon and Piggy, and the destruction of the conch. What once starts as an orderly dictatorship that kept their society in check, ends up with a messy anarchy full of mistakes and regrets.

Ralph, the voted chief, begins with the acceptance of most of the boys. No one dares to disregard his wishes, and it all begins with a single conch. As Piggy and Ralph blow the shell in the beginning of the book to gather other people, it exemplifies the start of an era of order and peace. They quickly decide that the conch will be the determining factor of who can speak, and who must stay silent. As shown when no one will listen to Piggy, “‘I got the conch, ’ said Piggy indignantly. ‘You let me speak!’”. It is similar to the talking object where only one person can speak at a time, and Piggy is one to follow these rules. As the story progresses onwards, the shell’s presence and meaning start to deteriorate. When the group gets more frantic, their desires and true colors start to reflect through their actions, as they get more wild and less contained.

The first time that Golding hints at this change in the mindset and actions of the boys is when he implies about the mask of evil. As exemplified when Jack puts paint on his face to hunt, “His laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling the mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness”. Jack’s innate desire to hunt is what starts a period of realization. In the beginning of the book, Jack has to think twice about stabbing a pig, but by the end, he is rubbing the blood all over his face. Jack no longer cares about the conch much less than he already did, and believes that the group should forget about shelters and getting rescued, and instead surrender to their natural wants. This starts to influence many other people that are part of the group. Although this does not suddenly create chaos, it gradually builds up tension between Jack, the order hating leader, and Ralph, the order loving chief. The breaking point of the ties to civilization is when the conch is shattered, and is said to “. . . have ceased to exist”. When the group finally splits up into two separate tribes, Piggy suggests, “Piggy nodded at the conch. ‘You could-’ ‘Call an assembly?’ Ralph laughed sharply as he said the word and Piggy frowned”. The response from Ralph surprises much of the audience, as he is the one of few people who believes in the power of the conch. With Ralph’s words, Golding tries to incorporate the loss of power because the only person who truly believes in order is now turning his back against it, which makes us wonder who is really on the side of civilization. The evolution of the conch coincides with the evolution of the society. Both start with a bright and shiny beginning, and end up shattered and broken. Pride and ego are usually controllable by those in charge of a society, but what happens when the leader is the one that possess this quality?

At the beginning of the story, Jack has a little bit of an ego and believes that he is the best leader. This quickly subsides when Ralph extends his hand and gives Jack some authority, but it doesn’t last for very long. After the moment of their encounter, they begin a furtive friendship with love and hatred. Sometimes they agree with one another, while other times they go head to head like bulls. Near the peak of the story, when Piggy is brutally murdered, the conch shatters along with him. This symbolizes the shattering of peace, and the formation of chaos. Instead of grieving for Piggy, as many did, Jack bursts with ebullience, his focus only on the shattered conch: “‘See? See? That’s what you’ll get! I mean that! There isn’t a tribe for you anymore! The conch is gone-’ [. . . ] Viciously, with full intention, he hurled his spear at Ralph”. His enthusiasm portrays the flaws of having pride. Although he could have sympathized for the loss, his ego and pridefulness limits him because he does not want to seem weak. All he can say is that the conch is finally gone and he can finally claim his title as chief. As figured from the quote, the conch also seems to be the only thing protecting Ralph’s authority from being destroyed. With the conch and Piggy gone, Jack realizes that there is no one on Ralph’s side anymore. He is the only part of the island that believes in order, and the rest are full on savages. With this in mind, Jack knows that nothing can save him anymore, and his reign is over. It represents a big moment in which Ralph’s leadership is dented. Instead of inviting Ralph into his tribe, Jack’s pride stops him, and he is too egotistical to even ask. Compared to Jack, Ralph starts off with a lot of pride and does not listen to Piggy, but as the book progresses onwards, he is able to maintain order and make rational decisions by swallowing everything up, and using Piggy’s advice. By the end of the book, Ralph does not possess any pride or ego as justified through this quote: “Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy”.

The difference of both characters’ approaches reinstates the fact that pride is a great weakness that causes a society to fail. Ralph is able to maintain civility through thick and thin, whereas Jack could not control his tribe for more than a couple of days, and is going to need a lot of therapy to regain his original ways. This weakness essentially leads characters in the wrong direction and they soon make decisions for the worse. In this case, they lose the last thread of civility just by the death of an object. The most significant attribute to the fall of the society is credited to an intangible creature that was made up by a littlun. During the entire course of the book, the older boys have a blatant disregard for everything that the littluns do and say. The fear of the ‘beast’ really drives the fall of the small society that is created. Many of them have different perspectives of the creature, and this disagreement leads to the split. During an assembly, Ralph says, “‘So the last part, the bit we can all talk about, is kind of deciding on the fear [. . . ] We’ve got to talk about this fear and decide there’s nothing to it’”. Ralph takes the practical route and tries to calm everyone down and figure the fear out. He tries to extinguish the idea in hopes that everyone might dial down. To this, Jack later responds with, “You’re a lot of crybabies and sissies [. . . ] of course there isn’t nothing to be afraid of in the forest. Why I been there myself”. This argues with Ralph’s approach because Jack tries to insult everyone and tell them that it is not possible for a beast of that size to be real on the island. Since no one has a clear idea of the beast and are very confused, they mostly keep their own beliefs. This inconsistency of perception drives everyone to accidentally, yet brutally kill Simon, because he is accidentally thought to be the beast. The more the boys turn towards savagery, the more they start to believe in the beast.

In the beginning of the book, Jack thinks nothing of the creature, but as the book progresses on and his hunting desires develop, he starts to actually believe in the beast. This exemplifies how the idea of the ‘beast’ is growing stronger and stronger, and is fueled by the savage nature of the boys. The more their curtains are opened, the more the belief spreads. The climax is when Jack leaves the tribe because the beast inside of him is tired of being locked in and just wants to escape. Golding finally portrays the fall of their society, by killing Piggy with a falling rock. The falling rock represents the downfall of mankind, and the death of Piggy at the end represents the loss of law and order. When Roger pulls the lever to dismount the boulder, his actions are the last straw, “High overhead, Roger, with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever”. As Golding describes, Roger is delirious meaning that he cannot think straight and is overtaken by the beast, or innate evil. Golding also includes, “Ralph heard the great rock before he saw it”. The explicit meaning refers to the fact that Ralph physically heard and saw the rock. If dug deeper, Golding tries to portray how Ralph already predicted the downfall of their society the moment they began to disobey the rules. This is why he always tries to emphasize on the importance of the conch and of rules throughout the course of the book. The beast naturally ignites a fear within the boys, and this fear leads to much chaos. When Simon tries to tell them that it is just their innate evil, it is already too late, and their society cannot be saved. The boys start with their curtains completely shut. As one event occurs after the other, the weaknesses of mankind tug harder, and eventually there is no curtain to hide the ray of savagery. Through their developed disregard for the conch, pride, and fear of the beast, the boys slowly cut the rope attaching them to society’s expectations.

By the end, the only thing that saves them from themselves is the captain of a ship. Golding ends the book this way to prove his point, that loss of order occurs due to everyone’s innate evil. Lord of the Flies signifies the importance of understanding true human nature, and no matter how hard we try, the beast inside us will always motivate our actions, and once it escapes, there is no stopping it.