Primary Elements of Civilisation in Lord of the Flies

What Makes a Good Civilisation?

A civilisation is basically the stage of human social and cultural development and organisation that is considered most advanced. Civilisation has been around for almost forever. Civilisation can be represented in many ways; from having a first agreement to having a government, laws and leaders. A good civilisation should have, first off, a good leader, someone who people respect and listen to. Secondly, it should have rules to follow and lastly it should be filled with people who work together, united as one, working toward achieving their goals. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, these three elements of a successful society were present at first, and then vanished over time, causing the group of boys to become completely savage.

Leadership is an authority of power; it is having one strong man or women lead the people into making smart decisions together. Having a leader is critical in a good civilisation because it guides the people through difficult times and helps them surmount challenging obstacles. When you have a leader, it means you listen to only one person, making it much easier and straightforward than having to make your own decisions or listening to a bunch of different points of views and not knowing what to decide for yourself. Having a leader means you have someone to look up to, someone to count on and someone to trust. In Lord of the Flies, Ralph was declared as leader, first off because he was the biggest and strongest of all the boys. Secondly, because unlike Jack who does what he wants, Ralph takes everyone’s opinions into consideration when making a decision. “All this I meant to say. Now I’ve said it. You voted me for chief. Now you do what I say.” (Golding, 62). Having a leader means that you have to respect and accept the decisions that were made. In the quote above, Ralph is saying that since he was declared leader, the boys have to listen to him, because that is how a democracy works.

Rules are certain orders or directions made by the superior, that have to be followed or else rule-breakers will be punished. Today, in our society or civilisation, rules are the law and punishment is jail time, fines or even death sentences. In Lord of the Flies, there aren't necessarily any punishments to be made. The boys just wanted to make and follow rules to stay on track, to keep everything in order/control and to stay civilised English boys. Without rules, people would turn savage, just like in Lord of the Flies. “We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we are not savages” (Golding, 33).

Teamwork is being united as one, working together toward achieving goals. When working with others to achieve things, we must have goals in which we all want and agree with. In Lord of the Flies, one of their goals was keeping the fire going and being rescued by a passing ship. “The fire is the most important thing. Without the fire we can’t be rescued” (Golding, 110). Whenever someone does not commit to the team, it then creates problems, just like in Lord of the Flies when Jack tried to overpower Ralph by taking his position as leader, and failed. Jack then left the tribe and created his own group. “I’m not going to play any longer. Not with you.” (Golding, 98). The separation of Jack from the tribe, caused every boy other than Ralph, Piggy and Samneric to join Jack’s tribe. This leads to Jack’s tribe trying to kill Ralph by lighting the island on fire and sharpening a stick at both ends.

In conclusion, to have a good, functioning civilisation, the civilisation must include a strong leader who considers others, otherwise decisions won't be made. The civilisation must include rules in which everybody obeys and respects, and lastly a good civilisation must consist of a group of people who work hard together, that achieve their goals and that stick together through thick and thin. Without these three elements, everything would just collapse and nothing would get done. This is proven in Lord of the Flies; at the beginning everything was in order, but once these elements vanished the boys became out of control and savage, and killed two of their own. Although Golding’s Lord of the Flies is just a fictional story, in our reality, it is clear that with the absence of these elements we would not have a fully functioning society.