Lord Of The Flies

2 Pages 426 Words

Lord Of The Flies: Society

William Golding’s Lord of the Flies displays in a general and broad way human attitudes and behaviors. The novel is constantly examining the human mind and the constant shift of instincts between rational and animal. The major conflict in Golding’s novel is the clash between two competing impulses that exist within all human beings: the instinct to live by rules, act peacefully, follow moral commands, and value the good of the group on the one hand; and the instinct to gratify one’s immediate desires, act violently to obtain supremacy over others, and enforce one’s will on the other.
These two instincts may be called “the instinct of civilization” and “the instinct of savagery,” as one is devoted to values that promote ordered society and the other is devoted to values that threaten ordered society. The conflict might also be expressed as order vs. chaos, reason vs. impulse, law vs. anarchy, or in any number of other ways, including the more generalized good vs. evil. Throughout the novel, the instinct of civilization is associated with goodness, while the instinct of savagery is associated with evil.
The conflict between the two instincts is the driving force of the novel, explored through the dissolution of the young English boys’ civilized, moral, disciplined behavior as they accustom themselves to a wild, brutal, barbaric life as savages in the jungle. Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel, which means that its main ideas and themes are frequently represented by symbols. Appropriately, the conflict between civilization and savagery is represented most directly by the novel’s two main characters: Ralph, the protagonist, represents order and leadership, while Jack, the antagonist, represents savagery and the desire for power.
In the novel’s presentation of human psychology, different people experience the instincts of civilization and savagery to different degrees. Piggy,...