Savagery In Lord Of The Flies Character Analysis

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“There is a savage beast in every man, and when you hand that man a sword or spear and send him forth to war, the beast stirs.” George R.R. Martin laid the foundation of an association of man to beast when he wrote that line in his book Storm of the Swords. Martin exemplifies his belief that mankind embodies beast trapped in itself. In the book The Lord of the Flies, the author William Golding tries to set the same theme. The setting involves a group of English children crashing on an island during the midst of war in the twentieth century. The children soon find themselves mimicking the outside war-stricken world, and the island turns into chaos. Each character in the book develops differently to convey how savagery can affect people differently, …show more content…
But, throughout the novel, Ralph’s character reflects on the tug between morality and wickedness, showing the author’s true intention of portraying how there is a thin line between righteousness and sinfulness. Near the start of the story, Ralph’s description includes his genuine look of a pure, faithful leader. Golding writes that, “But there was a stillness about Ralph as he sat that marked him your: there was his size, and attractive appearance, and most obscurely… there was the conch” (Golding 22). Ralph asserts himself as a leader, which the boys on the island accept, because of his one true leader characteristic: being able to bring the band of boys together under one common interest. Yet, over time, Ralph transforms into someone less than a true leader. When he attempts to play a hunting game with Jack’s tribe, he “too was fighting to get near, to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh. The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering” (Golding 115). Ralph uneasily tries to convince himself of his pure nature, while stating it was just a game that he tried to participate in. At the end of the book, Ralph nearly gets killed, but luckily a navy seal officer prevents that from happening. Ralph finally sees what he and the boys have become while on this island: pure beasts. This revelation leaves Ralph in tears, scarring him for life that he no knows savagery resides among him and the rest of …show more content…
Throughout the book, Jack develops as someone with little care to people or rules. Over time, he turns as uncivilized as the beast he constantly tries to hunt. At the beginnings, Jack hesitates to kill a pig, yet says that “next time there would be no mercy” (Golding 31). First unwilling to take a life, Jack transitions into someone with “no mercy”. He begins slaughtering pigs for the thrill of it as well, and tries to convince others to join him. Even Piggy, a boy who symbols intelligence, says that “‘If Jack was chief [of the boys’ tribe], he’d have all hunting and no fire. We’d be here till we died’” (Golding 93). Eventually Jack makes his own tribe where it is “all hunting” because that deems the most important to him. During the book, there seems to be a growing sense of a beast on the island, scaring the little boys and urging Jack to start pursuing to kill it. While motivating the troop, Jack says “‘If there’s a beast, we’ll hunt it down! We’ll close in and beat and beast and beat—!’” (Golding 91). His dialogue lays the foundation of Jack’s savage side as his desire to “beat and beat” animals takes over. Without any civilization, Jack alters into an immoral leader who thrives on fear. Jack becomes the epitome of a beast in the eyes of the reader. Golding uses Jack’s character to illustrate the
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