Lord of the Flies Essay

In the book Lord Of the Flies by William Golding, Golding is showing how men become savages step by step when there is no more societal rules telling what and what not to do. Jack, one of the main characters, paints his face which changes him because he now has a mask on and is hiding his “true self”. He then kills a pig that he was not able to do before because of his conscience. After this, some of the boys reenact the killings, without killing, but the boys know that they have the power to kill. Another step that is portrayed in the book is Jack does not like the rules they are supposed to follow, so he starts a new tribe that some of the other boys join. The new tribe’s boys then paint their faces and start killing more pigs and eventually start killing people. The last step is when everyone has now joined the new tribe except for Ralph. They all hunt down Ralph to kill him, but a series of fortunate events saves his life. The message portrayed is man is savage deep inside. Without the demands of society, step by step, men will turn against each other for pleasure and because they simply can.

Before the boys knew it, they were turning crazy starting with killing a pig. Jack, with the help of his hunters, killed a pig and brought “The gutted carcass” (96) of the pig to a fire they built to celebrate the kill. The hunters and the rest of the boys were so proud of themselves for the kill, and had this lust for killing that was unquenchable unless they killed, so they found it necessary to have a celebration. They were chanting “Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood.” (96) as the twins brought the pig to the celebration. This chanting is representing their turn to savagery because the boys are no longer wanting the pig for food, they are wanting it for the thrill of killing. Jack cut the pig’s throat with a knife, so for Jack, the killing was very personal making it even more brutal and savage. Jack paints his face to make it so people cannot see him. “We could steal up on one—paint our faces so they wouldn’t see.” (75) The boys take another identity when he had his face painted because the animals do not see them, so he can kill in disguise. This is another way the boys turn savage because they are taking on a new self that has a bloodlust and wants to kill.

Jack decides to start a new tribe, some boys follow him, and they paint their faces and kill people and animals. The boys want to act older than they are because they basically have to for the fact that they have to take care of themselves