Lord of the Flies L 03

Theme of Fictional Novel Lord of the Flies

The 1954 fictional novel Lord of the Flies, author William Golding informs readers the story of a group of boys stranded on an uninhabited island during the war. By utilizing and depicting the conflict between the boys, the entire plot reflected on our society and civilization. Thus, some readers may argue because the theme of this allegorical novel has a variety of statements. This essay will explain the reason why the theme of this novel is Human Nature; in particular the three personality traits kindness, viciousness and the obedience to the rules depicted in these major characters.

Ralph, the previous leader of the boys, presents the order and kindness all through the novel. In the first chapter titled The Sound of the Shall, after the election for choosing the leader, Ralph grabbed the conch and the most agreement of the boys. It’s not complicated to discover that Jack is in a competitive mood, which implies the further conflict and a potential hazard. Nevertheless, instead of chasing or banishing Jack and defeating him completely like what Jack did to Ralph in the end of the novel, he asked the group to rationally place him in the position of what they demand them to be. “Jack’s in charge of the choir. They can be—what do you want them to be” “Hunters” (Golding, 23). This indicates that he is representing the kindness and rationality of human nature. Moreover, his attitude toward the little boys is an indication of kindness and optimism as well, he would like to contribute and sacrifice his time when he could enjoy and relax like the other boys did to establish a shelter for the little ones in case of the beast and their nightmare. His responsibility was emphasized in the statements of persuading Jack to preserve the signal fire (Golding, 54) At that time, the entire society on the island become orderless and out of control, his group was isolated and distinguished from Jack’s tribe. Nevertheless, he still insisted on presenting the significance of the signal fire just to cheer them to be hopeful. Conclusively, his devotion and the strong sense of responsibility made him the representative to reflect himself on the positive and cordial portion of human nature.

There are two sides of the same coin, Jack has a complete opposite setting compared to Ralph that manifests viciousness and savagery, deemed as the primitive, informing he discarded the ability to remain the order and legislation of civilization. He performed jealousy of Ralph's power of controlling, he didn’t want to be limited by saying “And you shut up! Who are you, anyway? Sitting there, telling people what to do” (Golding, 91). when they were confronting the disappointment of losing a significant opportunity to be rescued because of hunters’ dereliction of duty. Instead of informing the mistake of his hunter group, he blamed Ralph for his seemingly useless. By utilizing the fearness of boys: “Bollocks to the rules! We’re strong – we hunt! If there’s a beast, we’ll hunt it down! We’ll close in and beat and beat and beat - !” (Golding, 91), indicating that he is savage and brutal to survive on the island, this deceitful method of ruling is negative enough to sentence him as a villain. Similarly, his eviction towards Ralph also demonstrated his viciousness by murdering any potential hostile influence without caring the consequences. In general, the apparent contrast between Ralph and Jack vividly emphasizes the maliciousness, treacherousness, and primitiveness in human nature.

Considering our modern society, there are the people who make rules for us to be secure, the antagonists to be the rule-breakers, and the supporters of both sides. Piggy is an obvious example of the supporter and the sample of the obedience. “What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages? What's grownups going to think?” (Golding, 82). He critically illustrated three completely different types of examples of human nature, his rationality and neutral portion allows him to announce the reasonable advice to make the entire group survive on the island. However, after his death on the castle rock, the boys are obviously changed to be orderless. Here, infers that he is the standard and watershed of being civilized or savagery. In conclusion, though he attempted to help and support Ralph to hold the circumstances by presenting the obedience of rules, he cannot control the atmosphere and environment to be vicious when confronting surviving problems, which implies how the weakness of civilized-savagery watershed in human nature can be.

Ultimately, Ralph’s mercifulness, Jack’s savagery, and Piggy’s neutral obedience forms the typical structure of human nature. Therefore, overview the entire plot, author William Golding utilizes the story and conflicts of these boys to reflect the theme on our human nature in modern civilization, instilling how human nature can be without the limits of legislation, consequently exposing the rationality and primitive portrayals of human nature vividly.

Bibliography

Golding, William. Lord of the Flies, Global Village Contemporary Classics, Sept. 1954.