Text: Lord of the flies
By: Zach Wang
The Conflict between Civilization and the Instinct of Savagery
All human beings virtuous in nature, or are they born evil? This sentence indicates that the instinct of savagery is lurking in the darkness of one’s heart, till one’s morality as an imposed set of socially conditioned behaviors disappears. This thought has also been provided by William Golding through his novel Lord of the Flies, which tell the story of a group of English boys marooned on a tropical island after their plane is shot down during a great war, in fiction. It shows how the breakdown into savagery leads to disaster when a group of boys are free from the imposed moral constraints of civilization and society. In the novel “Lord of the Flies”, William Golding suggests that civilization might be superseded by the instinct of savagery when individual morality as an imposed set of socially conditioned behaviors.
Initially, the rules of morality and civilization are learned rather that innate are easy to be cracked down and give way to savagery. Young boys are a fitting illustration of this premise, as they show no interest to make the plans successful. Though Ralph, the leader of the children at the beginning of the novel, realizes that both the signal fire and the huts are vital to the boys’ ability to live on the island and proposed these ideas and plans during the meeting. Actually, both setting the signal fire and building huts are the process to build a civilize society and ways to improve their chances of being recued. If the children wish to be rescued from the island, they should look determined to re-create civilization. All the boys act excited and energized by the ideas and plans that they make at meeting but none of them is willing to work to make the plans successful. Most of the other boys rather splash about and play in the lagoon than helping Ralph and Simon to put these plans into action. The result is that the signal fire nearly fails, and a young boy is burned to death. This evidence shows that boys’instinctive drive to play and to gratify their immediate desires as undermined their ability to act for the good of their new society. These evidences also shows that the constraints of morality and society are learned rather that innate is easy to been undermined by one’s individual desires.
However, the commitment to civilization and morality which are learned rather that innate is easy to be overthrown by the savage impulse. In the psychology of the novel, the civilization is not as deeply rooted in the human heart as the savage impulse, except for few people who believes in its inherent value of the civilization. For much of the novel, Ralph is simply unable to understand why the other boys would give in to base instincts of bloodlust and barbarism. The sight of the hunters chanting and dancing is baffling and distasteful to him. But, when Ralph hunts a boar for the fist time he experiences that the exhilaration and thrill of bloodlust and violence, and when he attends Jack’s feast, he is swept away by the frenzy, dancing on the edge of the group and participating in the killing of Simon. This evidence shows that the evil is within all human being. The changing and listless despair shows that the root of the instinct of savagery is much stronger than the civilizing instinct. The commitment of civilization and morality which are learned rather that innate are easy to been loose because it is often merely a forced imposition of civilization, rather than a natural expression of human individuality. It is easy to be loosing because it is base on education and punishment.
Consequently, civilization and morality may be end with one’s increasingly wild, barbarous, and cruel as a progress of developing. The conflict between the civilization and the instinct of savagery 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 primitive society. In Chapter eleven, when Ralph decides to take the conch shell to Castle Rock, hoping that it will remind Jack’s followers of his former authority, and he also struggles to make Jack understand the importance of the signal fire to any hope the boys might have of ever being recued. But Jack orders Sam and Eric tied up and fights with Ralph. In the ensuing battle, one boy, Royer, rolling a boulder down from the mountain, killing Piggy and shattering the conch shell. This evidence shows that the commitment of civilization and morality which are learned rather that innate is so week that it is easy to be destroyed without the protection of law and education. The commitment of civilization and morality which are learned rather that innate may be end with one’s increasingly wild, barbarous, and cruel as a progress of developing.
In conclusion, the story which a group of English boys marooned on a tropical island after their plane is shot down during a great war seem to be an allegory about the innate evil of human beings.
A society, without love, discipline, altruism, will definitely head itself to destruction. In this sense, a government established on the basis of democracy and efficient is needy for the smooth function of the whole organization.