Lord of the Flies Explanation

Lord of the flies is a novel about the struggle between Civilization and savagery. The story is about some boys who were lost on an Island then some of them started to slowly act like savages.

Ralph ,who was initially chosen as a leader for the boys, was the voice of civilized humans. Ralph wanted the boys to follow structured rules and he always cared about lighting a fire in order for the boys to get saved.

Jack was the voice of savagery. He cared about nothing but hunting and didn’t seem to care about being saved. Jack slowly turned into a savage until he killed one of the boys.

As the boys became more savages and less rational they believed more and more in the presence of a beast on the island.

The beast in the story represented the boys’ fear of what they don’t know. The beast also represented the dark side of the boys or of humans in general.

The story points out how humans can become irrational and even savages when they follow their own instincts and give in to their dark sides. Many of the boys followed Jack blindly and didn’t seem to care about being saved as well. (See Why some people prefer Books over Movies?)

The conch , a symbol that represents order in the story, was destroyed. Simon and piggy who represented the sound of rationality were killed. The last Civilized boy , Ralph, was about to be killed before all the boys were saved by a passing ship.

The lord of the flies was the severed head of the pig that was offered to the beast by Jack.

According to the novel the primitive tribal mind of humans can take over them and make them irrational savages. This was apparent when the boys, under Jack’s command, went to hunt Ralph and kill him. (See Why do some people like comic books?)