Lord of the Flies - Essay 12

In the book “Lord of the Flies”, William Golding tries to convey the “darkness of man’s heart” through a group of little boys. The story started out with a nuclear war background, and the group of boys were evacuated from their schools in a plane. When the plane was attacked, the passenger tube was released, and the boys were sent crashing into an uninhabited island. As the story progresses, the author’s message would become clear; the fact that without the presence of society to suppress the evil natures of a person, even a group of innocent school children can turn into sadistic blood lusty savages. William Golding has successfully conveyed that message through this allegory.



During the very first instance in which Jack encountered a pig, we see that there was still the innocence within him. ‘…because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood.’ Here, we see that he fears of killing a living being and that fear was what was preventing him from making the downward stroke. The instinct or urge to kill a creature is within all of us, but due to the influence of society, we all could suppress and control this evil inside us. In Jack’s case, he had discovered a way to remove this suppression, which was with the mask. ‘…the mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness.’ With the mask, Jack could reveal his true lust and desire to kill, and this discovery was the very first step Jack had taken towards primitiveness, and with it, they were finally able to overcome the fear of killing a living thing. It was as if the mask had an identity of its own, letting the boys feel as if it wasn’t them who was taking away the life of the living being, giving the boys a feeling of protection from reality.



The gradual augment of the sadistic killings shows that the influence of society has diminished within the boys. The killing of the sow...