Civilized or Savage?

How do people react to incidents and tragic events? Most would mourn, others would try to put the blame on others. In the story, Lord of the Flies, this theme is brought up repeatedly throughout the book. When the boys end up stranded, they initially rejoice and think of it as a good thing, however, tragedies overtime can begin to break down a person's morals and values.

Towards the beginning of the story when the boys first end up on the island they immediately begin to think about their new found freedom and who should be in charge of the island. "Shut up," said Ralph absently. He lifted the conch. "Seems to me we ought to have a chief to decide things." "A chief! A chief!" "I ought to be chief," said Jack with simple arrogance, "because I'm chapter chorister and head boy. I can sing C sharp."(100). An example of this same type of mindset is when the tragic 9/11 attacks occurred. Many had mourned and wanted revenge so there was many injustices to people who were of the Islamic faith. History.com says, FBI Director Robert Mueller said, “vigilante attacks and threats against Arab-Americans will not be tolerated.”  When something as tragic as 9/11 occurred people were quick to want to retaliate, but the director and others wanted to keep the peace and make sure that there was still order in this time. He could’ve acted irrationally and justified the harm that was being done to the Muslim people, but he knew morally that it was wrong and decided to protect those who were being targeted.

During the feast that Jack threw after killing the pig, the boys had killed Simon, because they were afraid of the beast and thought that he was the beast. When it happened Piggy and Ralph were talking to each other about it and they both realized that they were afraid and it caused them to act so irrationally and impulsive, “I know there isn't no beast—not with claws and all that, I mean—but I know there isn't no fear, either."Piggy paused."Unless—" Ralph moved restlessly."Unless what?" "Unless we get frightened of people.” The boys said that they were afraid and admitted to it killing Simon, because they were afraid. During World War 2, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President. Franklin Roosevelt started to force Japanese-American people out of their homes and into internment camps. USHistory.com says, “Over 127,000 United States citizens were imprisoned during World War II. Their crime? Being of Japanese ancestry.” American officials and American people had said that they were afraid of the Japanese turning on them in and being loyal to the Japanese government and military. In both examples both sides, Piggy and Ralph and the American people and government were afraid and acted on it and caused for someone to get hurt.

When Simon was initially killed and everyone ran back to their shelter Ralph and Piggy had a conversation about it, Piggy had tried to brush it off and make excuses for their actions saying it was dark and such, while Ralph was taking the blame and said that what they had did was murder and they acted like savages. ”It was dark. There was that- that bloody dance. There was lighting and thunder and rain. We was scared!’ ‘I wasn’t scared,’ said Ralph slowly, ‘I was I don’t know what I was.’ We was scared!’ said Piggy excitedly. ‘Anything might have happened. It wasn’t what you said.”(156) Piggy justifies the brutal killing by saying that it wasn’t their fault they were dark and afraid and he shouldn’t have been there. While, Ralph owns up to his mistake saying that it their fault and they had intentionally murdered him and just acted without thinking.

When the boys made it to the island there was a lot of bickering over whether someone should be chief or not, but Ralph was more focused on using his power for creating signal fires to be rescued, but Jack wasn’t all too interested in this. Jack apologizes to Ralph for burning out the fire saying that what he had done was wrong. Jack says, “I’m sorry. About the fire, I mean. There I-’ He drew himself up. ‘I apologize.” (72) Jack had made the others upset and had tried to sincerely apologize to the others for causing the disturbance in the lighting of the fire. The fire was an important aspect throughout the story and told the reader a lot about the types of people Ralph and Jack were, Ralph was the one who tried to stay more civilized through the awful situation that they were put in. While, Jack had tried to use this situation as a way to gain power and was the less civilized one and convinced the other hunters to act like monsters.

        All throughout the book we see how the boys have acted either inhumanely or civilized when a major event had occurred. Throughout U.S. history we see how we’ve either acted unjustly or justly towards another group of people when we’ve felt threatened by them, when these injustices happen there is usually people who stand up for what is right and don’t stand with those who do wrong to other people.



Sources Cited:

Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. Penguin Books, 2006.

“Japanese-American Internment.” Ushistory.org, Independence Hall Association, www.ushistory.org/us/51e.asp.

Editors, History.com. “Reaction to 9/11.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 13 Aug. 2010, www.history.com/topics/21st-century/reaction-to-9-11.


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