Lord of the Flies has more than one “ theme,” or meaning, but the overall and most important one is that the conditions of life within society are closely related to the moral integrity of its individual members.
In Golding’s own words: “ The theme is an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature. The moral is that the shape of a society must depend on the ethical nature of the individual and not on any political system however apparently logical or respectable. ” The theme of Lord of the Flies has been questioned for decades. Golding believed that the theme was to trace the problems of society back to the sinful nature of man.
He wrote the book to show how political systems cannot govern society effectively without first taking into consideration the defects of human nature. The defects of human nature are present in examples in Golding’s novel through the characters of Jack and his hunters. Here, Golding shows that men are inherently evil; if left alone to fend for themselves. They will revert back to the savage roots of their ancestors. There was the brilliant world of hunting, tactics, fierce exhilaration, skill, and there was the world of longing and baffled common-sense,” said William Golding.
This is seen in the novel near the end, when the tribe is hunting Ralph. Matters had become quite out of hand by this time. Even the naval officer who saves the boys knows their society has become savage. The beast, the Lord of the Flies, is seen as a real object on the island, which frightens the boys. Actually, the beast is something internal. The Lord of the Flies is in soul and mind of the boys, leading them to the natural chaos of a society with no reasoning adults.
Only Simon understands what the real beast is, but is killed when he tries to tell the boys about the Lord of the Flies. This shows that a government can’t control human nature. The dead body flying in the parachute symbolizes the end of adult supervision of the boys on the island. While the parachute man is prolonged death, the Beast, or Lord of the Flies, is prospering under its new control over Jack and most of the other boys on the island. So while the law and order of the adult world is decreasing, childish chaos is growing exponentially. Simon has a special connection with the parachute man.
He climbs the mountain, subconsciously, to determine whether the parachute man is still alive. When he finds out that the man is dead and that the Beast is alive, Simon has a nervous breakdown. The moral confrontation that occurs when Simon has a talk with the Lord of the Flies symbolizes man’s inability to conquer the evil within him. Piggy and Jack symbolize two opposite extremes of human behavior while Ralph is pulled between them. How can you expect to be rescued if you don’t put first things first and act proper (Chap.
3)? ” Piggy wants to follow rules of his auntie while Jack wants to have power. In this quote, “ If it’s fun, do it, (Chap. 6)” Jack wants to have authority over the ‘ littluns’ by installing fear into their minds. Ralph seems in the middle of the two sides. Eventually he seems to side with Piggy, but actually Ralph never changes his mind— it is Jack and the rest of the boys who become more extreme in their: hunting humans, forming their own tribe, etc. In this way Ralph portrays the role of government in any modern society.
While he wants to satisfy the wishes of the public, he must also realize that certain rules of behavior must be followed in order to prevent anarchy or the absence of any form of political authority. Golding purposefully picked an island to be the landing place of the crashed plane because an island is isolated from the rest of society. The boys have no contact with the outside world and must look to themselves to solve the problems of their own society. In this way, the island, which symbolizes isolation, serves as a perfect place for human nature to come out. The conch shell symbolizes the law and order of the old adult world, which Piggy tries so desperately to protect.
Piggy: “ We can use this to call the others. Have a meeting. They’ll come when they hear us—(Chap. 1). ” The conch represents all the authority, which the boys are so used to obeying. When Jack destroys the conch, anarchy quickly forms because any hope of strong, central leadership has been abandoned.
The island society collapses into chaos, because of the aggressive human nature that comes out. Unfortunately anarchy defeats order. Ralph, thinking to himself: “ What was the sensible thing to do? There was no Piggy to talk sense. There was no solemn assembly for debate or dignity of the conch (Chap. 10).
“ This is the outcome because Golding portrays in this book that government is an ineffective way to keep people together. No matter how logical or reasonable, government will eventually have to give in to the anarchical demands of the public.
