The Lord Of The Flies Destruction Of — страница 2

rules are abandoned. In one scene, Jack and his boys raid Ralph’s small camp. “Ralph trotted down the pale beach and jumped on to the platform. The conch still glimmered by the chief’s seat. He gazed for a moment or two, then went back to Piggy. ‘They didn’t take the conch.’ ‘I know, they didn’t come for the conch…’” (Golding, 194). The boys instead come for Piggy’s glasses, the one thing that could create all important fire. They are concerned with the physical necessity of fire, not the abstract ideal of rules and order. The shell is no longer important to the boys because it is the agent of old social order. The boys are no longer part of that society, therefore, the symbols and rituals of that order mean nothing to them. They have become part of a

different society. In contrast to Riley’s suggestion, the boys aren’t responding to an irrational urge for destruction, they are responding to the “rational” urge of society to find and place blame somewhere and in doing so, create a connection that will hold the group together. Both the emotional hatred of the scape goat and the physical attempt to expel it are something shared by all members of the society. “If a movement must have its Rome, it must also have its devil…the symbol of a common enemy…Men who can unite on nothing else can unite the basis of a foe shared by all.”(Burke, 96). Though the boys are all different ages, in different grades, and have different life experiences, they can all understand hatred and they can all chase the perceived reason for

their troubles. Further evidence of this is found in Girard’s writing, “Men feel powerless when confronted with the eclipse of culture; they are disconcerted by the immensity of the disaster but never look into the natural causes…Those who make up the crowd are always potential persecutors, for they dream of purging the community of the impure elements that corrupt it…..” (14) The boys aren’t responding to some base desire for savage violence, rather they are recognizing that this sacrificial violence is necessary to hold the community together. Scape goating is the foundation of the community. Without it, there would be no society. (class notes January 27, 2000) The boys are powerless in their situation. They don’t know what to do and there is dissent among the

boys, so they need a way to feel empowered and the way they can do that is by turning Ralph and Piggy into scapegoats. An argument found in many criticisms of the book is that a main focus of the novel is on the break down of society. What these critics fail to notice however, is that the British order and ideal the boys were raised with is not the only form of society. “The breakdown of society happened when everyone started to let their duties go undone. It all started when the choir, “the hunters”, would start to go hunting all the time and the fire was just left and it went out. Instead of the huts being built everyone would go and play or swim. The breakdown of society is the neglecting of responsibilities.” (See) However, Girard writes, “No matter what

circumstances trigger great collective persecutions, the experience of those who live through them is the same. The strongest impression is without question an extreme loss of social order evidenced by the disappearance of the rules and ‘differences’ that define cultural divisions.” (12). So in a society of collective persecution, old rules must first be broken. When they are, it appears to those who adhere to them that chaos is insuing. What is actually happening is an essential part of the formation of a new community. The formal rules of England aren’t effective out in the wild and so the boys need to adopt rules to better suit them. Roger is seen breaking the tradition rules by throwing stones. “Roger gathered a handful of stones and began to throw them Roger’s

arm was conditioned by a civilization that knew nothing of him and was in ruins” (Golding, 67). That society is no longer useful, therefore it has fallen apart so that a new society with more relevant rules may be created. Initially, Jack is too anxious to kill a pig because it is against the norms and rules of his society. However, while the rules against any forms of violence may have had their place at home, they are of no use to the boys and will actually hinder them. How are they to eat if they don’t kill? Vegetation will only sustain such a large group of boys for so long. Also, there is the threat of poisonous plants. While the boys are familiar with meat and with cooking, they aren’t familiar with exotic plants. Therefore it is also safer for them to rely on meat