The Lord Of The Flies Destruction Of — страница 4

readers see no signs of a veer from the boys’ self-destructive course” (Jones). The boys, however, are in the act of preserving the group, not self-destructing. “The young boys’ barbaric primal instincts come to their apogee during the killing of Piggy, and the hunt for Ralph. These events represent the culmination of the destruction of civilization in the face of savagery because these events are the most primitive in the whole novel… Roger kills Piggy with no regard to anything, for he has no civilization to fear repercussions from….The hunt of Ralph is the most savage act on the island because it was planned… Ralph was at one time liked by all the boys, which makes the hunt even more savage. “(Wheaton). Piggy and Ralph both must be hated and killed in order for

the new community to thrive. They both oppose the new order created by the boys and therefore they posed a threat to the community If there was no curb to the violence, the community would fall apart. Yes, the boys are violent, but their violence is however geared towards Ralph and Piggy, two boys who threaten the existing community. If the children truly exhibited savage violence, they would turn on each other and all would be destroyed. Instead, they do what is necessary and direct their energy towards only two of the boys. This limits the violence. These scape goats spare the rest of the community from the anger and violence. This also controls any further possible violence by creating a sense of unity among the boys. They are joined together by their common hatred and the

collective goal to kill Ralph therefore saving the community from internal violence. The planned hunt for Ralph doesn’t prove that the boys are savage, it proves that the chase is needed. The boys have to focus their energy on him to prevent internal disorder. Mankind is inclined to blame those they once worshipped. It may not be the ideal situation for people living under more “civilized” standards, but for these boys in the wild, it is absolutely necessary. (class notes February 1 and 3, 2000). The theory that the novel as a commentary on scape goating is further substantiated by both the era it was written in and the life experiences of the author. “…it is worth just remembering that this book, published in 1954, was written in a world…which had seen within twenty

years the systematic destruction of the Jewish race, a world war revealing unnumbered atrocities of what man had done to man.” (Gregor). Yet W.W.II, like the killings on the island, was not fueled by individuals, but by the community. Hitler used the scape goating of the Jews to join together the Nazis the same way Jack used the contempt for Ralph and Piggy to band his boys together. “As a whole, and at all times, the efficiency of the truly national leader consists primarily in preventing the division of the attention of a people, and always in concentrating it on a single enemy…” (Hitler quoted in Burke, 97). Is this not what Jack does? He gathers together the boys to punish their enemies who are both different and preventing them from total control. Jack and Adolph

Hitler have more in common. “So Hitler suffering under the alienation of poverty and confusion, yearning for some integrative core, came to take parliament as the basic symbol of all that he would move away from.” (Burke 102). Jack, too rebels against his parliament when he refuses to adhere to the traditional rules of society. As Hitler suffered, so too does Jack. Jack is cheated of his rightful position of power. Ralph should never have been voted to power. He was not the strongest and any wisdom he had came not from himself, but from Piggy. It was only because he held the object that represented authority that he was voted chief and therefore the position was taken from Jack. Not only does Jack ignore the conch, the symbol of those regulations, but he also completely

destroy it. He completely turns against the old ideals and becomes immersed in the new ones. Golding served in the War in the Royal Navy for five year. He participated in both the Walcheren and D-Day operations. (Epstein 237) “After serving in W.W.II he realized…that people are capable of amazing evil when they are not held accountable (i.e. Hitler and the Nazis)… It’s a warning that man without accountability is innately evil.” (Cleve, Golding’s Inspiration). However, this interpretation, in the traditional fashion, focuses on the individual rather than society. It was not that the people weren’t held accountable that allowed them to commit such crimes, but rather that these crimes were seen as sacrifices necessary to secure the position of the community. In his