The Nature Of Man In Lord Of — страница 2

occurs along with the disintegration of his identity. With the use of masks to cover their identities, the boys were literally liberated from the confines of civilisation and were able to kill and later murder. “He began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling. He capered towards Bill, and the mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness”. The boys’ rapid transformation to savagery and inhumanity is mirrored in the series of brutal events that followed – the killing of the sow projected the mass hysteria and the infectious brutality that captivated all the boys with the exception of Ralph, Piggy and Simon. The tribe loses all its features of civilisation and the savagery in the boys had almost reached its

zenith during the killing of the sow, however, the pinnacle is without a question the brutal murder of Simon and Piggy, followed by the subsequent hunt for Ralph. In the increasingly more degenerate society of the boys, the intellectual is lowered to the status of the beast. The barbaric and primal instincts of human nature reached its apogee in the murder of Piggy – executed in cool detachment by Roger. “The storm of sound beat at them (Piggy and Ralph), an incantation of hatred. High overhead, Roger, with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever”. Roger killed Piggy with indifference, coolly, casually, for he no longer has civilisation to fear repercussions from. This act of savagery is quickly followed Jack leading a preliminary attack against

Ralph – “Viciously, with full intention, he (Jack) hurled his spear at Ralph”. When the confusion finally leads to a manhunt for Ralph, we see that despite the strong sense of British character and civility that has been instilled in the youths throughout their lives, the boys have backpedaled in the absence of morality and orders, to show the underlying savage side existent in all humans. “‘They hate you, Ralph. They’re going to do you.’ ‘and we’ve got to be careful and throw our spears like at a pig’ ‘we’re going to spread out in a line across the island, we’re going to forward from this end until we find you.’ “. The methodical method in which Jack displayed his planning shows how cold and distant his mind has gone from the beginning of the novel.

The hunt of Ralph is the most savage act of all because it was planned. It was systematically thought out and planned by the savages. Bearing in mind that Ralph was once elected chief over the boys makes the hunt seem all the more savage and inhumane as the boys planned to kill someone who they once considered as a peer. The boys in Lord of the Flies start in peace and end in hatred and murder. With the exception of Ralph and Piggy, the boys completely abandon reason, civilisation and the thought of rescue. They fight the harmless ‘beast’ that terrifies them, not knowing that something so much more fearful, deadly and destructive lies within themselves. Being human, they have a capacity for evil inside of their soul that is immeasurable and destructive. They never realise

this and continue to break their ‘morals’, which were simply superficial rules of society that were fed to them unwillingly. They act upon these morals despite their own thoughts and emotions. The latter is the definition of civilisation. As it wears away layer after layer in Lord of the Flies, the true human soul is bared, naked and fearless.