However, the characters of the boys do not just cause the breakdown of society; they also make other factors come into existence or emphasise existing ones both intentionally and unintentionally.
Ralph was so logical, that his insistence that there was no beast on the island led to the fear gripping the island, particularly the littluns. He was unable to offer any comfort, security or safety, because ironically his ‘pig-headed’ denial of the existence of the beast or the ‘snake-thing’, and his inability to give a reason for this belief, actually led to the creation of the beast better known as fear. The fear then became worse, when the boy with the mulberry coloured birthmark disappeared; although the boy is quickly forgotten, it was impossible for anything to offer comfort. The fear increased the sense of isolation, the feeling that they were unable to be aided, and the only way to defend themselves was with hunting. The fear directly allowed the downfall of society to take place, namely by introducing hunting which led to the final collapse of order, murder.
Piggy’s insistence of the continuation of society ultimately drives the boys further away from it. The lack of adults no longer matters to the boys, and they enjoy the freedom of no restraints from the adult world. Piggy’s longing for the end of isolation with the signal from the fire makes the boys uninterested in ending the loneliness, ending the ‘fun’ and juvenile activities on the island with it, and so they continue to hunt, furthering the breakdown of society.
Simon’s lack of all knowledge and sense, his intuition, and the knowledge of the awareness of good and evil, drives the other boys away from these taboos, since they would not want to be like Simon. Simon, although he never states his desire to go back to the realm of adults, is closer to Ralph and Piggy, the practical ones, who want to return back to civilisation. The other boys would not want to go back, and desert the fun they can experience on the island, and instead persecute Simon, with Ralph and Piggy. When they finally murder Simon, it is almost as if they are killing the very concept of good and evil, and all sensitivity (which would have otherwise prevented such a brutal death) dies with him.
Jack is the complete opposite of Ralph, in that Jack lives for today, not tomorrow, and would rather have fun instead of being prepared to be rescued. Jack’s emphasis on ‘fun’ leads to the majority of the boys forgetting their age, and even personal details. Since they no longer have an age, they can no longer be children, and must become hunters. Jack’s oratory abilities lead to him becoming and interim leader, and he makes no one else care about the lack of adults. The hunting of the ‘Beast’, and indeed, the very existence of one is due to Jack’s emphasis on ‘fun’. He caused the beast to be hunted for so violently; this made the situation worse.
The beast is supposedly non-existent, at least that is implied. William Golding was very subtle with the way he introduced the ‘beast’, since we do not find out exactly whether it exists or not; all we find out, thanks to his superb use of language, is that the boys do not discover such a beast. The beast may occur, however, we are never given a definitive answer as to whether that is the case or not. But the concept alone is enough to begin, if not finish, the collapse of society. The nature of the beast is one of the biggest questions for adults; not even the adults are sure as to whether it is real or not.
The first incident with the beast comes in the form of the ‘snake-thing’, as told by the littlun with the mulberry coloured birthmark. The littluns feel threatened by this beast, as they have proof neither for nor against its existence. They are unable to be consoled and offered support by the older children, since they are unable to convince themselves that this beast is imaginary. The beast personifies fear itself, I feel.
The fear gets even more out of control when the original reporter of the beast vanishes. This leads to the firm belief that the beast does exist. Even practical Piggy, who rebuts all claims of its existence, is unable to persuade the others that it is imaginary. All practicality vanishes, since the majority of the boys are not mature enough to care for the littluns, and it is against their nature. The only way they can combat their fear is by ‘hunting’ the beast. This starts the inevitable collapse of society with the slaughtering of pigs, partly for fun, but also for protection and food. Later the beast is used as a scapegoat for anything or anyone on the island that is against Jack’s beliefs, or purely to let Jack take control.
The beast haunts the island right until the very end, when the breakdown of society ends dramatically, with the presence of adults. But until then, Ralph is hunted as the beast, even though he is clearly not it. This is to do with the boys’ return to their primeval instincts, loss of all taboos, and their forgetting of all law and order. Piggy was the last voice of logic on the island; once he went, there was nothing left.
The beast is created partly by the boys’ immaturity, and partly by their inability to dismiss the fear of a creature that the voice of logic can easily forget until there is proof for its existence. Piggy, as the voice of logic in Lord of the Flies, does not believe in the beast, but when society breaks down, he gets sucked into the hunt and helps to murder Simon. Simon, who was only trying to disprove the theory of the beast once and for all, to save the others (if you perceive him as a Jesus figure), and to let them be rescued, is hunted and killed, because he is mistaken for the beast. This is due to the atmosphere of the island, involving the isolation from the adult world that has ruled them for so long.
The boys are alone on the island; with the lack of outside influenced, law and order is sure to break down. At first, civilisation remains string; the boys democratically elect a leader. The leader at first is Ralph, however you can argue the power switches hands over the course of the book. Jack demands control of the hunters: with no outside influence, the boys must self-govern. The boys use the system of the conch to keep law and order; Piggy holds onto this remnant of civilisation, ironically as if he almost knows that it will not last, and that he must hang on, even until his death.
With the lack of help from outside sources, the boys forget the original life they had, and live off fruit. So of course when Jack offers them meat, the boys jump on the opportunity. With no one to control them, organise them, or punish them (because they cannot imagine one of their fellows doing such a thing), the boys regress into ‘cavemen’. The isolation drags on, until very few people can remember their previous life, Piggy being one of them. Percival tries to hold onto his personal details, but as they are no longer valid in this situation, they begin to slip from his memory.
Once the fire goes out, their last escape from the isolation goes. With it, goes the last of the organisation of society. The hunters become more furious and atavistic; the other boys cannot see a point to the mundane practical tasks that are necessary if they are ever to return. They cannot even be prepared to build shelters, which they need to survive in the immediate aftermath of their arrival.
By the end, the isolation has taken its toll. The boys have murdered many, tried to kill others, have formed packs, and are completely stunned when some people appear to take them back to society. In a way, it was as much a lack of adults as it was of isolation that led to the collapse of society.
The adults played a very key part in the formations of these boys’ lives; they impressed upon them a sense of good and evil, especially on the choirboys. They all had set routines, rules, regulations and punishments which stayed with the boys for quite some time: it is difficult to lose all remnants of order so quickly.
Piggy’s auntie is referred to for quite some time, Piggy refuses to take part in a lot of activities at the start which would be considered fun by the other boys, and stays firm with his auntie’s rules. Piggy wants to keep all the features of adult democracy, and the conch proves how practical he is, how much he loves democracy. He tries to impress upon the other boys the importance of organisation. However, this does not occur with the others; they prefer ‘fun’ to practicality.
Roger wanted to throw sand at some ‘littluns’, but he remembered being scolded for doing the same thing in the past, so he refrains from hitting the boy with the sand and instead purposely misses. But later on, he has no qualms or guilt (as far as we are aware) from pushing the boulder that killed Piggy. He is ruthless, Jack’s little follower, and would do anything, since all the memories of the adult world are soon lost.
As long as the boys can remember the adult world, order prevails. Jack is the first one to forget, and then he starts to realise what this island has to offer them. He focuses on rashness and fun, rather than order, organisation and practicality. Once he had forgotten the adult world, he had no desire to return to it and follow all its rules and regulations. The others soon followed in his path.
The lack of adults is especially more important because of the isolation: with no adults, and no influences, it is inevitable that their society would break down. Yet, the very existence of the beast made the lack of adults even more influential, since children cannot convince each other to be logical, when they cannot even convince themselves. Perhaps if there were an adult presence of the island, the beast would have been dismissed. The shock we feel by the boys fighting with each other (because we cannot imagine boy fighting boy) is in itself ironic- the reason the boys are here on the island in the first place is due to the adults, the responsible figures, fighting.
However, it can be concluded that the collapse of society was directly due to the varying characters of the boys. There is no order when you mix such widely varying, and often clashing, personalities of boys. When you have differing personalities, the obvious result is that they will from groups, but no longer work together, not just to escape the island, but they are not even prepared to do so to remain civilised.