“A fire! Make a fire!’
At once half the boys were on their feet. Jack clamoured among them, the conch forgotten.
‘Come on! Follow me!”
So we can see the boys’ immediate desire to bend rules and make the most of the absence of adults. We can see the first disobedience to the rule of the conch and the civilisation it stands for. On Page 37 we can see this desire to be mischievous in the absence of control and order. When they find a huge rock that is teetering on a cliff edge;
“The great rock loitered, paused on one toe, …. , and smashed a deep hole in the canopy of the forest.”
From this we can see how the boys enjoy the power they feel through creating turmoil and this shows how their instinctive feelings can influence them.
On Page 29 Jack gets his first taste of a “hunt” but the taboo of spilling the pig’s blood is too great and he can not find the willpower to kill;
“They knew very well why he hadn’t: because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting in to living flesh”
However this encounter only seems to spur on Jack’s killing instinct and we can see that this will promote his willingness to kill in the future.
At the start of chapter three we can see Jack already descending from his schoolboy, civilised state when he is associated with the image of an animal while on a hunt;
“Then dog like, uncomfortably on all fours.”
So he now is transforming into a more basic and instinctive creature in order to improve his capacity for hunting. Then on Page 51 we can see Ralph’s first despair at the poor concentration of the children at meetings;
“Meetings. Don’t we love meetings? Every day. Twice a day. We talk.”
From this and the use of short sentences for emphasis we can see the already growing annoyance of Ralph towards the instinctive and impulsive nature of the children when they would rather go and play than add to the system which Ralph is trying to create.
We can see the decline of civilisation through some physical indicators represented by the boys. For instance throughout the novel the amount of clothes which the boys are wearing have strong representations as to the level of civilization. As soon as Ralph lands on the island he feels the need to smarten himself when his clothes are messed up. For instance he pulls up his socks on impulse, which shows the influence of society;
“The fair boy stopped and jerked his stockings up with an automatic gesture.”
This shows how Ralph is totally familiarised with the customs of school and civilisation. However further on in the novel we can see as the boys’ clothes deteriorate so does their level of civilisation. For instance on Page 120 it describes the poor state of Ralph’s clothes;
“Clothes, worn away, stiff like his own with sweat, put on, not for decorum or comfort but out of custom”
So although his clothes are in a bad way, he still feels the need to wear them as at this stage in the novel he is desperately to hang on to leadership and civilisation. However Jack, the representation of instinct loses his clothes faster and on Page 154 this is described;
“Stark naked save for paint and a belt, was Jack.”
Therefore Jack now only wears the necessities he needs for hunting and does not feel the need to wear clothes out of custom.
A further indicator of the decline of the boys into savagery is the way in which taboos of old slowly break down and become powerless as the boys gain confidence and lose civilisation as they become more instinctive. For instance on pages 64-65, Roger can be seen to aim to miss rather than actually bring himself to throw a stone at a child;
“Yet there was a space around Henry, perhaps six yards in diameter, into which he dare not throw. Here, invisible yet strong, was the taboo of the old life.”
Here we can see how even Roger, who later on in the novel becomes the greatest evil, is bound by the invisible restraints of a civilised society. So then we can see the change from this to the actual killing of their first pig when they are actually working as hunters;
“Look! We’ve killed a pig – we stole up on them – we got in a circle”
Now that they have killed a pig, Jack’s confidence is greatly boosted and also now that they have killed, the cause of hedonism and hunting is suddenly procured as an alternative to the society that Ralph is trying to create. For instance on page 200 this contrast is aptly summed up in a sentence;
“Which is better, law and rescue, or hunting and breaking things up?”
So then after the first kill, more, unplanned killings are made which potentially jeopardise their supply of pigs. This is because in their unthoughtful bout of hunting, they kill the main largest sow, while she is pregnant. This shows the poor lack of planning that they develop while becoming more instinctive and less civilised.
Then on page 168 we can see how the frenzy created through Jack’s primitive hunting chant, blinds the boys and therefore they mistake Simon for being the beast and so they kill him accidentally;
“The beast was on its knees in the centre, its arms folded over its face.”
This point is a large milestone in the degeneration of the ‘tribe’ as they now feel that they have the power to take life and this gives them more reason to decline further into savagery.
Then as a final hurdle in the decline we can see a new figure of evil, Roger, wielding a new, stronger power, which is the willing to kill in cold blood;
“Roger, with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever.”
He is consciously prepared to launch this rock at Piggy, knowing that I would most likely kill him. Therefore we can see Roger as this new figure with a greater power than Jack;
“Roger advanced upon them as one wielding a nameless authority.”
“The Hangman’s horror clung to him.”
We can observe the furthest stages of degeneration and Roger shows a complete loss of respect for civilisation, he even destroys the symbols of reason when Piggy and the Conch are destroyed through his cold blooded actions.
Then in the final chapter of the book we see a horrifying prospect offered by Roger when they are about to hunt Ralph which indicates that the regression is still progressing further;
“Roger sharpened a stick at both ends.”
Firstly they now seemed to be openly prepared to hunt and kill a human being. However from this quote we can see that Roger is implying that once Ralph has been caught his head should be placed on top of a stick in the ground as a sacrifice to the beast which, in the minds of the hunters, becomes a God. It also implies the act of cannibalism, which would symbolise the total collapse of any thought and the total control by impulse and instinct.
Further in this chapter the tribe use fire, formerly a symbol of rescue, as a weapon in the hunt for Ralph. This shows how the side of instinct has totally won this battle against reason as it has, by this stage, destroyed Piggy, Simon and the conch and stolen the main promoter of the side of reason, fire.
