We see this even in Jack, as he cannot kill the first pig they meet. At first they are able to use this sense, and keep their traditional standards also on the island. They cannot cross the invisible border between civilisation and savagery. As Jack was going to kill the pig, “…there came a pause. The pause was only long enough for them to realise what an enormity the downward stroke would be.”
The problem comes when the boys start realizing that there is no one there to control them. There are no adults there to make them toil and sweat if they do not want to. The boys realize that swimming and eating fruit all day is more fun, than laying the foundation for a fair and safe society where everybody works for the benefit of the whole group.
The main symbol that represents the law and order on the island is the conch shell. It is with this Ralph calls all the meetings and all of the other boys seem to respect this. Anyone who holds it has the right to be heard. Without this, nobody would probably ever have listened to any of Piggy’s intelligent suggestions. There would have been no fire, no shelters, no coconuts for drinking water and no assigned place for lavatory use.
As the respect for the conch disappears, so does the law and order on the island. Jack, from quite early on in the book, says things along the line of ‘The conch doesn’t count up here’ or ‘Bullocks to the rules!’. This hits rock bottom as Piggy is killed and the conch is crushed with him. There is no longer any respect for the rules left on the island.
Many things signal the downwards spiral of disorder: Leaving the fire unattended, which we are left to believe resulted in the death of a littl’un. Stealing and smashing Piggy’s glasses which are the symbol of wisdom and clear vision, “my specs… give me my specs”. They showed no consideration for piggy leaving him vulnerable and disabled without his glasses. Jack painting and masking his face, so he can dignify his actions and hide behind the shelter of an identity different to his own. Re-enacting the murders of the pigs on young boys – “Ow! Stop it! You’re hurting!” Jack had him by the hair and was brandishing a knife”. Killing a sow ‘sunk in deep maternal bliss… the great bladder of her belly fringed with a row of pig’. I think this is very significant because it shows how barbaric they really are, especially how they savage the sow afterwards showing no respect to its dignity and, I suppose, raping her shoving a spear horrendously ‘right up her ass’. They also re-enacting the murders of the pigs on young boys – “Ow! Stop it! You’re hurting!” Jack had him by the hair and was brandishing a knife” – but always go to far. By being able to kill the pigs they have lost innocence so that the line that once prevented roger from throwing stones at littl’uns no longer exists. The barrier which society provides is no longer withheld.
Jack leaves Ralph, the symbol of democracy, to find start his own band of savages (this is the point, where instead of children Goding actually refers to them as savages). These actions by Jack and some of the other boys would suggest that society is the only thing keeping man in line, and without society, man would return to his most primal state.
The most momentous occasions are the murder of Simon and Piggy. Murder is recognised in almost all cultures as the epitome of wrongdoing, so it is not only defying ‘British’ standards – it is defying society and culture altogether.
All things in this novel eventually develop into the opposite of what it once was. The boys order steadily declined as savagery took over and with that came chaos. The island itself becomes a prison after once being a paradise. I think that society simultaneously creates and suppresses the feelings and urges we like to associate with animals. Then, when put in an environment where society no longer exists, man would release what society had created, and become, in many ways, worse than animals. Mad, bad animals in fact. Golding simply, and skilfully, demonstrates the short deterioration from civilization to savagery that is inevitable in human nature.
