What is Golding telling us about society in Lord of the Flies? William Golding is trying to show savagery through the children in this novel

Authors Avatar
Lord of the Flies

What is Golding telling us about society in Lord of the Flies?

William Golding is trying to show savagery through the children in this novel. He is telling us that anybody could have a savage side to themselves and it is how you control the savagery in yourself.

In the first few chapters, the first point made is that there is a sense of normality and civility in the beginning that is occurring.

Firstly the boys make one of the first rules which is to call assemblies with the conch and whoever is holding the conch can speak without interruption, 'We can use this to call the others. Have a meeting. They'll come when they hear us'. This shows that Piggy's thinking will lead to rules they will be setting and it shows a sense of order, early on in this novel.

With the conch in the hands of Ralph, he calls an assembly, and a leader is chosen which is Ralph. This again shows order and civility. This shows that the boys can organise themselves and they are capable in peace.

Later on in the novel they decide they have to get a fire going in order to be seen so they could be rescued. This is organisation as this shows:- 'His specs - use them as burning glasses'. This soon turns into tragedy as they lose a boy in the fire, 'The boys looked at each other fearfully, unbelieving. - where is he now?'
Join now!


In chapter four, things start to go wrong, firstly little things. Roger was throwing sand, kicking sand, and throwing stones at Henry were examples of this.

In chapter five, the civility is slowly decreasing as no one is letting the person holding the conch speak. The rules set were being broken. The little ones were crying and the boys let the fire out. Ralph says, 'We decide thing but they never get done'. This shows that they are not sticking to their rules and keep breaking them. Towards the end of chapter five, Ralph has had enough ...

This is a preview of the whole essay