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Josh Williams December 16, 2012 Ms. Martinez/English Per. 3 In what form does human savagery exist today? I think to find this answer; we first need to know what exactly savagery is. The definition for savagery is an uncivilized or barbaric state or condition; barbarity; savage action, nature, disposition, or behavior. I believe there are many forms that savagery can be in someone. Their personalities, behavior, and even looks can all be savage. We found examples of this in the book, Lord of the Flies, when Jack starts wearing face paint and acting more tribal. Jack and his hunters start chanting, almost like a ritual, Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Bash her in.(75) Jack and his hunters were acting like tribal Native Americans, not innocent little kids. This also connects to Goldings beliefs that everyone is naturally savage. I think the reason Golding uses little kids to show his beliefs are that they are innocent and pure. When they first land on the island, you couldnt imagine these little kids to be chanting after they kill a pig. But now, they have turned into these little monsters, killing everything that comes into sight. They even killed their own people, Simon and Piggy. But thats just a book, that doesnt happen in real life, right? Well in London, on July 7th, 2005 there were four suicide bombers that killed 52 people on a metro train. The city of London later read the names of the unfortunate civilians and gave them each a minute of silence. A man named Hugo Keith QC, counsel to the inquests, said this about the bombings. "They detonated among the innocent and the unknowing, indiscriminately killing and maiming passengers who were simply going about their daily business. The bombs struck down men and women, the old and young, British nationals as well as foreigners. They

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had no regard to whether the victim was Christian, Muslim, a follower of any of our other great faiths, an adherent to none. The bombers didnt care who they killed, just as long as they killed someone. These bombers were exactly like the kids in the book. They were ruthless, cruel, and stopped at nothing to get there kill. That sounds just like Jack when he goes hunting for pigs. Another example of savagery is in 1944, in a camp called Auschwitz. It was a German facility where they sent the Jews to be thrown into gas chambers and killed by the millions. A survivor of the camp, Abraham Kolski said this about the trains leading to the camp. I'm not sure how many were in each wagon -- around 200 I think,'' He said. ``We were shut in for five days and nights without food and water, and of course we were not allowed out for toilet. The Germans locked people like Abraham in these trains where half of the 200 hundred on the train would die to either starvation, dehydration, or crushed to death. People like Abraham died because of one man crazed vision of a perfect world. People like this are prime examples of Goldings theory that every human is naturally savage. But I think man also has another natural instinct, empathy. This curbs the savage in us and makes us care about what happens to one another. This is also why rules and regulations can be important to a society; we must keep the savage within at bay. But all too often someone with these over powering savage tendencies slips through the system and causes havoc among those of us just trying to good, caring citizens; taking lives they have no right to take. I feel Golding wanted to show the worst that man can be and using the young to represent this evil makes it even more unnerving.

Williams 3 Work Cited Books: Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. The Penguin Group. November 2003

Electronic Databases: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/savagery?s=t http://web.ebscohost.com/src/detail?vid=9&hid=106&sid=f0bae686-02e2-4235-a7e74056cba08440%40sessionmgr11&bdata=JnNpdGU9c3JjLWxpdmU%3d#db=nfh&AN=54352183 http://web.ebscohost.com/src/detail?vid=10&hid=19&sid=f0bae686-02e2-4235-a7e74056cba08440%40sessionmgr11&bdata=JnNpdGU9c3JjLWxpdmU%3d#db=nfh&AN=2005012310301667 31 http://web.ebscohost.com/src/detail?vid=10&hid=108&sid=f0bae686-02e2-4235-a7e74056cba08440%40sessionmgr11&bdata=JnNpdGU9c3JjLWxpdmU%3d#db=nfh&AN=54352183