Lord of the Flies - From Civilization to Savagery (#1) Throughout The Lord of the Flies, there is a transition in the

characters in the story from civilization to savagery. The process is slow at first, but towards chapters 8-10, the transition speed picks up more rapidly. They start from being a civilized, rational group of people with a clear goal, to a brutal, mindless tribe of malevolent savages, and here I shall explain the process. The first time that Ralph blows the conch is the dawn of the boys civilization. The children gather upon the sound of the trumpet call, and Ralf is elected chief. This is the pinnacle of civilization, as at this point everyone responds to the call whenever it is sounded, and everyone is unified by the clear goal of being rescued. One of the main ways that the savagery begins is through the hunting. Jack, after his first hunt, stabs his knife into a tree; vividly describing how he would kill the pig, although at this point lacks the will to do it. Later, as Jack goes on more hunting trips, his desire for blood and meat become stronger, and he and his hunters kill their first pig by sort of dog piling their kill, stabbing and slashing it wherever they can. Even on another hunt when Ralph, the civilized one, comes along, he too fells the exhilaration of hunting and killing, and he likes it. Two times the attempt to reach civilization is abandoned by the hunters. First, the building of the huts is abandoned by the hunters. After, the hunters were supposed to keep the signal fire up. However, as a chance of rescue passes by, Ralph sees no one by the fire, but instead hears chants of Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood. Jack and his hunters abandoned rescue for blood. However, at this point Jack is sorry about it, and has not completely abandoned rescue. This quickly changes, and by the eighth chapter, the hunters split from the rest of the group, abandon all attempts at rescue, and begin leaving gory offerings for an imaginary beast. In chapter nine, the hunters murder Simon, mistaking him for the beast. As soon as they see him they leapt onto the beast, screamed, struck, bit, and tore. Jack justifies these actions by saying that he deserved it, coming out of the woods like that. The other way to see the decreasing level of civilization is the boys appearance. Upon first sight of the children, they are all in their neat school uniforms with trimmed hair. Ralph is the first one to ditch his shirt. The others soon follow. As time passes on, the boys are barely wearing shorts, as they have become worn, ripped, and tattered. Their hair grows longer and longer, until it starts to get in the way of their sight. On page 66, chapter four, Jack paints his face, and the painted mask changes Jack. His laughter changes into a bloodthirsty snarling. He was liberated from shame and selfconsciousness. Soon, all of the hunters had painted faces. The paint masks are one of the main appearances that change the boys into savages.
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These are some of the changes that mark the boys transition from civilization to savagery. They all became a bit more savage, some more than others. The choir boys changed from having the voices of angels into demons with spears. Ralph does not change as much as Jack, but he becomes more savage all the same. There are more ways in which they became savage, such as the change in diet from fruit to meat, but I wont cover them. Have a grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat day.