"Lord of the Flies": Dissolution of Civility and the Domination of Savagery

In "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding, the two main characters, Ralph and Jack, represent weaknesses of succumbing to darkness in order to emphasize man's inevitable fall into savagery. Golding demonstrates how man's innate savage nature unavoidably dominates all forms of civility and society, by exemplifying the faults of man in a concentrated setting such as the island. The novel is considered a fable or a parable because it includes an antagonist, a protagonist …

…from its game of hunt. Every man has the innate capacity for evil, as well as the capability to resist it with their own individual driving force, but the supremacy of human savagery will always prevail to degenerate societies of every dimension. Works Cited: Dick, F. Bernhard, William Golding," 121; excerpted and reprinted in Contemporary Literary Criticism, vol. 1, ed. Carolyn Riley (Detroit: The Gale Group, 1973). Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. Salisbury England: Faber and Faber, 1954