Lord Of The Flies Environment Quotes

Words: 843
Pages: 4

Victoria Garcia
Mrs. Curley
English 10 Honors
13 May 2017

How does the environment impact human behavior? A person’s fundamental character is developed; it is not something they are born with. Environmental factors help shape the person that one ultimately becomes. An individual can also change based on exposure to harsh circumstances and how one interacts with the conditions of their environment. The novel, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, explores the dark side of humanity, and the savagery that it is within even the youngest, innocent and most civilized human beings. A group of young boys ranging from the ages of seven to eleven are suddenly stranded on an island due to a plane crash with no surviving adults. The boys do not arrive
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Towards the beginning of the novel, Simon mentions his hunger which causes “the others to become aware of theirs” (Golding 30). A few boys, including Ralph and Jack, search the island to find a source of food and in the middle of a “thick forest” the boys find a piglet “caught in a curtain of creepers” (Golding 31). The boys rush towards the frightened piglet and Jack draws his knife, ready to kill the pig, but stops. The pause was “long enough for them to understand what an enormity the downward stroke would be” (Golding 31). Jack’s pause displays his innocence because although the boys were hungry Jack is not able to build up the courage to kill the piglet. However, Jack does indicate that there will be a “next time”. And indeed there is a next time which is more violent and displays the beginning stages of savagery within the boys, especially Jack. In chapter 8, Jack and his tribe are looking for food, once again, and locate a field full of pigs but Jack sets his sight on the “largest sow of the lot” whose belly was “fringed with a row of piglets” (Golding 134). Without hesitation Jack not only manages to kill the large sow but also one of her piglets. This time around Jack is more savage like, because without hesitation Jack viciously stabs and cuts the sow’s throat and proceeds “paunching” her. The boys are losing their civility and in response to environmental factors like hunger, they are becoming savages. Some may argue that