Savagery In Lord Of The Flies Quote Analysis

Revealing the Beast Within Jack “There is a savage beast in every man, and when you hand that man a sword or spear and send him forth to war, the beast stirs.” George R.R. Martin. This quote applies to William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, in which a group of British boys find themselves on an island after their plane crashes. All seems fine but this “adult free” situation soon backfires when the boys find themselves struggling to get along and survive not from the island but from each other. They all become savage beasts and this unfortunately leads to the death of two boys, Simon and Piggy. Of course there is someone to blame whether it’s the leader of the group or all of them, someone is guilty and part of leadership is taking responsibility …show more content…
To begin with, Jack is responsible for Simon’s death for various reasons. One reason Jack is guilty for Simons death is because he was jealous of Ralphs position as chief. In the beginning of the story, the boys voted Ralph to be the leader. Because Jack wanted to be the leader, he became jealous. Not only was he jealous but he was determined to prove that he could be just as good a chief as Ralph by hunting. While the boys are discussing who’ll take what role on the island Jack states, “‘We’ll get food,’ […] ‘Hunt. Catch things’” (Golding 30). Jack says this to show that he can also control something and that’s exactly what he does. After hunting he was discussing with Ralph how it had gone, “The madness went into his eyes again. ‘I thought I might kill […] But I shall! Next time! I’ve got to get a barb on this spear!’” (Golding 51). From this quote, one can conclude that Jack is determined to kill. The main reason behind this however, is not because he wants to stay alive with the meat, of course he wants that but more …show more content…
For instance, Ralph could be blamed for Simon’s death because as the chief, he didn’t step in to stop the killing, instead he participated. Right before Simon stumbled into the center of Jack’s ring of savages, “Piggy and Ralph under the threat of the sky, found themselves eager to take a place in this demented but partly secure society. They were glad to touch the brown backs of the fence that hemmed in the terror and made it governable” (Golding 152). In this passage the author is describing how Ralph and Piggy although were aware of what was going on joined in because it seemed more comforting than everything else around them. Granted that Ralph should be in control of everything, he let the group of savages kill Simon and even joined in for the “fun.” He might also be held accountable for Piggy’s death because at castle rock, he was arguing with Jack and he was physically fighting with him even though that’s not what he went to do. He lost his temper and that led to the boys fighting, “He charged, Jack knowing this was the crisis, charged too, they met with a jolt and bounced apart” (Golding 179). This shows that as chief, Ralph wasn’t acting very responsible nor was he thinking of his actions. This caused Piggy to step in and make a point, “‘Which is better, law and rescue, or hunting and breaking things up?’” (Golding 180). As a result of Ralph and

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