Violent youth
Violent youthThroughout history, mankind has always had a sick sense of violence and a thirst for blood dating from the Romans and their gladiator fights to Hitler and his guile regime. Both of theses cultures started of with good ideas and left many innovations, but in their advancements in technologies and civics the society they built collapsed beneath them because of their own hunger for evil. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies the montage of a morbid blood thirst and a violent society become a mixing pot for a great evil which is evident in the degeneration of the boys. The erosion of these lost boys does not take place over night, but over the course of weeks and months. This collapse of the boys not only consumes all portion of civilization in them but it also takes away all of their natural innocence and goodness, leaving them as savages.
As all failed attempts do, the boys start off with a good idea: unification for the preservation of civilization. The boys know they need a government, one they can trust and one that will unify them who is speaking? Jack stated that “ ‘ We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we’re not savages. We’re English, and the English are best at everything. So we’ve got to do the right things ’” (Golding 42). The group not only knows its need for leadership, but it also possesses a basic sense of right and wrong. This basic instinct even shows up in Jack’s inert ability to kill the first pig. “ They knew very well why he hadn’t (killed the pig) the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood ” (Golding 31). The boys not only have a sense of right and wrong and a democratic government, but they also have a symbol for law and order in the conch. Ralph sets the rules regarding the conch so everyone has the respect he deserves, and there won’t be chaos at the gatherings (Golding 33). They begin their own degeneration as normal citizens in a civilization, with basic values, thoughts, and institutions at the core.
The degeneration of the boys between the civilized young men who land on the island compared to the brute savages who are rescued from the island starts with a simple thirst for blood and violence, and a fear of the darkness, which lurks inside of them. The one of the first signs of any degeneration comes from the despicable murder of the pig sow and her piglets. This repulsive act demonstrates the group’s “…compulsion to track down and kill that was swallowing him (Jack) up” (Golding 51). Even though this statement is addressing Jack, the same attitudes soon spread to the rest of the community. There is...
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