The Lord of Flies, by William Golding Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Lord of Flies, by William Golding - Essay Example Through this conflict between good and evil, and civilization and savagery the novel moves on from one step to other till it reaches the end. Lord of the Flies, being an allegorical novel, puts forward his main ideas and themes through symbols. Throughout the novel Golding uses his characters and objects symbolically. The conflict between civilization and savagery is handled by showing the conflict between his two main characters Ralph and Jack. In the novel, Ralph is a protagonist and is the symbol of governance and order. On the other hand, Jack is the Antagonist representing violence, savagery and has thirst of exercising power. In the novel, the writer shows the way people are influenced by these instincts of civilization and savagery to different levels. As for example Piggy is extremely peaceful and does not possess any instinct of savagery but on the other hand, Roger is unable to understand civilization and its rules. For Golding the instinct of savagery is more primitive and central in humans as compared to the instinct of civilization. Golding infers that if humans are left to make their own decisions, the behaviours of cruelty, savagery and violence is mostly shown by them. In the whole novel, the only character who shows natural and innate goodness is only Simon. In Ring of Gyges, Plato by narrating the story of Ring of Gyges raises the question that if one has no fear to be caught then why should one be moral? His character Glaucon through arguments shows that the person who is unfair is better-off as compared to the person who is fair. Apparently there does not appear any disproof of Gyge’s arguments. But on the other hand there are also strong reasons to believe that a person who is truly moral will behave morally in most of the circumstances and even if he is gifted the power of the ring. Philosophers since ages have been debating on the origin of human