From Anarchy to Savagery: Jack and the Presence of Evil in Golding’s Lord of the Flies

Abstract

William Golding’s Lord of the Flies (1954), demonstrates a dark exposure of human behavior by analyzing the erosion of social order among boys left to survive on a deserted island.  While existing scholarship often highlights narrative progression and ethical lessons, this article addresses Golding’s depiction of cruelty as an organizing and ideological force within the story. The novel illustrates the loss of childhood and innocence and the rise of innate evil, demonstrated through brutal murders of Simon and Piggy, and Jack’s compulsive quest for dominance. These events are analyzed through post-war disillusionment, political allegory, psycho-social insights, disclosing the fusion of external turmoil and internal impulses in cultivating savagery. Jack and his faction of boys embody the essence of evil and savagery, while Ralph, Piggy, and Simon endeavor to sustain rationality, ethical conduct, and collective norms. By examining the continuous presence of violence, Golding reflects his perspective about human nature and the fragility of civilization. Ultimately, the article stresses Golding’s portrayal of the evil residing within human minds and hearts, highlighting the disastrous outcomes of unchecked power and savagery. This study additionally extends scope of broader future inquiry, particularly through interdisciplinary analyses of corresponding thematic resonances across dystopian narratives, advancing psychoanalytic, cross-cultural, and postcolonial discourses.

IUBAT Review—A Multidisciplinary Academic Journal, 9(1): 86-100