Introduction

As I read the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, I began to form an understanding not only about why this novel is a classic, but about the human condition. Golding plunged me deep into the dark truth of human savagery and deception, leaving me gasping for air and some hopeful release. But there is no release. What begins as a stranded group of British boys creating their own democracy as a remnant of their past lives turns into an autocratic society as leaders shift and new alliances form. The boys are given different classes, dividing the "biguns" from the "littluns", but soon their ranks are divided even further between hunting and rescue. As loyalties break and their fragile society crumbles, the boys are left without rules for building blocks and common sense for mortar. In the end their wall cracks and comes crashing down as Jack and Ralph compete for authority and power. Though Jack turns to complete savagery that leaves any human paralysed in shame, Ralph retains some sense and hope for rescue with the confidence and intelligence of Piggy. When faced with the beast, the boys must also face fear, one of the biggest obstacles of all their hurdles in the novel. Yet, perhaps the biggest obstacle is not fear, but the ability to remain humane. When faced with savagery, fear, pain, deception, treachery and death, perhaps the hardest thing these Lost Boys have to face is remaining humane. They did not succeed. Those that lived did not succeed, and this is the horrid truth of Golding's novel.
So, if something so innocent as a child can resort to such savagery, can we in our modern age do the same? Is their anything left that is innocent in this world? Is there a monster lurking inside all of us, just waiting to break free of the wall and ruin our innocence; ruin our humanity? This notion I am trying to understand about the human condition; this novel by William Golding I am trying to comprehend is just the beginning to a deeper and darker truth Golding exposed to me. Golding reveals that this inhumanity that crawls like small creepers in the once innocent boys of The Lord of the Flies could be in all of us; are we the beast? My mission is to find out.