It is believed that civilization is that all human beings have the instinct to live by rule, follow moral commands and act peacefully and rationally, and believe in scientific. On the contrast, the savagery means people act violently and irrationally, and enforce others’ wills. The writer represents the conflicts between civilization and savagery in the conflict between this novel’s two main characters, namely, Ralph, Piggy and Simon, who represent rational, order and civilization, and Jack who represents savagery and irrational.
At the beginning of this novel, almost all the children on the island remain civilization and obey the rules. The conch, a symbol of the civilization and order, could effectively govern the boys’ meetings and whoever holds it had the right to speak. To some extent, the conch is a vessel of political legitimacy and democratic power. Another important symbol in this novel is the fire. As the fire can help these boys get rescued and go back to the society, it is the connection between the savagery and civilization.
As the story progresses, the savagery becomes more apparent when Jack became obsessed with the thought of killing the pigs and painted his face to camouflage in the jungle. As Jack was a powerful and strong boy, his actions influenced other boys, although Ralph was very civilly oriented, he still managed to get involved in the thrill of the hunt when boys were chasing after a pig. This scene reflects that no matter how strong human beings’ instinct toward civilization has an underlying nature of savagery, which could be seen when they behind some masks.
Beside of hunting pigs, the beast on the island that frightens all the boys stands for the primal instinct of savagery that exists within human being. At the end of the novel, only Simon found out that the beast existed within each of them, the actual beast was themselves, was