Uncivilized, barbarous, fierce these are some synonyms for the word savage. It is apparent throughout history that people are not born savages, they transform into them. The belief that savagery finds someone is clear as crystal in William Golding's Lord of the Flies. William Golding wrote Lord of the Flies after being in World War 2; perhaps this is the anecdote or the explanation of how someone can become a savage. Golding's book illustrates the remarkable realities that face someone stranded on an island. A group of boys stuck on an island fight to survive while turning into entirely different people than they were. One boy in particular drastically changes into someone he wasn't before. William Golding incorporates civilization vs. savagery, through Jack, to prove that when boys are left alone on an island to survive, they're killer instincts will subdue them in order to survive.
To start, Jack was choir boy who never imagined that he would kill for survival or pleasure. To start with, at first sight it seems that Jack is not more than a church attending kid who is highly civilized and well behaved. The first picture of Jack and his followers makes us believe that they are all religious, well mannered kids. "The creature was a party of boys marching in two parallel lines their bodies, from throat to ankle were hidden by black cloaks which bore long silver cross on the left breast the boy who controlled them was dressed the same way though his cap badge was golden " (19). Jack is shown to readers as he is unchanged. He is a boy who is used to the formalities of life and has yet to touch the water of what he must do to survive. The quote sets the foundation showing what Jack was and the disparity between the good and evil in him. Also, Jack wants to go hunt a pig and when he has the opportunity he wimps out and doesn't go through with it. Jack has convinced the boys that they must hunt meat to survive.