The Lord of the Flies, authored by William Golding, is a testament to the overwhelmingly destructive nature of mankind. Man's society is one of a strange dichotomy; it aspires to be a society of love and caring, of good, but always seems to turn selfish, destructive and evil. Golding's message is that man's society is a failure not because of its structure, but because of the collective faults of those who make up the society. A society is only as good as the people in it, and those people aren't always very nice.
The downfall of a society can always be traced right back to the society's birth; you can see the little cracks and faults that will eventually rot and decay until the society implodes right from the beginning. On the island in The Lord of the Flies, like in the real world, society is forged with the noblest of intentions. It begins here with Ralph and Piggy wanting to preserve the order of the old life. While swimming in the lagoon, Ralph spots a valuable conch shell, and piggy responds, saying, "We can use this to call the others. Have a meeting. They'll come when they hear us "." Ralph agrees and the first meeting is held. First things first, they need a leader. Both Ralph and Jack, the personification of human evil in the novel, both want to lead. An election is held and Ralph wins, because everyone aspires to be good. Jack accepts it for now, and Ralph underestimates the difficulty of leading a civilization, saying, "This is our island. It's a good island. Until the grown-ups come to fetch us we'll have fun." He does realize, however the necessity of organization if the hope to be rescued. "There's another thing. We can help them to find us. If a ship comes near the island they may not notice us. So we must make smoke on top of the mountain. We must make a fire," he reminds them. They all agree to the necessity of keeping a fire, but things are easier said than done.
