NON AFRICAN PROSE WILLIAM GOLDING: Lord Of The Flies Discuss the conflict of order and chaos in the novel.

Answer Details

In William Golding's Lord of the Flies, the central conflict is between order and chaos, between the impulse toward civilisation, reason and rule and the opposing impulse toward savagery, violence and anarchy. Golding dramatises this struggle through the boys stranded on the island and shows how easily the thin restraints of order give way to chaos when they are removed from adult society.

The conch as the symbol of order. At the start, Ralph uses the conch shell to summon the boys and to regulate their assemblies: whoever holds the conch has the right to speak. The conch embodies law, democracy and orderly discussion. Its gradual loss of authority, and its final shattering when Piggy is killed, marks the destruction of order on the island.

Ralph, Piggy and the fire stand for civilisation. Ralph insists on building shelters and, above all, on keeping the signal fire burning so that they may be rescued. Piggy, with his glasses and his reason, represents intelligence and the values of the adult world. Together they strive to maintain rules, cleanliness and a sense of purpose, embodying the ordered life the boys have left behind.

Jack and the hunters embody chaos. Jack is drawn to hunting, blood and power. He and his choir paint their faces, abandon the fire, and give themselves to the excitement of the kill. The painted mask liberates them from shame, and their chant, "Kill the pig! Cut her throat! Spill her blood!", shows how the hunt awakens a savage frenzy that overrides all rules.

The descent into chaos. As the story unfolds, chaos triumphs. The fire is allowed to go out and a ship passes unseen. Simon, who alone understands that the real beast is the darkness within the boys themselves, is murdered in a hysterical dance. Piggy is crushed by a boulder and the conch is smashed. Finally Jack's tribe hunts Ralph across a burning island, intending to kill him.

Golding's meaning. The conflict reveals Golding's grim view of human nature: that civilisation is a fragile crust over an innate capacity for savagery. The irony of the ending, in which a naval officer, himself an agent of a warring adult world, rescues the boys, suggests that the conflict between order and chaos is universal, not confined to children.

In conclusion, the conflict of order and chaos structures the entire novel, moving from the ordered assemblies of the opening to the murderous anarchy of the close, and through it Golding warns that the darkness of the human heart is never far beneath the surface of civilisation.