The Dystopian Society of Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies is a dystopian novel, plain and simple. This novel shows characteristics of children left alone on an island, who try to create order amongst each other  A dystopia is state in which the condition of life is abnormal and horrible for the environment. 

-The first point of a dystopian environment was when Ralph took over the society and was trying to control it in a civilized matter, while another boy, Jack was a hunter, and after killing a pig, he started to grow fond of bloodshed and he became more and more of a savage everyday. This would have been okay until measures went to extremes where Jack started to become more violent, and started killing his island mates and bringing the neutrals to choose over civil or savage. This then took the concentration off being rescued and gave more thought to being the last man standing.

-Ralph's obsession at being "in control": an example of this was when he was trying to get the boys to light the fire, and when the started to fool around, he took control and started to shout and take command.

-The conch- The conch was the only symbol of order. When this was blown, all members on the island came to its destination, but after the time where Jack starts to become more aggressive and violent, Ralph knows that the conch's effects are now worn off, because if he blows it he knows that nobody will respond, as they are now in their own ambitions, forgetting the fact of being rescued. When the conch broke, this showed that order of the society was over.

-Ralph's response towards nearly killing a pig-  Ralph was very sick of being on the island and started acting the littluns. He, like them, was getting dirty and wanted to return to his old life. When he got home, he “would like to have a pair of scissors and cut his hair-he flung the mass back-cut this filthy hair right back to half an inch. He would like to have a bath, a proper wallow with soap”. Ralph is being uncivilized because in our eyes, being clean is civilized and Ralph was unclean and therefore uncivilized. Ralph is also becoming uncivilized because he is starting to actually hunt. He helped hunt a pig and almost killed it: Then, there was a creature bounding along the pig track toward him, with tusks gleaming and an intimidating grunt. Ralph found he was able to measure the distance coldly and take aim. With the boar only five yards away, he flung the foolish wooden stick that he carried, and he grazed the boar. Then in such excitement Ralph re-enacted this scene with his mates, with Robert being the boar. The boys were so into the re-enactment that they nearly killed Robert not knowing that he was human. This aggressiveness showed that everything was going to become out of hand.

-Each day these boys are in fear of the imaginary beast lurking the island, and this fear blurs their actual vision like when Sam and Eric saw the paratrooper, and with all the talk about a beast, the thought that it was the beast itself. After, Jack found a way to manipulate this fear, to be used for his own advantage, to bring neutrals to his side.

-When Ralph was in charge of the island inhabitants the setting was more of a utopia, but after Jack started to become a savage, he gained more respect from the followers of Ralph, and when Jack started to supply meat to boys, more started to follow him and his savage ways, until Ralph became less of a leader, and when Jack became more of a leader, the island started to go out of hand, and this lead to a clear dystopia.

-As Jack attracts most of the boys, with such offers like stay on the island, eat food, and do little work, but he was a very bad leader himself, as he would abuse his tribal members and the environment when he wants for his own ambitions to become the most powerful. Like when he forces Sam and Eric to tell him where Ralph had hidden, and when he tied up his own member.

- At the beginning of the story, Ralph established order and allowed people to talk while holding the conch, but this became abolished and freedom of speech was not given to the littlnuns as they made foolish and immature comments. This freedom of speech then downsized all the way to just Jack, Ralph, and some hunters, which only gave a certain point of view on things.