NON AFRICAN PROSE
WILLIAM GOLDING: Lord Of The Flies
Discuss the conflict of order and chaos in the novel.
Explanation
The central concern is the conflict between two strong drives in human society: order and chaos. These translate as the quest to live by law and order, to value the good of others versus the drive to satisfy one's personal interests and use of force to establish one's supremacy over others, on the other hand. Throughout the novel, Golding associates the drive for order with civilization or good, and the drive for chaos with savagery.
The conflict between the two is explored in the narrative about the degeneration; of English boys from civilized, moral, and disciplined behavior to a wild, brutal, excessively harsh, and murderous existence in the Jungle.
The novelist conveys most of his central ideas through symbols which transcend characters and objects. The conflict between order and chaos is represented in the conflict between two major characters: Ralph, the protagonist who represents order, and Jack, his antagonist who represents savagery with his morbid thirst for power.
As the novel progresses, Golding shows how the drive for order and chaos impacts on people differently: Piggy, for example, is not influenced negatively. He tends for the intellectuals and scientific principle of arguing to arrive at the truth or order.
Jack, on the other hand, seems bereft of the principle of order. He represents brutality, savagery and blood-lust at its most deplorable slate.
William Golding tends to pass on a message; the human psyche is more prone to chaos than to order. He portrays moral conduct many times in a lot of instances as superimposed by civilization rather than natural human mind which evinces evil, cruelty and savagery. The idea of innate human evil is notably evident through recurring symbols like the head of the sow on a stake and "the beast".
The influence of order and chaos reigns throughout the novel. Indeed, there are places where chaos seems to overpower order, where Ralph's boys are brutally murdered. In the end, however order dominates all the action as the boys are rescued.