Boys often forget what life would be like if they ruled the world. The Lord of The Flies shows them that it would be hell on earth. Golding creates a utopia for boys at the beginning of the book, which then slowly defends into anarchy. But why does this happen? There are a few reasons; the primal instincts within all of us; and that there are three types of people, the followers, the leaders, and the loners.

The book begins with law and order. There is a small sort of hierarchy, in which Ralph is the undisputed chief, Jack is a leader of the hunters, and the “biguns” are superior to the “littluns”. This is in many ways representative of modern society. In which there are rules and guidelines that have to be followed, in order to allow for people to coexist peacefully, and so that nobody gains too much power. This “Law and Order” is embodied in the conch, which gives everyone who holds it the right to speak over their peers temporarily. Ralph owns the Conch, and because of this, he is the chief, who leads all of the boys, and calls assemblies at least daily. But slowly and surely, this society collapses.

It begins fraying when Jack deviates fro what Ralph says, little by little defying what he says, until it starts to become clear to the hunters that the conch doesn’t hold the power, they do. The conflict starts when Jack wants to hunt pigs, and Ralph wants to have a signal fire, and they both need Piggy’s glasses to do what they want, and end up breaking the glasses over this. However, Jack gains more and ore influence over the boys, and soon devolves into savagery, breaking off from the main group to found his own faction. He uses the fear of the beast within the boys to turn them into savages, and they are no longer English boys. Killing their fellow humans, and all semblance of order is destroyed when Piggy dies and the conch shatters. Jack and every other boy but Ralph game in to their inner savage, and destroyed society.

From the very beginning, a hierarchy forms in the group, proving that it is human nature to have some people be superior to others. Jack and Ralph embody the leader type; both of them desire the power, and want to rule over the other boys, but they are very different in everything else, where Ralph is calm and calculated, Jack is bold and excited. This inevitably leads to conflict between them, with the mentality that “there can only be one.” Almost the rest of the boys are followers, reacting to human nature, and following either Ralph or Jack. However, some of them do have some desire for power, Robert and Piggy amongst them, and most of the biguns naturally believe themselves to be above the littleuns. However, there is one exception to this on the island.

Simon is the loner, he does not follow Jack, nor does he follow Ralph, he instead goes his own way, making an isolated shelter in the jungle. This also makes him less susceptible to Jack’s manipulations. Simon and Simon alone realizes that the beast is within, just a figment of the boy’s imaginations, the embodiment of fear. He confronts this fear and comes out on top when he sits on front of the pigs head for hours before passing out. (He has medical issues the entire book) But this proves to be his downfall, despite being arguable the wisest on the island, he is killed when the boys believe him to be the beast, in their frenzy he tries to tell them that the beast was a parachutist, but dies before he can save them from their inner demons. After his death, the savagery gains the upper hand on the island, and the next day is the day the Conch is destroyed.

The Lord of The Flies teaches us that thousands of years of progress can be undone by the removal of law and order, and that no one is safe from their primal instincts. It is important that we all understand this, so we may never give in to “the beast”.