Everyone in the modern era shudders at the thought of living in the Stone Age. But the most prominent theme in The Lord of The Flies return to the darkness from the light. The destruction of civilization, and the return to tribalism. The time on the island starts out great, there are no grown-ups, and most kids can do what they want, with some rules. These rules are what is keeping the kids in line, and Ralph and his shell symbolizes civilization and order, and the conch is Ralph’s power. When Jack begins to defy the shell, he diminishes Ralph’s power, and therefore begins converting the kids into his primal and uncivilized way of life, using the Beast and the fear around it as a means to gain more power for himself. Jack hasn’t done many useful things, even preventing the boys from being rescued, but instead he makes them focus on the pig, and this allows for him to be seen as a strong leader, who is better at getting food than Ralph. Nowhere is this more apparent then when his group of Hunters begins to distance itself from Ralph, forming their own way of life, one that is in the Stone Age, where Ralph’s is in the 20th century, bringing the world back thousands of years in only a few weeks.

“I’m going to get more biguns away from the conch and all that. We’ll kill a pig and have a feast. And about the beast. When we kill we’ll leave some of the kill for it.”

-Jack, Chapter 8

Jack uses the internal fear in the boys embodied in the beast to gain power, and start his own tribe, one that never wants to leave the island, and has accepted that they will never leave the island. So while Jack and his boys are becoming mad raving cavemen, Ralph and Piggy are keeping the fire going to signal a ship. When Jack raids their camp for the fire, and attempts to gain more followers, Ralph and Piggy keep trying to escape, and don’t give in to their primitive inner demons, like many “biguns” already have. This is demoralizing and depressing, but it is the way Jack is able to convince all of the boys to follow him, and follow their primal instincts that gives him his success. Ralph and Jack are two sides of the same coin. They are both leaders, who can easily get a large following of people. But Jack is a chaotic leader who shoots first and asks questions later, whereas Ralph is more calm and calculated. In the end, the fight between civilization and tribalism is the most prominent theme in the book, and it is quite shocking to realize just how quick people in the modern day can return to where their ancestors were thousands of years ago