This novel showed the most savage and inhumane side of people. The characters are forced to deal with trying to run their own civilization, but after a while the boys are unable to cope with there new environment. As tensions start to rise between some of the boys, their system of living begins to fall apart.

At the beginning of the novel there is peace and order on the island. All of the boys are living happily together. They make decisions together and act as a civilized group. They develop a system where at meetings whoever is holding the conch gets to speak, which in a way kept the meetings peaceful. Instead of everybody trying to talk at once, they all took turns.

The novel portrays Jack as the most savage of the boys. He is put in charge of hunting, which shows his need for leadership. Jack becomes obsessed with hunting and he makes up some chants about killing pigs, which shows his barbaric nature. One day Ralph makes a comment about Jack’s hunters and calls them “boys armed with sticks.” When Jack hears this he takes offense to it, and at first tries to turn everyone against Ralph, but eventually he just leaves the group. As he leaves he tells everyone that they are welcome to join him.

One by one the boys sneak off to join Jack’s “tribe,” where Jack is feeding the boys a feast of pig meat. Eventually Ralph is only left with Piggy, Sam, Eric, and a bunch of littluns. Ralph and Piggy also decide to go to the feast, mainly because they need some decent food and they are starving. At the feast, Simon who had been searching for the beast came stumbling out of the woods in the dark. When the rest of the boys see Simon they think he is the beast and the kill. Later on they also kill piggy, and go on a huge hunt to try and find Ralph. These events show that when put in certain desperate situations man will turn into a savage and barbaric creature.