In William Golding’s, Lord of the Flies, several boys are being transported by plane from their boarding school to an unspecified location, due to a war. During the course of this relocation, the plane they are on crashes, killing all adults on board. From the surviving boys, two societies developed among them. The more civilized group, led by Ralph, was made up of workers and littluns. The other group, made up of savage beasts, was led by Jack. Throughout the novel the two groups grew farther and farther apart. Jacks group of hunting savages, was the group to survive as a group, throughout the entire novel.
The group led by Ralph were workers and littluns. Ralph and Simon were the two major workers. "And I work all day with nothing but Simon. . ."(pg.54) Piggy did hardly any work, but he did what he could with his fatness and his ass-mar. "My auntie told me not to run," "Can’t catch my breath."(pg.9) The littluns just mimicked the older kids. The workers found little time for fun. Their time was filled with important tasks such as building huts. This caused fewer boys to want to be a part of Ralph’s group, because all kids want to have fun.
Jack’s group was directly the opposite of Ralph’s. Jack would prefer to play all day and have no shelter, as opposed to wanting to work most of the day, have a place to protect you from nature and then play for only a little while. Jack says near the beginning of the novel, "we’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we are not savages."(pg.42) He had no order in his group. Jack says, "Ralph, I’ll split up the choir - my hunters, that is - into groups, and we’ll be responsible for keeping the fire going". (pg. 42-43) A civilized group would keep the fire going a top priority, being as it is their only chance of being rescued, but Jack’s group shortly forgets about the fire and lets it go out. Yes, if he told someone to do something they did it, but he could not control the savageness in his people. After Ralph says, "You let the fire go out." (pg.69) Jack being "too happy to let it worry him,"(pg.69) responds, "We can light it again. You should have been with us, Ralph. We had a smashing time."(pg.69) With this Jack is saying that hunting is fun. Jack said hunting was fun, therefore, everyone else decided they wanted to hunt and let the fire go unattended. Jack was the first to release his savageness by stabbing a pig to death. Jack being a savage beast laughs after saying, "There was lashings of blood, you should have seen it."(pg.69) Later while Ralph is still yelling at him for letting the fire go out Jack says, "You should have seen the blood."(pg.70), still being amused by the bloody mess his savage group of hunters had made of the pig. Jack is becoming more and more savage like as, "his voice was loud and savage."(pg.70) After that everyone followed. People in Ralph’s group wanted to have fun too, so they went with Jack when he left for a new location on the island. This being after Ralph would not allow Jack to become chief.
Jack’s group survived as a group by having fun. They also survived by being savages. They stole Piggy’s glasses to make a fire. When Ralph and Piggy went to get them back, Roger (a member of Jack’s group), dropped a bolder on Piggy, smashing him to death. After Piggy was killed, Ralph took off to hide. Jack ordered his savage beasts to find Ralph, with the intent to kill him. Any kid would rather have fun as opposed to working and Jack’s group was fun. For this reason, Jack’s group dominated and lasted until the end of the novel.
The novel ends with Ralph’s group, the workers, being eliminated. Ralph, however, was not eliminated. The workers were done in, because that is what they did. They worked without having fun. Jack’s group succeeded because the kids liked to have fun and hunting and acting like savages was fun to them. After Jack’s group went to another part of the island and stole Piggy’s glasses, they had control. Piggy dies when going to get his glasses and Jack’s group does all they can to eliminate the last of the workers, this being Ralph.