Violence in William Golding's The Lord of the Flies

William Golding's The Lord of the Flies is a beautifully crafted novel that concentrates on a group of school-aged boys stranded on a deserted island in the midst of WWII. Lacking the basic workings of human civilization, most importantly established law, most of the children resort to an anarchical lifestyle that ultimately results in their moral demise and, for some, premature death. The ethical decline that the boys experience is characterized primarily as a result of their thirst for violence and, for the choir boys, what almost becomes a need to commit murder. The tragedies that result from (most of) the children's disregard for morality emphasizes civilization's need for basic laws and the individual's healthy need for some limitations within life.

The most violent children in Lord of the Flies are the choirboys, who are among the oldest of the children on the island, ranging from about ten to thirteen or fourteen years of age. Presumably these children are at an age in which they should/would have developed their most fundamental moral values. Most neurologists believe the seeds of adult thought start to germinate from eight to twelve years of age---and at the very beginning of the novel, Golding seems to agree. The choirboys all appear to be reasonably intelligent young men with at least some courtesy for the other members of their posse. They are mostly cooperative with Ralph, the novel's main protagonist and the elected leader of the band of boys, and are interested in not only their individual survival, but the survival of every boy on the island.