FROM BOYS TO BARBARIANS: A CONFLICT STUDY ON WILLIAM GOLDING’S LORD OF THE FLIES

Abstract

This study is an analysis of Lord of the Flies by Sir William Gerald Golding with respect to Karl Marx’s modern conflict theory. The novel revolves around a group of English boys who survive a plane wreck by landing on a tropical island in the Pacific Ocean which has never been subdued by human habitation. The island which stood embellished with lusciousness soon travails between the wrestling forces of good and evil dwelling within these civilized English boys. There prevails a tug of war between one group that anchors onto civilization and the other which dives into barbarianism. Unfortunately, the anchor gives away in the latter part of the novel where the entire group of boys aging between six and twelve drown miserably into the deep trenches of barbarianism. This novel serves as a suitable specimen to comprehend Karl Marx’s modern conflict theory. The conflict theory bulletins how the affluents in the top of the hierarchy device to hold their positions and continue to remain at the top of the pyramid. The theory is based on four social phenomena: competition, revolution, structural inequality, and war. The order of episodes in the island are in direct agreement with the four phenomena discussed in the theory.