Historical Materialism Interpretation of Reasons Why Barbarism Defeats Civilization in Lord of the Flies

张乃元 罗佳雯

【Abstract】This thesis aims to interpret the reasons why barbarism defeats civilization in Lord of the Flies from the perspective of Historical Materialism. It is composed of three parts. It first gives a concise introduction to the author William Golding， the background information and the summary of Lord of the Flies. Then， the second part demonstrates the necessity of the  tribal relation of production， analyses how barbarism defeats civilization through five phases and reveals the Historical Materialism reasons why civilization collapses. The last part summarizes two conclusions. One is the vulnerability of human civilization， the other is the ubiquitousness of evil human nature under the oppression of survival competition.

【Key words】Lord of the Flies; Historical Materialism; productive forces; production relations; economic structure; superstructure; barbarism; civilization

【作者簡介】张乃元（1998-），女，汉族，山西晋中人，武汉理工大学本科在读，研究方向：英语语言文学;罗佳雯（1999-），女，汉族，浙江舟山人，武汉理工大学本科在读，研究方向：英语语言文学。

1. Introduction

William Golding and Lord of the Flies

William Golding can absolutely be ranked as one of the twentieth centurys most distinguished writers. His masterpiece Lord of the Flies came into the world and won the Noble Prize for Literature in 1983.

In Lord of the Flies， due to a nuclear war， a group of children aging from six to twelve years old reaches an isolated island after an air crash. Without any supervision from adults， these children begin to establish a small society for self-management. After a short time of cooperation， the immature community breaks up into two groups. One led by Ralph aims to create a civilized society with regulations while the other led by Jack， on the contrary， tends to hunt pigs than keeping a signal fire. Eventually， barbarism defeats civilization.

2. Historical Materialism

Marx and Engels first state and detail their materialist conception of history within the pages of The German Ideology， written in 1845. Later in 1859， Marx published another masterpiece A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy， in the preface of which he clearly illustrated the formulation of Historical Materialism. Marx reveals two dialectical laws： the law of conformity of production relations to the state of productive forces and the law of conformity of superstructure to economic structure respectively. When it comes to the former， productive forces （labor， technology， capital goods， etc.） determine the mode of production relations. As for the latter， the economic structure of society， made up with the totality of relations of production， determines superstructure， namely the political， cultural and institutional features of a society as well as its ideological materials， and in turn， superstructure should be consistent with the economic structure in order to promote social progress.

Historical Materialism reasons why barbarism defeats civilization

2.1 The law of conformity of production relations to the state of productive forces

The main production modes that Marx identifies generally include primitive communism， slave society， feudalism， and capitalism. In Lord of the Flies， these British children in capitalist society arrive at the isolated island， implying that civilized children abnormally return to the primitive society. On the island， production materials are limited to a sheath-knife， a pair of glasses and wooden spears， thus leading to undeveloped production forces typically like hunting and gathering.

As for the primitive productive relations， Marx once analyzed that “the first form of ownership is tribal ownership， corresponding to the undeveloped stage of production， at which people live by hunting and fishing.” （Marx， 1845：7）. On the primitive island， children led by Jack actually forms a tribe-like team， where the chief Jack provides meat and protection and in turn， followers obey Jack heart and soul. Below are some pieces of evidences of the tribe-like team.

Firstly， children headed by Jack advocate hunting and leader worship， showing one of the characteristics of primitive tribes. Children led by Jack regard the one who can “take us hunting” as “a proper chief” in order to satisfy the desire to eat meat （William Golding， 1954：142）. And it can be seen that “Jack， painted and garlanded， sat there like an idol.” （William Golding， 1954：132）， reflecting the supremacy of the tribal chief.

Secondly， the animal sacrifice act is also a symbol of primitive tribes. Since children led by Jack see strength rather than rationality as their evaluation standard， in face of a stronger and unknown individual， they simply define him as a “beast” not a person and even offer a pig head as a gift to the so-called beast out of fear.

Thirdly， the dance of hunting in Jacks team is also common in primitive tribes. It is known that when hunters have an impulse to re-experience the joy of hunting， they try to imitate the movements of the hunters. So dance appears. （Song zhaolin， 1984）. Every time children in Jacks team succeed in hunting， they will dance as a celebration ceremony.

To summarize， according to above three pieces of evidences， there is a fact that the emergence of the tribe-like organization is the natural result of undeveloped productive forces， reflecting the law of the conformity of production relations to the state of productive forces.

2.2 The law of conformity of superstructure to economic structure

（1） The imitation of modern civilization

Compared with Jack， children led by Ralph decide to imitate British civilization to establish a rational kingdom. Politically， Ralph uses a conch as a symbol of democracy， call meetings to make important decisions， for instance， a clear division of labors and responsibilities. Some children take charge of keeping an eye on the signal fire and others cooperate to build shelters. Ecologically， in order to protect the source of water， Ralph regulates water points and fixes a spot as their toilet so as to prohibit the behaviors of indiscriminative defecation. All these political and ecological measures are copied from modern society.

（2） Barbarism defeats civilization

However， the rational kingdom Ralph create is finally destroyed by the continuous expansion of barbarism. The process of destruction of civilization can be divided into five phases. In the first phase， Jack insists leading his choir members to hunt pigs regardless of the responsibility of safeguarding the signal fire， thus missing the rescue ship. The first divergence between Ralph and Jack marks the emergence of barbarism. In the second phase， barbarism is further developed marked with the rupture between Ralph and Jack and Jacks cruel hunting of a pregnant pig. In the third phase， Simon death indicates that barbarism begins to overweigh civilization. Simon， the symbol of justice and rationality， tries to disseminate the message that the so-called beast is actually a dead pilot. However， Simon is erroneously identified as the beast and beaten to death by irrational children. The transformation from hunting pigs to killing people represents the beginning of the loss of rationality and civilization. In the fourth phase， Piggys death illustrates that civilization is defeated by barbarism. Piggy， another symbol of rationality， gives plenty of effective suggestions to Ralph. Nevertheless， Piggy is killed by Roger in a brutal way on purpose. The transformation from the accidental manslaughter to the negligent manslaughter shows the huge loss of rationality. Simultaneously， the ruin of the conch and Piggy glasses symbolizes the annihilation of democracy and science， namely， the total destruction of civilization. In the final phase， the leader of civilization Ralph is deadly chased， implying barbarism entering a deeper stage completely defeats civilization.

（3） Historical Materialism reasons why barbarism defeats civilization

Conforming to the law of conformity of superstructure to economic structure， the reasons why barbarism defeats civilization lie in the superstructure Ralph copies is actually an unsuitable grafting from capitalist society to primitive society. British political and ecological civilization is founded on the basis of the developed capitalist economy while the primitive island is still in the early stage of the natural economy——hunting and gathering economy. According to the reaction of the superstructure on the economic base， unsuitable superstructure Ralph sustain cannot fit in with the hunting and gathering economic structure and will inevitably collapse in the end. On the contrary， the superstructure naturally formed will function well， in other words， civilization is more likely to be defeated by barbarism in Lord of the Flies.

3. Conclusion

Firstly， from the perspective of Historical Materialism， the thesis demonstrates Jacks tribal relation of production is produced naturally on the basis of the hunting productive forces. Also， the thesis analyzes five phases of the competition between Jacks barbarism and Ralphs civilization and attributes the failure of civilization to the contradiction between too advanced superstructure and undeveloped production forces， illustrating the vulnerability of human civilization especially in the poor and enclosed environment.

Secondly， it can be seen that the dark side of human nature will be exposed to the oppression of survival competition. Also， it proves the ubiquitousness of evil human nature and dreadful consequences of expanding barbarism， thus sounding the alarm for the entire human race.

References：

[1]Marx K. & Engels F. The German Ideology[M]. Retried from Marx/Engels Internet Archive （marxists.org），2000.

[2]Marx K. Preface to a Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy[M]. The Marx-Engels Reader，2：3-6.

[3]Golding W. Lord of the Flies[J]. New York： Perigee Books，1954.

[4]宋兆粼等.中國原始社会史[M].北京：文物出版社，1984.