Route from Civilization to Savager: Binary Opposites in William Golding's Lord of the Flies

William Golding's Lord of the Flies is a book constructed upon contrasts or binary opposites, which appear on every level of the story; the setting, the lifestyle and the characters. In my thesis, I will ennumerate these binaries and examine how the first member of the pair turns into its counterpart as civilization is overwhelmed by savagery during the story. I will prove that all of these binary opposites can be connected to the main dichotomy civilization and savagery, which form the framework of the novel. I will demonstrate that all the pairs of oppositions are constructed in a way that one member of the pair shows a characteristic feature of civilization, the other member that of savagery. I will also expound the views of the Western way of thinking, which ranks binaries by assigning value to the members of the pairs thus creating a hierarchy between them.