What is the main theme of Lord of the Flies?

The main theme of the novel is that civilization is fragile because human beings carry savage impulses within themselves. Golding shows this through a group of English schoolboys who begin by trying to create order with meetings, rules, the conch shell, and the signal fire, then gradually fall into fear, violence, and murder.

At first, Ralph and Piggy try to build a civilized society. Piggy thinks of using the conch to call the others, and Ralph makes the rule that whoever holds it gets to speak. The signal fire also represents their hope of rescue and their link to the adult world. But even early on, the boys are careless with fire, mock Piggy, neglect shelters, and prefer hunting or playing to the hard work of keeping society alive.

Jack’s rise shows the pull of savagery. He begins as the leader of the choir, then becomes obsessed with hunting and power. When his hunters kill their first pig, they chant, “Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood.” That chant turns violence into group pleasure, and it grows into the ritual frenzy that leads to Simon’s death. Simon is the one boy who understands the truth about the beast. He suggests, “Maybe it’s only us...” and later the Lord of the Flies tells him, “I’m part of you.” The beast is the boys’ own capacity for cruelty, fear, and domination.

The collapse becomes complete when Roger kills Piggy and the conch is smashed, destroying both reason and law at once. By the end, Jack’s tribe hunts Ralph like an animal. The boys are rescued by a naval officer, but his warship reminds us that the adult world is also violent. Ralph cries for “the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy.” The island story mirrors the war happening in the wider world: Civilization can restrain brutality, the novel suggests, but it never fully removes it.