In Chapter 4 of William Golding's allegory, Lord of the Flies, the boys have spent some time on the island, now. And, in contrast to the Victorian novel, The Coral Island in which the stranded boys conquer the savages upon the island, thus representing the victory of civilization over savagery; the boys stranded in Golding's novel succumb to savagery, and degenerate to a more atavistic form of humanity. This descent into savagery is represented by the shedding of clothing, the lengthy hair, and the painted faces, behind which they can attain anonymity and more easily perform their brutal acts.
Still, the boys retain some vestiges of civilization. For instance, Roger, described as a short, furtive boy, emerges from the trees above and watches Henry on the seashore; then, Roger stoops, picks up a stone, "that token of preposterous time," and bounces it to a space around Henry. At this point, he is still conditioned by society to not harm the boy, but he is beginning to lose this conditioning as the days pass. As he sees Jack, "a darker shadow crept beneath the swarthiness of his skin" while Jack smears on the clay and charcoal to mask his face from the pigs. Jack, "liberated from shame and self-consciousness" now tells the boys how to hunt the pigs. Golding writes that "the mask compelled them." That is, the savage nature exemplified by Jack overpowers the boys and they begin their degeneration into savagery as they shed the vestiges of civilization.
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