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   luannw Teacher
   High School - 11th Grade

   The huts that Ralph and his crew try to build represent civilization.  Ralph is the representative of the civilized life, whereas Jack represents the savage life, and while Jack is successful at hunting, Ralph is unsuccessful at hut building.  The huts that Ralph and the others try to build do not withstand the elements effectively and as is shown when Jack's tribe steals Piggy's glasses (thus gaining power through the ability to make fire), the huts are shown to fail at keeping out the savage life. Golding's message in the book was that inside of everyone there is evil in the form of savagery and he shows this, in part, through the failure of the huts.  He is telling the reader that people may go through the motions of building civilization, but it's just that - motions.  People are still savage and evil inside.

   Sources:

   http://www.enotes.com/flies/

   http://www.enotes.com/flies/themes

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   Posted by luannw on Wednesday May 14, 2008 at 4:07 AM