If we reduce the novel to one purpose we could say that it is to show the cruelty of human kind. The novel shows the hierarchical relations which are the basis of society and civilization.
    The situations showed in the novel can be found in the schoolyard, and later when we grow up other similar situations develop in the offices, with the classmates, at work.  More civilized in appearance but with the same characters: the children of the choolyard that are still there, they have change, they use other language and social strategies, but they are the same children.
     From this point of view Golding idea is not that humans are cruel when separated from civilization but that is civilization in itself which is cruel. And this is the best critic to Ballantynes idealized reality: a perfect society when men manage to organize themselves to create the civilization.
     We can defend this idea if we analise the cruelty in the story and the causes of that cruelty.
We find cruelty from the very beginning when Ralph does not answer Piggy´s questions, Ralph simply does not want to speak with Piggy because the latter is fat and wears glasses. From the  beggining Piggy follows Ralph trying to be friends, but Ralph ignores him.
    Piggy is the weak one whose real name we won´t know. Only the fact of being called by a nickname is cruel enough.
The nickname is also a clue, Piggy represents the weak fat boy. All the main characters are archetypal.
    This is the first kind of cruelty that separates the strong from the week ones and we find this cruelty also in the first stage of the situation, when the boys are still civilized people. Furthermore Ralph´s attitude towards Piggy changes gradually and little by little Ralph respects and defends him and at the end he considers him to be wiser than himself.
    How could we explain the fact that the more uncivilized the better Ralph becomes? One hypothesis of analysis following Rousseau´s philosophy would be to say that Ralph recovers his good inner nature corrupted by society when he is in contact with nature. May be this is very risky but we can make an interpretation of the story following this line.
    In this sense we can say that men have instincts as the animals and a natural instinct is to defend the territory , to hunt, and to preserve the life. All these instincts could be satisfy without such a dose of cruelty that we find in the story. I think that the danger resides in the mixture of the innate instincts that awake in them away from civilization and the logical, human- like qualities.
    They are not cruel because they are wild but because they are the same children of the schoolyard with too much power. Their instincts are corrupted because they do not hunt only for eating but they hunt for pleasure. They mix human and animal qualities: the want of power with the natural instict that in them is  not as smothered by reason as it is in adults.
    The other kind of cruelty we find, is the one who drives Jack and others to kill wild pigs for fun and at the end to kill Piggy and chase Ralph with the same purpose. This cruelty can not be attributed to animal qualities. On the contrary we can say that they are denatured.
     The author shows how cruel children can be, and how far is reality from Ballantynes novel, as far as the captain that rescues Golding´s  children is from the true facts.

     Let us analise some meaningful situations for our analysis and the arquetype represented by each character.

     Ralph represents the innate leader, he is neither wiser than Piggy nor more intelligent. But he is charismatic, the children like him. He represents Piggy´s and its own ideas. But Piggy can not be a leader though he has good ideas, he needs Ralph´s protection.
    Jack represents the strenght that moves the masses, most of the children like Ralph more than him but they are afraid, they have doubts and Ralph gives them more security.
Even the little ones can detect who is strong and who is week, in some ocasions even the little ones laugh at Piggy.
   Jack´s main objective is to be leader, to have power like in a game.
    Piggy is the first one who think of possible solutions, Ralph reacts later and Jack never cares about being rescued, it seems that he enjoys his leadership and the state in which they are in the island. Jack acts moved by impulse, he does not think seriously.
    But in spite of all this Jack will be the leader because he uses violence and the other will follow him for this, because being with him is the only way of being safe. At the end Piggy and Ralph will be the only ones who are loyal to their believes and do not submit  to Jack, this will endangered their lives, and Piggy will be killed for it.
    Jack acts as a dictator: he wants to kill the ones who defy his power, the ones that threaten his power because he knows they are better than him.
    Jack is ambicious because he could have shared part of the power with Ralph, but he wants it all. He is jealous of Ralph´s being democraticly elected as the leader. Jack defies the power of the shell that represents democracy.
    From the beginning the reader notices Jacks negativity, we know he is going to cause problems , he is as a wild force that can burst in any moment.
    Despite all this Ralph at the beginning tries to be his friend, Ralph respects him more than Piggy.Even later when Ralph knows Piggy´s positive qualities he is still more interested in Jack than in Piggy. Ralph only appreciates Piggy´s friendship towards the end. Jack and Ralph have something that makes them attractive.
    Phisical features are also important for being a leader. Both Ralph and Jack are quite tall, athletic. As it happens with animals size is important for being followed by the group. As we have seen before the stronger ones are respected and have the power.
    In the story the children live in a hierarchical society, bellow the leaders there are several hierarchies, the ones who are "inferior" to Jack and Ralph are "superior" to the little ones.
There are also wise people or just good in nature that does not take part in this hierarchy as Piggy and Simon.
    Sam and Eric represent the inconstancy of the neutral people who follow the strongest one.
Simon is the person who does not submit to the system, who is aside of the "political" action.
Simon is  the one who knows that the "monster" is a parachute, but he is killed before he can tell it. He possesed information that would have weakened Jack´s power.
    Simon has a deep knowledge of reality. He witnessed a hunting and knows the hunters´ inner nature, he is the one who foresees the dramatic ending. The sun beams that reach him in the forest is an anticipation of his own death.
    The author relates the hunting in a way that the reader feels pity for the animal, as if (s)he guessed that the rite represents also a danger for the other children. The wild pigs are like the weak and defenseless  ones chased by the strong ones.
    The children are as a society with its leaders, its rules. They have created certain simbols as  the shell. Jack tries to destroy those simbols although in some ocasions he adopts them as when he sits in the trunk bellow the palm-tree as Ralph have always done.
    The painting in the faces of the hunters acts as a mask that hides them, lets them act freely forgetting they are English civilized students. When they kill Simon everyone knows what has happened but they share a common guilt, and the mutual silence makes them believe that nothing has happened.
    The situation gets more and more violent, they kill Piggy without showing any sign of guilt. It seem that they have changed their values, they have forgotten about what is right or wrong. Now something is right if the group approves of it.
    The tension grows up to the moment in which Piggy is killed and the shell is broken to pieces.
It is here when the chaos bursts after disappearing the two simbols of maturity, reason and order.
    Ralph is then chased to be killed, even the innate leader who is on the side of reason is going to be sacrifice. In those moments the children are presented as cruel and very powerful.
    All this power vanishes when they see the captain. In that moment all the danger disappears to give way to the parody, the ignorance of the captain and the allusion he makes to the novel Coral Island  makes the reader think about the validity of Ballantynes idea about man.
    About the title of the novel , Who is the Lord of the flies? I think that the helpless head of the pig towards the children has not any respect is the lord of the flies. The children laugh at the head of the wild pig as they laugh at Piggy, both are lord of the flies. All the Piggies of society are lord of the flies: the last element in the hierarchy, only superior to the flies.
    It is as if the novel was dedicated to those people, dedicated to Piggy that is a martir of his cause.

     In this way William Golding suceeds in showing us the complexity of human mind, the hierarchical relations that we humans establish everyday in our relations and the dose of cruelty ( more or less instinctive) that preserve them. Golding also makes us feel the impotence in seeing how the fair ones  are defeated and chased by the strongests.
 

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