At the beginning of Chapter Seven, Ralph kills a boar and is lost in the game that follows where they reenact the hunt using Roger as the boar. What is Golding trying to portray about one's internal drive toward savagery?

First, Ralph doesn't kill the boar, he nicks its snout. The boar is not killed during this hunt. Ralph does, however, participate in the barbaric bullying of Robert, jabbing him with a spear. What begins as rough play, consequently, tranforms into violence. From this, we can infer that Golding is purposely exposing how quickly things escalate..... how "mob mentality" spreads like a cancer, leading even the most civilized of people doing things they would never otherwise have done.

Robert snarled at him. Ralph entered into the play and everybody laughed. Presently they were all jabbing at Robert who made mock rushes. Jack shouted. “Make a ring!” The circle moved in and round. Robert squealed in mock terror, then in real pain.

“Ow! Stop it! You’re hurting!”

The butt end of a spear fell on his back as he blundered among them. “Hold him!” They got his arms and legs. Ralph, carried away by a sudden thick excitement, grabbed Eric’s spear and jabbed at Robert with it.

“Kill him! Kill him!”