The psychological being of mankind is complex and intricate in many ways. How people envisage and respond to their environment relates back to psychological elements. In Lord of the Flies, Golding expresses his views on mankind being inherently evil. His allegorical representation supports his view of mankind being baneful with scenes of cults, rape, and death. Throughout the book Golding continues to symbolize that human nature is drawn to savagery and innocence is spurious. Society generalizes murderers as mentally ill or pernicious human beings. Simon realizes the so called, “Beast” isn’t real. He believes Ralph is considered a good friend he, “wants Ralph to like him” (Golding 163). Understanding how important the information he …show more content…
Golding represents innocence being lost through Jack and his cult. Towards the beginning Jack refuses to kill a pig, “Jack drew his knife but there came a pause. The piglet tore loose and Jack’s face was white under his freckles” (Golding 30). Jack shows chastity knowing his action would bring about a death. Jack eventually gives himself an appellation of head hunter. “He has a wanton of killing of pigs” (Niemeyer 1). Jack kills either by, “cutting the pig’s throat” (Golding 75), “hitting the pig” (Golding 75), or by stabbing the pig “right up her ass” (Golding 155). Jack and his hunters kill for convivial not because they need food but because they are bored. In the end, “Ralph weeps for the end of innocence” (Golding 235). All of the boys realize the real world shows no mercy and that through their acts they lost the innocence of childhood. Golding uses parallel allegory to support that savagery and heinousness come from within through the inhumane acts the boys commit. The boys on the island show purity in the beginning yet by the end they are sinful because human nature is overcome by evil. The boys show no remorse and repent after the killing of Simon. The many ways Jack and his hunters kill the pigs show that
What is human nature? How does William Golding use it in such a simple story of English boys to precisely illustrate how truly destructive humans can be? Golding was in World War Two, he saw how destructive humans can be, and how a normal person can go from a civilized human beign into savages. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses the theme of human nature to show how easily society can collapse, and how self-destructive human nature is. Throughout the story Golding conveys a theme of how twisted and sick human nature can lead us to be. Many different parts of human nature can all lead to the collapse of society. Some of the aspects of human nature Golding plugged into the book are; destruction, demoralization, hysteria and panic. These emotions all attribute to the collapse of society. Golding includes character, conflict, and as well as symbolism to portray that men are inherently evil.
Another way Golding shows that humans are bad is through intentions of murder and committing murder. Jack and his followers killed natures fruit to them witch in this case was probably the only female pig that
In Lord of the Flies, William Golding expresses the idea that humans are naturally immoral, and that people are moral only because of the pressures of civilization. He does this by writing about a group of boys, and their story of survival on an island. The civilized society they form quickly deteriorates into a savage tribe, showing that away from civilization and adults, the boys quickly deteriorate into the state man was millions of years ago. This tendency is shown most in Jack, who has an animalistic love of power, and Roger, who loves to kill for pleasure. Even the most civilized boys, Ralph and Piggy, show that they have a savage side too as they watch Simon get murdered without trying to save him. Simon, the only one who seems to have a truly good spirit, is killed, symbolizing how rare truly good people are, and how quickly those personalities become corrupted.
In William Golding's Lord of the Flies, the boys who are stranded on the island come in contact with many unique elements that symbolize ideas or concepts. Through the use of symbols such as the beast, the pig's head, and even Piggy's specs, Golding demonstrates that humans, when liberated from society's rules and taboos, allow their natural capacity for evil to dominate their existence.
Lord of the Flies provides one with a clear understanding of Golding's view of human nature. Whether this view is right or wrong is a point to be debated. This image Golding paints for the reader, that of humans being inherently bad, is a perspective not all people share. Lord of the Flies is but an abstract tool of Golding's to construct the idea of the inherent evil of human nature in the minds of his readers. To construct this idea of the inherent evil, Golding employs the symbolism of Simon, Ralph, the hunt and the island.
Many of the defects of society can be traced back to the defects of human nature. The savagery of human nature shows vividly in the world’s society. William Golding believed that under certain circumstances, we are all capable of becoming Nazis or any savage person. He uses many forms of symbolism to convey this theme throughout Lord of the flies. Jack and his face paint, Roger, and even the island “beast” are all symbols Golding uses to depict his theme.
Circumstances which occur in particular are when Ralph mindlessly attacks Robert and foolishly joins into the dance. Having had a taste of meat, the pack of boys decide to hunt once again. As stated previously, things go awry as the group reenacts the hunting of the pig. Robert becomes the mock pig and the once noble Ralph is overcome with the “desire to squeeze and hurt” (Golding, 115). The boy appears eager to harm his fellow friend because it is a quality and want ingrained in him from birth. Subsequently, the celebratory dance turns into a cannibalistic murder. The seemingly innocent dance takes a dark spin as Simon enters the circle, unknowingly becoming the substitute pig. Ralph begins to feel the pull of evil once again, this time “thick, urgent, [and] blind” (Golding 152). The once pure boy has tainted his hands with the cruel ways of humanity and murdered. In brief, Golding has depicted a more accurate picture of mankind and given his audience a glimpse of their barbaric
William Golding’s Lord of the Flies portrays the lives of young British boys whose plane crashed on a deserted island and their struggle for survival. The task of survival was challenging for such young boys, while maintaining the civilized orders and humanity they were so accustomed too. These extremely difficult circumstances and the need for survival turned these innocent boys into the most primitive and savaged mankind could imagine. William Golding illustrates man’s capacity for evil, which is revealed in man’s inherent nature. Golding uses characterization, symbolism and style of writing to show man’s inhumanity and evil towards one another.
Golding has a rather pessimistic view of humanity having selfishness, impulsiveness and violence within, shown in his dark yet allegorical novel Lord of the Flies. Throughout the novel, the boys show great self-concern, act rashly, and pummel beasts, boys and bacon. The delicate facade of society is easily toppled by man's true beastly nature.
Golding shows the drastic change in the boys’ behavior using symbolic dialogue and the characters’ actions. At the beginning of the story, Ralph puts Jack in charge of hunting so the boys can eat some meat. Jack finds a pig while hunting, yet he cannot kill it, his reason being, “because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting living flesh; because of the unbearable blood” (31). Because of the strictly regulated society Jack has grown up in, he finds it disturbing to kill an animal, even if he must do it to have food.
Golding wrote this story because he was horrified of Stalinism in Russia. His experience in World War II effected his view on humanity and evils that are capable of occurring. Ralph, Piggy, and Simon are manifested with the "civilizing instinct", while Jack, Roger, and the other hunters have the savage instinct. Golding also dealt with human nature. Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed that man is good, but Golding controverts his philosophy. Golding believes that man is naturally evil.
This paper will explore the three elements of innate evil within William Golding's, Lord of the Flies, the change from civilization to savagery, the beast, and the battle on the island. Golding represents evil through his character's, their actions, and symbolism. The island becomes the biggest representation of evil because it's where the entire novel takes place. The change from civilization to savagery is another representation of how easily people can change from good to evil under unusual circumstances. Golding also explores the evil within all humans though the beast, because it's their only chance for survival and survival instinct takes over. In doing so, this paper will prove that Lord of the Flies exemplifies the innate evil that exists within all humans.
When viewing the atrocities of today's world on television, the starving children, the wars, the injustices, one cannot help but think that evil is rampant in this day and age. However, people in society must be aware that evil is not an external force embodied in a society but resides within each person. Man has both good qualities and faults. He must come to control these faults in order to be a good person. In the novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding deals with this same evil which exists in all of his characters. With his mastery of such literary tools as structure, syntax, diction and imagery, The author creates a cheerless, sardonic tone to convey his own views of the nature of man and man’s role within society.
The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding used a group of British boys beached on a deserted island to illustrate the malicious nature in mankind. Lord of the Flies dealt with the changes the boys underwent as they gradually adapted to the freedom from their society. William Golding's basic philosophy that man was inherently evil was expressed in such instances as the death of Simon, the beast within the boys, and the way Ralph was fervently hunted.
In the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a group of young boys from England are evacuated out of their country due to a war. The plane is then shot down and results into a plane crash on a deserted island. The boys are left all alone with no adults, no supplies, and no one to come and rescue them. They are all on their own and have to establish a new “society”. The boys have to choose someone to govern them and that person ends up being Ralph, who had an internal struggle between what is right and wrong closer to the end of the novel. The boys turn into savages, killing each other, and showing their evil inside each of them. According to, William Golding man is inherently evil, evil is in all of us, but it is oppressed by society, and comes out when there is not anything to hold us back, civilization is what holds back evil from coming out, or it is what triggers evil inside of man.