savagery in human nature

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“Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody” – Mark Twain
Have you ever wanted to go on an adventure in an isolated place where you are free to do whatever you would like to? In this limited area there is so much to explore. However there can be some mystery behind what seems to be freedom. Will you feel secure to still do as you wish or will you change and reveal some part of humanity that is only controlled by the environment and society? Time alone for a long time could seem interesting but sometimes being surrounded by nothing but water and some few people could have some affects too. William Golding’s Lord of the Flies touches upon many of these issues. The novel takes place during World War II on a deserted island called Coral Island. A group of British boys are on a plane that crashes because they were hit by a missile. With no adults around, the boys are left to take the roles of adults. The boys are responsible and try to strategize in finding ways to be rescued from Coral Island. However, due to the influences of society and war, not every person is cooperative. Some are distracted by how quickly their environment had changed like wondering all around the Island all day. Other boys were more focused and determined to begin an adventure such as finding pigs. The rest were smaller boys who had no idea what they would do and followed orders of some older boys. What each boy does leads to conflicts. These issues continue by the actions they inflict on each other which reveals many elements of human nature.
Despite the absence of the adults, society plays a role in how the boys treat each other and how they interact. When the boys are alone on the island, they incorporate what adults would logica...

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... who found himself understanding the wearisomness of this life where every path was an improvisation and a part of one’s waking life” (Epstein 68). Throughout the book, the boys constantly show readers the complete underlying meaning of human nature through their actions and behavior. Because the choirboys support Jack to be the leader of the hunters, it gives him more courage to kill and become more savage. “The soul of Jack is typhonic, meaning violent like a hurricane. He has a burning desire to be chief who leads him into leading his own society and waging war on Ralph’s” says John F. Fitzgerald in Golding Lord of the Flies: Pride as Original Sin. Golding shows readers through Jack that sometimes the followers of a group that were also influenced by society can change or strengthen a negative aspect of human nature which in this case is cruelty and savagery.

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