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Strength and weakness of cultural influence on behaviour
Civilization vs. savagery
Strength and weakness of cultural influence on behaviour
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We are each born with human nature, taught to be civil, but we watch evil. Most people would say that we are each born different, but we are actually all born with the same human nature that makes each of us do the things we do. In the book Lord of the Flies the author, Ellie Golding, is just coming out of World War 2, which has a great influence on how she feels about civilization. When a person commits an act of evil we blame that person, but have we ever thought that maybe they learned it from our “civil” community? Look at the lines separating human nature, civilization, and evil, you might find that it is not as firm as you think it is.
What is human nature? Human nature is qualities that are associated to humankind. The quality, I believe, is the most propionate in human nature is selfishness. I’m not going to say that selfishness is necessarily a bad thing; in times where it was survival of the fittest you couldn’t afford to be selfless. You had to save yourself so you could carry on your genes to keep the human race alive. Fun is another quality of human nature, we lov...
Moreover, there should be no more wars and terrorist groups in the world, instead, there are constant terrorist attacks and ongoing wars around the world. One can also argue that humans are born good but are corrupted by society as they grow. This is wrong because humans are the ones who created that society in the first place… the concept of violence had to have come from somewhere, so if the society is what corrupted people and turned them into savages then that means that the humans were already savages in the first place because they created that corrupted society. In reality, people weren’t born good and corrupted by society, they were born savages and tried to create a system that would try to restrain people from committing violent crimes. That’s why in Lord of the Flies when the kids realize there are no adults on the island and there are no rules, the kids’ first thought was to do whatever they want because they felt free. The rules and laws of the civilized world were constricting them and they used this new found freedom to do everything they normally couldn’t. If humans were born good then they wouldn’t think about doing things that are not allowed in a world with laws because they would know it’s wrong, but that’s not what the kids on the island were thinking, they were thinking the exact
Mankind is innately evil. The allegorical novel, The Lord of the Flies, allows for little interpretation about human nature. William Golding depicts the idea, “evil is an inborn trait of man” (Golding). Throughout the novel the children who have crash landed on the island begin to uncover their savage nature. Although all of the children somehow succumb to a heinous behaviour, Jack, Ralph, and Roger become most noticeably corrupt. Ultimately, it becomes clear that malicious intent is intrinsic in mankind.
Charles Darwin, the famous evolutionist, once wrote: "In the struggle for survival, the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals because they succeed in adapting themselves best to their environment.” It was this message that Elie Wiesel learned during his captivity in World War II and incorporated into his novel, ‘Night’. It was also this message that William Golding tried to express through the scenario of his magnum opus, ‘Lord of the Flies’. Though, in both their novels, there was another message, an idea first realized by the great psychologist and philosopher Sigmund Freud. The idea was that when man is taken away from civilization, his instincts (the id) will overpower his conscience (super-ego) and man will return to their original, primitive style of thinking. In common society, there is a word to describe the acts and feelings of a man in his primitive state, a word that takes on many different meanings depending on one’s belief, this word is evil. Both lord of the flies and Night portrays the nature of evil as something that naturally exists in the human soul which is only prevented from release by the chains of civilization. Though, once the structure of civilization is removed from the lives of men; ‘evil’ is unleashed and humans would return to their natural thinking process of the survival of the fittest. By analyzing the main characters in both novels and their experiences throughout the novels, it is proven that evil in its nature is nothing more than the acts and desires of a man in his primitive state of thinking.
Every 60 seconds a person is murdered in the U.S. Yearly there are over 12,000 gun deaths in the United States. The amount of violence in our country is a result of how cruel people can be to each other and the lack of humanity we have as human beings. In the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding there are British boys that were on their way home but they crashed and now have to endure through the challenges the island they are on gives them. The book is representing humanity’s inner nature and shows the reader how different human actions are when bad things happen. A philosopher named John Locke believed that people are born with a blank slate and something bad must happen first in order for someone to be evil. Human nature is usually good but things can always change. The nature of humanity is inherently good because something must happen in order for people to be evil. If you were friends with somebody, something must happen between you two in order for you to hate them.
nature of man is any and all of the instincts and desires of a person or animal.
across all of our written history have discovered the importance of knowing human nature. Human nature is responsible for our definitions of abstract concepts that are surprisingly universal across the western world like justice, equity, and law. Human nature must also be carefully studied in an effort to understand, obtain, or maintain power within society. Finally, human nature must also be carefully understood so as to protect it from being manipulated and to understand its place in society.
It is the contention of this paper that humans are born neutral, and if we are raised to be good, we will mature into good human beings. Once the element of evil is introduced into our minds, through socialization and the media, we then have the potential to do bad things. As a person grows up, they are ideally taught to be good and to do good things, but it is possible that the concept of evil can be presented to us. When this happens, we subconsciously choose whether or not to accept this evil. This is where the theories of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke become interesting as both men differed in the way they believed human nature to be.
In a civilized society, certain aspects of humanity must be adhered to. Qualities such as empathy, respect, compassion, and kindness are key to maintaining order. What happens in society when these qualities disintegrate, and cease to exist altogether? William Golding’s “lord of the Flies” accurately demonstrates that in the absence of humanity, civilized society quickly evolves into one of savagery. Golding shows this evolution through the steady decay of the boy’s morals, values, and laws. The evolution of savagery begins with the individual.
Humans are naturally immoral, and the only reason that they are moral is because civilization bred it into them. As we see in Lord of the Flies, all of the boys except Simon feel the urge to destroy and kill. They go on wild hunts for pigs, hurt each other for entertainment, and form a wild tribe where everything is run by the tyrannical Jack and the sadistic Roger. Even Piggy and Ralph feel some of the others’ mob mentality when everyone, as a group, kills Simon, the only boy with a civilized heart. His death symbolizes how mankind kills off all notions of sympathy with its cruel and evil heart. If it were not for the moralizing effects of civilization, No humans would be present who pity others.
When anyone thinks of the word “evil” they do not think it is within themselves. In reality, without a structured and well-followed society, people are apt to follow their own corrupt desires and neglect the thought of consequence. In the allegory, Lord of the Flies, William Golding reveals that man’s selfishness and sinful nature will be unmasked when the structure of a society deteriorates.
Human nature is the most debated topic to date. Many people think that mankind is programmed to be evil; on the other hand people argue that it is naturally good. Nathaniel Hawthorne gave his argument with the novel, The Scarlet Letter. The Scarlet Letter showed that mankind is innately good by Chillingworth’s measures, Hester’s capitulates and Dimmesdale’s noble qualities.
Human nature is a concept that has interested scholars throughout history. Many have debated over what human nature is – that is, the distinguishing characteristics that are unique to humans by nature – while others have mulled over the fact that the answer to the question “what is human nature?” may be unattainable or simply not worth pursuing. Shakespeare explores the issue of human nature in his tragedy King Lear. In his play, he attempts to portray that human nature is either entirely good or entirely evil.
Look at the basis of civilization, what is the one terminal thing every society possesses? Malliciousness, since the beginning of time there has been one constant attribute of all humans, the ability to be destructive. Human beings are innately evil, the environment they are put in determines if the act on the evil inside of them. In the novel Lord of The Flies the atrocious behavior of the boys on the island exemplifies the concept of humans and heinous behavior. The stanford prison experiment conducted in August of 1971, recognizes the possessiveness of power in the absence of society, identifying the underlying autogenous behavior of humans. Religion is domesticated in both of these instances which dictates why there is as an absence of classic integrity. Ethology is displayed abundantly within the lord of the flies novel and the society it constitutes. Societies are created by
The understanding of human nature is the concept that there is a set of inherent distinguishing characteristics, including ways of thinking, feeling, and acting that all humans tend to possess (Winkler, 1996). My basic view of human nature correlates with Charles Darwin’s nature vs. nurture theory. Human nature is influenced by both nature and nurture. Nature is all that a man brings with himself into the world, and nurture is every influence that affects him after his birth. An individual’s morals, values, and beliefs are developed from the nurturing aspect of their life. The environment that an individual is raised in creates their human nature. Then they go through life developing more upon their own morals, values, and beliefs. The nature vs. nurture theory is an every changing concept, and I believe that human nature changes for each individual based on their life experiences.
Human nature is that quality that sets us apart from other living things; it is the definition of what we are.