William Golding, wrote Lord of the Flies to describe how nature plays a role in society. In Lord of the Flies, boys aged six through thirteen are stranded on an island, when their plane is shot down. Sadly, the society they developed failed, resulting in three deaths and increasing tension between the boys. In E.L. Epstein's article “Notes on Lord of the Flies,” Golding describes the savagery of human nature, due to the evilness in humans, leading to the corruptness of society. (par. 3). Golding’s view of the world is that human nature is the key to cause corruption in society. Epstein’s article talks about how the island in Lord of the Flies is a microcosm of the world, inhabited by young boys, to represent the worldwide corruption. Golding …show more content…
explains that the “shape of a society must depend on the ethical nature of an individual,” an evil environment is needed in order for society to be corrupt (Epstein par. 3). In order for the world to be corrupt, it is necessary to have evil humans to cause a corrupt society. This shows that a savage society starts with each individual. An Enlightenment thinker, Hobbes states that everyone is evil because of human nature, everything starts with an individual, soon corrupting areas of the world. Just before the boy’s savage pig hunt, “[the boys] found themselves..in this demented, but partly secure society...” (Lord of the Flies 86). The way society is structured, the boys are in a savage mindset, urging them to kill anything that comes their way. Since the boys are energized kill the pig, they accidentally kill Simon thinking he was the beast. At the island, the conch represents authority and power, since Piggy didn’t have the authority he said, "I just [took] the conch to say this... Awful things have been done on this island” (Lord of the Flies 160). The experience of murder on the island shows that the boys are savages making the world corrupt. The island is a microcosm of the world, with the boys being evil, making all of the society evil. William Golding wrote an article to explain why boys are evil.
In the article, “Why Boys Become Vicious,” it states that “when people are afraid they discover the violence within them and when they are afraid together they discover that the violence within them can be bottomless (par. 16). This is an example of the boys in Lord of the Flies similarly to Ralph when he was afraid, he soon noticed that the games they were playing were not just games, but murder. When the boys were in groups, they were terrified than when being alone. George Washington stated that “it’s better to be alone, than with bad company” (George Washington). Since Ralph was alone, he noticed the crimes he had created, in contrast, when Jack was together with the choir group, he turned the choir group into hunters. In the article, “Why Boys Become Vicious,” Golding states that “we are born with evil in us and cruelty is part of us” (par.19). This shows that everyone is born evil and there is a part of cruelty in each individual. In Lord of the Flies, the boys are savages, even Ralph had an evil side, but also has a strong side. Something deep in “Ralph spoke to him. "I'm chief. I'll go. Don't argue," this shows that the evil side of Ralph when he made orders, showing authority, and since the island is a microcosm it shows that everyone has a devil in them, telling them to commit a crime (Lord of the Flies 110). If everyone commits an evil crime, then this will be the cause of society to turn evil and
making the world corrupt. Authority can make mankind to become evil since Ralph had authority, he became evil.
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.
Lord of the Flies by William Golding Through his writing in the book Lord of the Flies, William Golding's view on. nature is not as in the plant and tree kind of nature, but in the nature of man at a young age of life. Golding is trying to portray what instincts and desires are like at an early time in a man's life when there are no adults around to help shape those. feelings to fit in with the mainstream society that people live in everyday. The nature of man is any and all of the instincts and desires of a person or animal.
When order disappears, human nature converts to savagery. William Golding wrote The Lord of the Flies to prove evil exists in human. Golding shows direct and indirect characterization of Jack to demonstrate that true savagery exists.
William Golding wrote the novel, Lord of the Flies, to express the concept that a society is a representation of the individuals within the society. A society does not cause the members to become corrupted instead, it is corrupted because of the unethical nature of the citizens. Golding portrayed this in Lord of the Flies by making a microcosm in which many boys were stranded without help from any adults. This caused the kids to take control of the government and make their own rules. Golding represents the corruption of society by having the boy’s leave a huge impact on the island. Before the kids crash landed on the island, it is shown being very peaceful, but by the time the boys leave the island, it is trashed, “but the island was scorched
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.
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.
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.
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding is tale of a group of young boys who become stranded on a deserted island after their plane crashes. Intertwined in this classic novel are many themes, most that relate to the inherent evil that exists in all human beings and the malicious nature of mankind. In The Lord of the Flies, Golding shows the boys' gradual transformation from being civilized, well-mannered people to savage, ritualistic beasts.
A well functioning society has made sure to shape its citizens to exemplify its key principles to camouflage the basic instinct of evil that exists within all humanity. William Golding has placed Ralph in the midst of all the chaos and disorder in the island to personify a more civilized and structured way of thinking. His role in the Lord of the Flies is to provide an adequate picture of what morals and values humans should embody within a society. However, Jack, who represents the savage aspect of humanity, challenges Ralph’s moral instincts and authority. His thoughts towards the end ...
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.
...religious allegory. He depicts a story in which the boys are stranded on an island and need to fend for themselves. However, instead of focusing on rescue and building a fire, the boys ultimately shift their priorities to hunting and killing. They turn a once beautiful and majestic island into a place of terror and evil. Additionally, they maul and kill their only hope of ever changing, Simon. Lord of the Flies is reminiscent of the television series “Lost.” Just like in Golding’s world, “Lost” is staged on a remote far away island after a plane crash. However, these people are not children. They are adults, which makes the story even more chilling. These adults eventually succumb to murderous acts and violence, further proving the point Golding sets out to make. Humans are inherently evil, and without any system to keep them in line, they will destroy the world.
The novel, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, is an allegorical novel that shows the destructive nature of human beings. Through the breakdown of the society formed by innocent kids who survived the plane wreck, Golding shows that there are many basic human traits that can lead to the destruction of the society. However, the most predominant human trait that leads to the destruction of the society in the Lord of the flies is the struggle for power, the disposition toward savageness and the fear of the unknown.
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.
There will always be a bit of evil in everything. This is expressed in a variety of ways in the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding. When the boys originally crashed on the island, they were innocent, but the sudden change in environment took that away. They were forced to care for themselves in a way they were never prepared for. They had to grow up and be mature at the ages of twelve and under. This amount of impact can cause a lot of disability and confusion in the way a person distinguishes wrong from right. The Lord of the Flies (pig’s head) symbolizes this loss of innocence, strength in purity, and the invasion of evil in everything.
The novel Lord of the Flies endeavors to showcase the human nature as to inherit evil from within, Golding’s philosophy of evil is sculpted by the character, setting and the beast in the story. It is shown that the inner nefariousness is unleashed when a man does not have discipline and civilization in his life. The vile wickedness to kill, fight, hunt and to do everything which the boys could not even think about when they landed, came from the evil, lingering within them, that popped out when they found out the mask which protected them. Golding, deliberately puts the boys on an island where there is no one to harm or hurt them, to exhibit that the boys evolved from being civilized too evil, due to nothing but the inner anxiety and rivalry.