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The Psychology of Evil Demonstrated in Lord of the Flies The psychology of evil is vital to understanding why Jack and Ralph progress through the story as they do. In Lord of the Flies, evil is an undoubted key to life on the island. The main characters in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies demonstrate Zimbardo’s “Seven Social Processes that Grease the Slippery Slope of Evil,” most notable mindlessly taking the first step, blind obedience to authority, and de-individualization of self. In the novel, Jack, more so than the other boys, mindlessly takes the first step towards evil. Mindlessly taking the first step is commonly known as “evil starts out small” (Tomasulo). Jack demonstrates one minuscule first step by possessing a knife before the boys crash onto the island. This shows that Jack was violent before the crash. Jack also forced his choir boys to march through the dense tropical heat in their long black cloaks. In this instance, Jack shows that he is unsympathetic towards the feelings of the other boys. Jack …show more content…
mindlessly takes the first step towards evil before he is overcome by savagery. Zimbardo’s process of blind obedience to authority is shown in Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Blind obedience to authority can be described as blaming another person for your actions because it was their orders that you followed. The boys do not obey Ralph, a democratic leader, but Jack, a dictatorial leader, is unquestionably obeyed. The strong leader, Jack, is obeyed because he commands the boys to complete tasks, whereas Ralph, the tolerant leader, requests that the boys complete tasks. Jack takes advantage of his power, therefore “Power without oversight is prescription for abuse” (Bgiussani). Jack also could be easily blamed for their actions due to commanding, but Ralph could not easily be blamed because he allows the boys to choose their actions. Jack forces the boys to guard their camp, whereas Ralph requests that the boys maintain the fire. Ralph was not commanding, therefore the boys felt the task was optional and not worthwhile. Blind obedience to authority also applies to the human nature of the boys. It is human nature to do as we are told, whether it is good or evil. Jack commands his tribe to tie up Samneric. The boys that perform the task give in without question. Golding writes that “Now the painted group felt the otherness of Samneric, felt the power in their own hands” (Golding 179). The boys also hunt pig under Jack’s rule. At the end of the novel, the boys even hunt Ralph when Jack tells them to. Zimbardo’s blind obedience to authority is prominently shown through Jack’s leadership strategies. Lord of the Flies prominently shows Zimbardo’s process of de-individualization of self.
De-individualization of self is generally considered as making oneself anonymous. In Jack’s tribe, you must paint your face. Jack is the force of evil, conflicting with Ralph, the force of good. The face paint distinctly distinguishes between the forces of good and evil, while also creating the sense of anonymity that is often necessary to do evil. Daniel Tomasulo describes anonymity in the terms “When we are anonymous, we are more violent” (Tomasulo). Jack and his tribe turn fully savage once their faces are painted. With this newfound sense of anonymity, the tribe hunts pig, kills Piggy, kills Simon, and even tries to hunt Ralph. To unknowingly make the acts of evil easier, the boys paint their faces, thus allowing them to possibly feel as if they are entirely someone else. Anonymity, or de-individualization of self, is a pronounced process in Lord of the
Flies. Zimbardo’s “Seven Social Processes that Grease the Slippery Slope of Evil” are displayed in William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies, with mindlessly taking the first step, blind obedience to authority, and de-individualization of self most obviously noted. It is clear throughout the novel that Golding wanted the reader to take notice of the descent to savagery taken by the boys. All evil starts with one small step, we are always taught to obey authority, and anonymity makes evil easier. There is a certain evil within us all, as shown in Lord of the Flies.
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.
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.
Jack is considered one of the hunters, which means he knows how to track and kill. Sometimes it didn’t really matter to Jack what he was killing, it’s just who he is and has become as a person while on the Island. When Jack and his fellow hunters were about to go out on a hunt they would rub dirt on their faces to camouflage them in their surroundings. In the article “Sunglasses make you less Generous” by Alice Robb it states how when people cover their face so it's hard for others to identify them it makes them less generous. Studies show that “empirical data shows that masks make people more likely to violate rules and norms” (Powell, Kimberly). Jack can be considered a victim of this study because that thin layer of mud changes him from Jack to a primitive killer. Jack's soul possesses a mix of savagery and madness. Sometimes Jack doesn't know how to control himself without even thinking of being violent in any manner. Jack can sometimes get out of control about actions that occur which he doesn’t agree with just like when Ralph yells at him for not manning the fire which could have got them off the island. Some people/scientists may say that anger and strong tempers can be inherited through genes, but according the article Nature vs. Nature, Kimberly Powell says that “the link between a gene and a behavior is not connected to each other and can be set off from a certain cause” This explains how the evil that is possessed in Jack can be set off from another character in the book . These two connect by both being involved with killing or death. This just gives us a preview of how Jack thinks and wants to do
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.
When Ralph sees the naval officer that appears on the island to save them, he realizes that he will return to civilization. The shock causes him to reflect on what has happened. The rescue does not produce joy; instead he feels despair at what he has been through. He is awakened to the reality that he will never be the same. He has lost his innocence and learned about the evil that lurks within himself and all men through his experiences on the island. Ralph’s revelation to his loss of innocence and societal order among the boys is exemplified through the collapse of the attempted Democratic government, the killing of the pig, and the death of Piggy and Simon.
William Golding’s novel ‘The Lord of The Flies’ tells the story of a group of English boys isolated on a desert island, left to attempt to retain civilisation. In the novel, Golding shows one of the boys, Jack, to change significantly. At the beginning of the book, Jack’s character desires power and although he does not immediately get it, he retains the values of civilized behaviour. However, as the story proceeds, his character becomes more savage, leaving behind the values of society. Jack uses fear of the beast to control the other boys and he changes to become the book’s representation of savagery, violence and domination. He is first taken over with an obsession to hunt, which leads to a change in his physical appearance This change of character is significant as he leads the other boys into savagery, representing Golding’s views of there being a bad and unforgiving nature to every human.
Inherent Evil of Man Exposed in Lord of the Flies & nbsp; 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 of mankind. Lord of the Flies dealt with the changes the boys underwent as they gradually adapted to the freedom of 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. & nbsp; Through the story, Simon acted as the Christ Figure. The death of Simon symbolized the loss of religious reasoning.
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.
Whether people will deny it or not, it is certainly apparent that human nature is all too evil; for there is a demon that lurks in everyone, just waiting to come out. Humans can build civilizations and attempt to deviate themselves from such basic instincts, yet nevertheless, evil is not something that they can run from; it is not something that they can defeat. William Golding knew this, and so in his book, Lord of the Flies, he presents so by portraying a microcosm of a society in the form of little British schoolboys. Their plane, in an attempt to escape from the raging war, came to its own demise as it was shot down, leaving the boys stranded on an island they know nothing of. Ralph, later on the leader of the boys, and with the help of
Would you be able to resist savagery from being away from society? Could you resist the urging power to kill? How about being able to find food without killing or not to go full savage on other people, could you still do it? A normal person could say no to all of these. In the novel, “Lord of The Flies”, William Golding shows that without civilization, a person can turn into a savage by showing progressively how they went through the seven steps of savagery.
Arguably, the most savage person on the island is Jack Merridew. The first image of Jack and his group is presented as "something dark" and a "creature" before Golding goes on to explain "the creature was a party of boys." Ironically, that is exactly what happens. The beast turns out to be the evil within the children themselves. Jack conflicts with most of the other major characters from the beginning. He calls Piggy "Fatty" repeatedly and opposes Jack almost every step of the way. As the novel progresses, Jack becomes more domineering and assertive, slowly losing all of his former morals and civility. The one point in the novel where this happens is when Jack paints his face: "He made one cheek and one eye socket white. . ." Then Jack proceeds to cover the other half of his face in red, foreshadowing his perpetual recruiting and takeover of the island. Jack ends up as the other authority figure on the island by force and by exploiting the other boys need for savagery. The need for savagery arises because of Golding's views of humans as being vicious by nature. Jack, being a leader in his own right, can not see the light of day again once he has seen the darkness of self indulgence and absolute power.
Jack’s playful innocence is clearly shown on page 25. “Come on,’ said Jack presently, ‘we’re explorers.” His upbeat and inquisitive attitude shows that though he arrived on the island with a thirst for power and an inflated ego, he was still full the joy of childhood. Quickly, this naive innocence was lost, and Jack’s blood hunger grew. This transition into darkness can be noted when Jack and his boys let the fire extinguish to slaughter a pig. The fire was their connection to the outside world, but on Jack’s orders they abandoned it to kill an animal- when they already had enough food. They chanted “Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood.”(p.69), as they were corrupted with primal instinct and adrenaline. This act was shortsighted and gruesome, but it was not the end of Jack’s violence. Towards the end of the book, he
“Everybody has good and evil within them. All we're trying to say is that people are not all good or all bad. People are more complicated than you think, and one has to be more knowledgeable about the complexities.” This quotation from Stephen Schwartz establishes that even the best of people can be bitter by their own nature. In the novel, Lord of the Flies, William Golding removes the restraints of society to prove that it is human nature to live primitively and that evil lies within all of us. The sanctions of society begin to deteriorate due to the loss of communication, Jack’s obsession with hunting, and the inhumane nature of Jack and his “tribe”.
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.
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.