The Evil within Human Nature “I have experienced real horror. I know the true evil. Its name is Human Nature.” -James Newman. Lord of the Flies is a book about young schoolboys who are stranded on an island. The boys end up separating from each other. Jack, the hunter, becomes jealous and power hungry and eventually kills two boys on the island. Jack brings out the evil nature of most of the boys. This can also be seen in the world we live in. There are many examples where humans have been evil. Some examples include 9/11, war in general, and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to name a few. Golding’s novel helps reveal human nature’s evil tendencies. In his novel Lord of the Flies, Golding portrays human nature as evil; Golding’s depiction …show more content…
Some of the boys on the island: Ralph, Piggy, Simon, Sam, and Eric, realize the evil ways of Jack and his tribe. Simon says, “Maybe there is a beast...maybe it’s only us.” (Golding 89). Golding argues that human nature is evil in most ways. It takes a strong person to not let the wicked take over. Golding provides the evil side of human nature in the Lord of the Flies through the boys on the island. Jack is a great example of this. Jack becomes corrupt and eager for control and power. This eventually spread to the other boys in Jack’s tribe. Golding uses Jack and his tribe to display the evil within humans. This is an accurate depiction of human nature because all mankind has evil …show more content…
Jack became increasingly savage throughout the book. He became so power hungry that he threatened anybody that was not in his tribe. Ralph, Simon, Sam, Eric, and Piggy faced the consequences of not being in the Jacks tribe. Simon was brutally killed by the boys during their feast. Sam and Eric were forced to join Jack’s tribe. Ralph had to run for his life because Jack and his tribe were going to kill him. Lastly, Piggy was killed by Jack and his hunters, Jack had no remorse: “See? See? See? See? See? That’s what you’ll get! I meant to say that! There isn’t a tribe for you anymore! “I’m chief!” (Golding 181). In this scene in the novel, Piggy was just hit with a huge boulder. Jack felt no guilt at Piggy’s death. Jack craved violence, so he did not care that Piggy was dead. At the end of the quote, Jack tells Ralph that he doesn’t have a tribe anymore. Jack’s savage nature consumes him after this scene. Jack and his tribe hunt for Ralph and set the entire island on fire to try and find him, so that they can kill Ralph. Savagery can be seen in all parts of the world. One example is the Boston Bombings. Two brothers created two hand-made bombs and set them off during the Boston Marathon. The Marathon was perfectly fine until, “just before 3 p.m. the festivities suddenly turned into chaos and horror.” The bombs were “set 12 seconds apart” and “detonated near the finish line.” Sadly “the blasts killed
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.
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.
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.
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
“Inside each of us, there is the seed of both good and evil. It's a constant struggle as to which one will win. And one cannot exist without the other” (Eric Burdon). People do not think they are doing good or evil, they just think that they are doing the right thing. Evil comes from within each one of us. You just need to something to bring it out.
Jack’s representation of malignant and viciousness validates that there is a dark side of human nature. As choirmaster, Jack succeeds pushing control over others, such as the choir, through his manipulative approach. He concentrates on hunting and yearns for meat. In result, his repulsive acts create a savage within. Evil is present in every single one of us and it is natural for one to do whatever it takes to stay alive. In Golding’s novel, Lord of The Flies, Golding depicts society through the group of stranded boys who are compelled to create their own representation of civilization. Though the civilized boys were born into the liberated civilization not all approach the situation with an enlightened belief. Everyone has the proposition to do great however when undermined, man can turn vicious, such as Jack. His fundamental conflicts are that people are savage by nature, and are moved by urges to dominate over others. The natural darkness in humankind brings about the breakdown of civilization, as demonstrated by Jack.
“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”.
The issue on whether man is good or evil has been debated over several generations. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, a group of young boys are stranded on an uninhabited island. In the beginning, the boys have fun and are carefree while adventuring on the island. With no adults around to tell them how to behave, the boys declare war on one another and face several conflicts. These conflicts provide Golding with the opportunity to explore the idea that society restrains the evil intentions of human nature.
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.
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.
In William Golding's Lord of the Flies, Golding shows his readers that humans are evil by nature: and without strong moral conduct, humans will be tempted to let go of their civilized self. The novel tells about a group of English boys who are stranded on an island while war is happening in the outside world. The boys make rules, and are happy with the island, but soon, everything starts to go wrong. The island starts to wear on some of the boys, and the temptations for power rise. Both the coincidental and deliberate dehumanization that takes place on the island is important because had it not been for this process of dehumanization, the boys would neither have descended into "savagery" nor followed Jack.
Man’s inhumanity to man literally means human’s cruelty towards other humans. This is a major theme of the story and is seen throughout it. Golding himself even states that “man produces evil as a bee produces honey.” A review of the book states how Golding portrays this “because the boys are suffering from the terrible disease of being human.” Piggy, Ralph, and Simon are the “rational good of mankind” portrayed in the book, and Jack and his hunters are the “evil savagery of mankind.” “The beast” is a symbol for the evil in all humans, and Simon and Piggy, or rationality, are almost helpless in his presence. Simon, though, in a book filled with evil, is a symbol of vision and salvation. He is the one to see the evil as it truly exists, in the hearts of all humanity. When he tries to tell the others of this truth, however, he is killed, much like Christ was trying to bring salvation to the ignorant. Simon being there gives us hope; the truth is available to those who seek it. In the book, Jack and his hunters become so evil that they end up killing two boys while on the island. Man’s tendencies towards evil in The Lord of the Flies are also compared to the book of Genesis in the Bible. Nature, beauty, and childhood can all be corrupted by the darkness within humankind. The ending of this truly dark and evil story tells readers how Golding feels about evil within society and where he thinks humanity is headed. Evil will triumph over the intellect and good, unless some force intercedes. In th...
Lily Feinberg Ms. Hannah Ap English Lit. 22 May 2024 Girl, Interrupted The author behind the award-winning novel “Girl, Interrupted,” Susanna Kaysen, used her personal history with mental illness to write an extremely immersive fictional book that follows the events after the main character’s failed suicide attempt. Kaysen was raised in a privileged household where her mother, Annette Kaysen, was heir to renowned architects, and her father, Carl Kaysen, was a well-known MIT professor. Kaysen, at the time of publishing, was 45 years old, living in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Though her childhood was privileged, it also came with the hurdle of struggles with mental health (Borderline Personality Disorder), which sprouted at a young age and came
Famous Russian writer, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, once stated that “the battleline between good and evil runs through the heart of every man”. This idea of a war between good and evil inside every human is expanded upon in William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies. Lord of the Flies tells the story of a group of boys who find themselves stranded on an abandoned island with no adults. The boys create rules and elect a leader, Ralph. Ralph’s main goal is to get the boys rescued by using a signal fire.