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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.
Inside all of man is inherited evil that is concealed by our surroundings, and the society around us. Lord of the Flies reveals that without a structure, man is an evil savage beast. The young group of boys show that humankind is inherently evil through aggressive control and power. When the boys are put to do their duties, Jack starts become more demanding and belligerent towards his group of choirboys. When Jack tells Ralph, “I’ll split up the choir-my hunters that it, “ (Golding 42). Jack tries to show his suppirouness over the choirboys and how they are becoming more and more like savages. Jack then begins show his need for control and power by breaking the rules and doing his own thing, for example he says, “ Bollocks to the rules! Were strong- we hunt! If there’s a beast , we’ll hunt it down! We’ll close in and beat and beat and b...
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... people are out in the wild, and also have no civilization or government to keep their evil suppressed. At the very end of the book when the boys are rescued Golding writes, “ His voice rose under the black smoke before the burning wreckage of the island; and infected by that emotion, the other little boys began to shake and sob too. And in the middle of them, with filthy body, matted hair, and unwiped nose, Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy” (202). In this quote Ralph is crying because he has now lost all of his innocence that he once had before he got on that horrible island, due to everything that has happened on the island. He is also crying because he had just lost his friend Piggy because of the savagery acts of the boys and now he realizes how evil everyone is.
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.
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a novel about human nature and the functions of society. One of the main characters in this novel is Ralph, who is chosen to be the leader of a group of boys. He assigns tasks to the boys and tries to keep them accountable for it. However, the boys begin to slack because they can no longer see the point of these tasks and rules. As a result of the constant slacking the boys soon turned into savages. Ralph’s struggle to maintain order amongst the boys shows how without rules it is human nature to descend into savagery due to the avoidance of authority.
Humans, by nature, are genuinely good people who show compassion and concern for others, right? Well true, if we all lived in a utopian land. Unfortunately, humans are, in fact, evil and easily corrupted by others. In William Golding’s 1954 published Lord of the Flies, the boy’s on the island learn that a peaceful civilization is easily destroyed without cooperation or agreement. The frustration manifested itself, making a transformation of the boys into meat hungry, hunters, who even try to hunt the other boys who don’t follow the pack. Golding analyzes the flaws of human society, directly related to human nature.
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.
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.
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
“Drug dealers go big, use Boeing for coke run”, “11 killed in Pakistan by suicide bomber”, “Parents largely unaware teen binge drinking is growing deadlier” (Edmonton Journal, November 18, 2009). It is truly staggering to see the number of articles concerning crime, felony and death in a newspaper, everyday. It is not hard to find articles about laws being broken, about lawbreakers going free and about people being killed. The concept of newspapers full of stories showing humanity’s evil suggests that there is something wrong with today’s world, but newspapers have always been full of such articles and events. It is clear that humanity’s evil inspired William Golding’s Lord of the Flies: a commentary on the innate evil in all man. In Golding’s novel, a group of young boys survive a plane crash and become marooned on an empty island. Their attempt at civilization quickly fails, and leads to disorder, death and savagery.
Most people understand that there is a class system even if it is unspoken. William Golding believed that all humans were savage and evil deep down. This idea was the one mostly portrayed in the novel Lord of the Flies, but also shown in the novel is a deep allegorical comparison between boys on the island and classes they would fall into in everyday society. Little’uns, big’uns and Jack and his hunters all represent different classes of people.
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.
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.
“Often fear of one evil leads us into a worse”(Despreaux). Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux is saying that fear consumes oneself and often times results in a worse fate. William Golding shares a similar viewpoint in his novel Lord of the Flies. A group of boys devastatingly land on a deserted island. Ralph and his friend Piggy form a group. Slowly, they become increasingly fearful. Then a boy named Jack rebels and forms his own tribe with a few boys such as Roger and Bill. Many things such as their environment, personalities and their own minds contribute to their change. Eventually, many of the boys revert to their inherently evil nature and become savage and only two boys remain civilized. The boys deal with many trials, including each other, and true colors show. In the end they are being rescued, but too much is lost. Their innocence is forever lost along with the lives Simon, a peaceful boy, and an intelligent boy, Piggy. Throughout the novel, Golding uses symbolism and characterization to show that savagery and evil are a direct effect of fear.
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.
William Golding's first book, Lord of the Flies, is the story of a group of boys of different backgrounds who are marooned on an unknown island when their plane crashes. As the boys try to organize and formulate a plan to get rescued, they begin to separate and as a result of the dissension a band of savage tribal hunters is formed. Eventually the "stranded boys in Lord of the Flies almost entirely shake off civilized behavior: (Riley 1: 119). When the confusion finally leads to a manhunt [for Ralph], the reader realizes that despite the strong sense of British character and civility that has been instilled in the youth throughout their lives, the boys have backpedaled and shown the underlying savage side existent in all humans. "Golding senses that institutions and order imposed from without are temporary, but man's irrationality and urge for destruction are enduring" (Riley 1: 119). The novel shows the reader how easy it is to revert back to the evil nature inherent in man. If a group of well-conditioned school boys can ultimately wind up committing various extreme travesties, one can imagine what adults, leaders of society, are capable of doing under the pressures of trying to maintain world relations.
“The loss of innocence for which Ralph weeps at the novel's close is not, however, a matter of transformation from childish goodness to adolescent depravity, is not a growing into wickedness. It is rather the coming of an awareness of darkness, of the evil in man's heart that was present in the children all along,” (Boyd). At the end of the novel, Ralph cries for a few reasons. He cries because he has lost his friend Piggy. He also cries because he has lost his innocence. He now realizes that there is evil in every man.