How Does Golding Create Corruption In Lord Of The Flies

Lord Of The Flies

Once, in an English class William Golding was teaching, he decided to

conduct an experiment with his students. William left his students in the classroom by themselves, allowing the students to control themselves. The entire experiment rapidly escalated as the students were on the brink of murdering each other, and the entire classroom turned into utter anarchy. This experiment became the inspiration for William Golding's Nobel Prize winning novel, Lord of the Flies. Golding once said, “Lord of the Flies was an attempt to trace the defects of human society back to the defects of the individual, the moral is that the shape of society must depend on the ethical nature of the individual.” In the novel Golding uses symbolism

and metaphors to demonstrate that there is evil in all of us, and that defective individuals create a defective society which is demonstrated in his writing, it is also demonstrated that the desire for a stable security really can bring out the inner evil in order to try to grasp desperately at maintaining order and control.

In this novel we see the process of corruption in an individual, as well as observing how every person has evil festering inside them and the havoc it can reek in a society. Golding uses the characters Jack and Ralph to demonstrate this, Jack at first obeying Ralph's authority and then slowly becoming more and more power hungry and crazed. This allowed his true evil to show through when there is nothing stopping the evil intentions.

The novel starts off with Ralph being voted in as chief of the boys, slowly building a civilized society, formed on rules and democracy. However, Jack is slightly agitated because he believes he should be chief and that he could provide better security for the other boys because he is stronger. When Ralph was elected, Jack spoke up with arrogance claiming, “I ought to be chief, because I'm chapter chorister and head boy.” (Page 22). Jack clearly has a problem with being thought of as anything

less than “head boy” because of the reaction he had, leading his insecurities to expose themselves because he does not to be thought of as anything less than the “top dog”. Males especially tend to have big egos which is a flaw in an individual, they always tend to strive for control which leads to fights and problems. An individual's ego like Jacks can cause misery in a group and bigger problems in a society. As the novel progresses, Jack begins to get even more egotistical and grasps for an important role by turning his choir of boys into the hunters of the group. This shows how Jack wanted to still have control over people, so he gave himself a extremely important role. This also gave Jack control over a small group which lights the greed in him to want to control more of the society. This allowed Jack's ego to take over when he became extremely dismissive and rude towards Piggy when Piggy only wanted to help. Jack flatley stated, “We don't want you.” (Page 24). Jack is already showing traits of a corrupted, defective leader by simply dismissing someone in a rude and emotionless manner. Golding is already supporting his idea, by showing Jack already as a defective leader who lets his greed for power along with his macho ego get in the way of his judgement and compassion for of people’s emotions and well being. This shows how Ralph is a good leader only wanting to provide security to the boys, but on the other side Jack is becoming evil and deranged because he so desperately wants the power.
Later in the novel, we see Jack's progression, exposing his inner evil which is leading to the power struggle between the two boys, both desperate for the security of power which is starting to really warp the individuals identity. In the novel Jack came back from his hunting trip with his choir boys and starts to really expose his true colours when he makes it clear he does not like the current society and rules Ralph has created to try and keep everyone happy and civil. This is a turning point in the novel because it really shows how different both boys identity are, Jack is corrupt and power hungry and because of that he isn't thinking straight but Ralph is content with the security and the society he has set up which shows through his leading. While Jack is away on his hunting trip an important event happens in the novel, Jack paints his face, creating a mask. This is symbolic and connected to Golding’s idea, the mask is a representation how someone like Jack can easily hide behind a mask and let out their inner evil without exposing his true insecurity which is lack of power. “He began to dance and his laughter turned into a bloodthirsty snarling.” (Page 64). This is a huge example of how Jack is really letting his inner evil and power insecurities cloud his judgement. The hunt Jack lead starts a huge argument between him and Ralph which sets the tone for the rest of the novel. Because of the argument it drives a huge rift between the society Ralph has created and the group of “savages” Jack as created. Jack then begins to let his priorities slip through the cracks as he begins to become obsessive with violence and killing a pig. “You let the fire go out” repeated Ralph. Jack has become obsessive with the need to kill a pig and proclaim his trophy of meat to increase the respect he gets because he feels threatened by Ralph. To get more of the boys wanting him as chief, instead of actually putting his priorities like the fire in order to get rescued before his ego and power hungry craze.
The last chapters in the novel is really when Jack shows his true inner evil.

Jack and his tribe of savages, murder two people, one being Piggy the boy Jack dismissed in earlier chapters not giving any thought to Simons emotional well being and the other being the novels Christ like character. Piggy was murdered by a rock rolling down a mountain which was not an accident, but was planned and carried out in a gruesome manner. The ending of the novel really just exposes how a lack of security can turn an innocent little boy into a deranged, murdering, insecure beast. This then causes problems in a society because Ralph is now unable to gain the control back which sends him spiraling out of control. This act of violence shows how all individuals harness an evil and when that evil is exposed it creates a defective human society because everyone lets their inner evil out without a care in the world. Jack and his savages then plan a hunt, but this time it isn't a pig hunt, this time they want to murder Ralph. “Sharpen a stick at both end.” (Page 190) This symbolic because of the fact, in the novel they mounted the head of the sow they killed on a stick sharpened at both ends. This is important because it shows just how far Jack is willing to go to make it known he will be the only chief and will not have competition. The boy’s have been on the island for months now, and have created a defective society which has killed two innocent people all because of the defective, corrupted

leader that stole the society away from a good leader.
In conclusion, the novel shows how Ralph is a noble and fair leader which shapes his identity and provides a good sense of security to the boys. But, Jack becomes insecure and threatened by Ralph which clouds his judgement in everything, making him become impulsive and obsessive because of the simple fact his security was threatened. In the end the novel shows how the desire for security is often intertwined with the desire for power, because with power come respect and with respect comes obedience. Both boys took very different approaches to gain the power and to feel secure once again, but because of the way Jack became impulsive he started to kill and use violence to get his way which sent Ralph spirling into a downwards circle because he didn't know how to get his security back. The individuals that make up a society will always have inner evil and defects, those individuals make up the society which creates a defective society, because people desire power to feel security. “What you’re calling evil, is part of human nature.” (Nikolas Schreck).