Human Nature In Lord Of The Flies

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George Washington, Adolf Hitler, Abraham Lincoln, Joseph Stalin. All of these people have something in common: they were all leaders. Now, to say they were similar would be crazy. Two of these people showed the positive effects of human nature through their leadership. Two of these people showed their human nature, Also through their leadership, but in a negative way. Leaders have the chance to be selfish, powerful, and evil but they also have the chance to change the world for the better and do great things. Positive and negative characteristics of human nature can be seen when someone is put into a position of leadership. These characteristics of human nature can be seen through Ralph and Jack in Lord of the Flies by William Golding . Ralph, …show more content…

Unlike Ralph, Jack Showed the negative effects of human nature. When Jack created his own tribe he created a system in which his people would obey him and other people would fear him. Jack and his tribe even try to kill Ralph at one point. Golding says, “Tired though he was , he could not relax and fall into a well of sleep for fear of the tribe” (Golding 145). This is terrible leadership by Jack. This island that they live on is dangerous enough and the fact that there is conflict between people is not good. Jack has shown his negative human nature by creating a society in which the driving factor to complete tasks is fear and fear alone. Once again leadership has shown true character. Jack not only makes people fear him, he makes them kill and have a craze for blood. It started off with killing pigs for food and then killing pigs for fun. But it turned into almost an addiction that the boys have for blood and killing. Jack even orders the tribe to pretend one of the boys was a pig and to go pretend kill him. The text states, “Screamed struck bit tour. There are no words, no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws” (Golding 118). This shows that under Jack's leadership the boys have turned into savages. Even though they were only pretending that the boy was a pig, the acts of aggression were real. This once again is showing the negative human Nature through Jack’s leadership. Some would argue against this and say that Jack is providing food for them and that is above all making him a good leader. Yes it is true that Jack is providing food in the form of pigs, but as we know their are natural fruits and plants on the island that are safe to eat. Also the aggression and violence he has learned through killing pigs has been used to kill two kids throughout the book. Jack continues to show his negative human nature through his leadership during the entire

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