Today’s news is often focused on the flaws of humanity; the problems in society. However, everyday, humans prove they’re more than savages. Humans prove they have morals, ethics, compassion, that they are capable of improving humanity so that our history, full of war and bloodshed, wouldn’t be repeated. William Golding was born on September 19, 1911 and lived till 1993. His lifespan brought him through two world wars where he witness the pinnacle of human destruction. In response, Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies, published on September 17, 1954 and based on Golding’s philosophy on human nature and how it affects our society. Presumably dated during World War II, a group of school boys found themselves stranded on an island with no visible …show more content…
Where some people are selfish and violent, others will be selfless. For example the Florida shooting on February 2018 was one of the most violent school shootings to happen in the United States. A former student shot fire on thousands of helpless staff members and students, a human’s lack of compassion for other human life. However, at the same time, the people present at that school showcased heroism and selflessness, including a man named Aaron Feis who died when “he shielded a female student from the shooter and pushed her out of the way” (Baker 4). The Florida shooting is now a symbol for the brutality and savagery possible in every human, but the tragic story gave light to heroes that would change thousands’ of lives through their actions. Feis could’ve ran, could’ve ignored the students running for their lives, but it was not in his conscience to do so. The shooter was selfish, having not given a thought to the lives he would be taking as he planned his assault. He was brought to the edge of insanity because of his past and took it out on the students from his past high school. He and Feis are not similar. Savage humans like Jack and Rogers from Lord of the Flies do exist, however, everyone else will see the shooting in a bigger picture and realize that they can save lives in sacrifice of theirs. Some people have and will take that sacrifice. And when humanity and morality is on the line, humans, despite any diversity, are willing to collaborate and relinquish themselves to solve a larger issue. In the unpopular town of Goodhue, Minnesota, a man had collapsed outside a grocery store from a heart attack. The response was immediate, with one man calling 911, another rushing out to give CPR, and “several other people across the street” racing to the man to give CPR (Corbley 4).
Compassion has became something rare in our society, and something that a lot of people lack. The author, Barbara Lazear Ascher, explains to us that compassion is not a character trait, but rather something that we learn along the way with the help of real life situations we encounter, such as the ones she encountered herself. Ascher persuades her audience that compassion is not just something you are born with by using anecdotes, rhetorical questions, and allusions.
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.
the top of the mountain so build a signal fire as it would be easiest
William Golding’s Lord of the Flies is set on an uninhabited island during World War II.
The two essays “On Compassion” and “This is Water” by Barbara Ascher and David Wallace argue their different viewpoints on both compassion and empathy. While Ascher simply argues that compassion is not a simple character trait but more so a skill acquired overtime; Wallace tries to convince his audience that humans are preprogramed to be motivated by their own selfish desires and must reprogram themselves to think out of sympathy and concern for others.
"An attempt to trace the defects of human society back to the defects of human nature. The moral is that the shape of a society must depend on the ethical nature of the individual and not on any political system however apparently logical or respectable."
In a civilized society, certain aspects of humanity must be adhered to. Qualities such as empathy, respect, compassion, and kindness are key to maintaining order. What happens in society when these qualities disintegrate, and cease to exist altogether? William Golding’s “lord of the Flies” accurately demonstrates that in the absence of humanity, civilized society quickly evolves into one of savagery. Golding shows this evolution through the steady decay of the boy’s morals, values, and laws. The evolution of savagery begins with the individual.
Throughout the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, many different conflicting societies develop. These groups of young English schoolboys have conflicts between them for many different reasons. Some of them are so spread apart in age that their beliefs and actions are very different. Other groups are conflicting because they have different opinions about who the leader of the entire group should be. The groups also argue about what their priorities should be while trapped on the island. These conflicts continue to grow until the very end, when one group finally gains supremacy.
“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”.
In the story On Compassion, the author, Ascher, explains how no one is born with compassion and must be taught it. A homeless, black man was staring at a women’s baby in the stroller and she offered him a dollar. At first he was hesitant to take it, but eventually did. Later another man walks into an overpriced coffee shop in which the store owner handed him a bag with food. Ascher makes the readers question whether these were acts of fear, pity, or just simply out of the good of heart.
the story of a group of boys stranded on a deserted island to examine a multitude of
During World War II, the United States killed 90,000 to 166,000 people in Hiroshima with an atomic bomb. The bombing of Hiroshima demonstrated the uncivilized behaviors of humankind: hunger for power, misuse of technology, and subconscious reactions to conflicts. Lord of the Flies, an allegorical novel by William Golding, illustrates a horrific tale of boys who are stranded on an island and lose their ability to make civil decisions. Throughout the book, Ralph and Jack fight for power, Piggy’s spectacles are constantly taken to create fire, and several of the boys become “savage” and act upon their subconscious minds. From a sociological perspective, Golding’s novel portrays man’s voracity for power, abuse of technology to the point of destruction, and his venture to inner darkness.
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.
of Louis XIV was that he thought human nature would always be the same. The
Look at the basis of civilization, what is the one terminal thing every society possesses? Malliciousness, since the beginning of time there has been one constant attribute of all humans, the ability to be destructive. Human beings are innately evil, the environment they are put in determines if the act on the evil inside of them. In the novel Lord of The Flies the atrocious behavior of the boys on the island exemplifies the concept of humans and heinous behavior. The stanford prison experiment conducted in August of 1971, recognizes the possessiveness of power in the absence of society, identifying the underlying autogenous behavior of humans. Religion is domesticated in both of these instances which dictates why there is as an absence of classic integrity. Ethology is displayed abundantly within the lord of the flies novel and the society it constitutes. Societies are created by