Inherently Evil In Lord Of The Flies Analysis

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Over the course of history, humans have struggled to determine wether they are inherently evil or inherently good. Events in history, famous philosophers, and writers all seek to answer the question of humanity’s nature. It is through the literary works of Golding and Dickens, the wisdom of Xun Kuang and Augustine, and incidents such as Bleeding Kansas that reveal humanity to be inherently evil. The blood-thirst within the people that grows without the rules of a civilization, reveals that human nature is inherently evil. Throughout A tale of Two Cities and The Lord of the Flies an inner bloodlust turns into a massacre. In the Lord of the Flies what starts out as a way to get food turns into a source of adrenaline. “At last the immediacy of the kill subsided. The boys drew back and Jack stood up, holding out his hands. ‘Look’ He giggled and flicked them while the boys laughed at his reeking palms,” (Golding 149).In this passage, the boys kill a pig and then laugh about it. Without society to reprimand them them, the boys turn the killing of a sow into the …show more content…

Xunzi was a Chinese philosopher that contributed to the Hundred Schools of Thought. Xunzi stance towards humanity, remarking that from birth there is envy and hatred; that human goodness is deceitful (Stalnaker), brings to light the inherent evil in people. By stating that from birth humanity has hatred, Xunzi stresses that the rules of society are the only thing hiding the malevolent ways of man kind. His characterization of humanity shines a light on the nature of people. Another Chinese philosopher, Augustine, also explores the inner wiring of man.“Post-Fall human beings are unable to do what is good, he says either because they are ignorant of what the good is in a given cause or because although they see the good and want to have a will that wills it, they find doing it too difficult,”

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