Lord of the Flies: The Beast Within Us All

“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 novel, Lord of the Flies, the civilization weakens due to a meeting breaking down to complete chaos. In chapter 5, Ralph sounds the conch to gather the group of boys for a serious meeting. Ralph plans the meeting to form the rules on the island. However, as soon as, Ralph establishes the rules, one of the littleuns, Phil, states that there is a beast that comes out a night. Ralph, Simon, Jack and Piggy all try to calm the littleuns down. Nevertheless, the littleuns do not pay attention. The meeting turns into complete chaos when someone yells "shut up, you fat slug!” (98) at Piggy. Golding uses this chaotic meeting to signal the deterioration of civilization. The narrator describes the frenzied meeting as “The world, that understandable and lawful world, was slipping away.”(98) In this quotation, Golding uses diction to show that society is fading. He uses words like “understandable” and “lawful” to remind the reader that this is a miniature version of adult society. The adult society is greatly dependent on communication. Using this knowledge and the use of diction, G...

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...f the group and is showing that the society does no longer exist.

All in all, the sanctions of society begin to deteriorate due to the deaths, the meeting breaking down, and Jack’s obsession with hunting. By removing the restraints of society Golding successfully proves that it is human nature to live primitively and become into the beast that they fear.

Work Cited

Golding, William. Lord of the flies. New York: Coward-McCann, 1962. Print.

"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.." Everybody has good and evil within them. All we're trying to say is that people are not all good or all... N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2014. .