lord of he flies

Over a month ago a tragic incident occurred that tested the unity of this country. Terrorist attacks tested the will power and the strength of all. On September 11th the Osama Bin Ladens of the world committed an evil act that attempted to destroy all. Americans were disturbed mostly because the people who committed these acts are human like the rest of us, meaning basically everyone is capable of causing such a disturbance. William Golding came to the same conclusion in his book Lord of the Flies. Throughout his novel, Lord of the Flies, Golding illustrates mans inhumanity to man.

Using conflict between characters, Golding shows how easy it can be for innocents to become evil. First of all, Roger throws stones at Henry. Henry plays on the beach quietly, and Roger hides behind the trees and chooses stones to throw at Henry. Henry never does anything to deserve it, but Roger throws them anyway. Golding writes, “This side and that the stones fell, and Henry turned obediently but always too late to see the stone in the air”(62). Roger shows cruelty to Henry and several other littluns. Jack also shows ruthlessness to other boys on the island. For example, Jack breaks Piggy’s glasses. As Piggy takes a step forward to talk to Jack, he smacks Piggy’s head. Piggy’s glasses fly off and shatter onto the rocks. This action makes one of his lenses break, which causes Piggy, blind in one eye. Jack does this out of pure evil in hopes of releasing his anger. At this part of the novel acts of evil increase in the boys’ actions.

Using conflict, Golding again attempts to demonstrate mans capability to lose sight of what’s important. The boys destroy their own friendships for no reason at all. Maurice kicks sand in Percivals’ eyes in hopes of harming him in some sort of way. Maurice does this out of pure anger, choosing to release his anger on Percival, who did nothing to deserve this. Maurice at the time was acting on his feelings: “…laughing, and add[ing] to the destruction“( ). Jack also demonstrates the same kind of evil that Maurice does. Jack reacts on his feelings by punching Piggy out of pure jealousy. Piggy, was given the gift of intelligence, a gift Jack wishes he had. Jack then uses his insecurity to destroy Piggy’s self-image in hopes of boosting his own. Piggy does nothing but try and help out the boys by using his knowledge and sense of humanity, but the boys can’t simply deal with the fact that there is much more to Piggy than his appearance, and they show only cruelty to him.