We often react to people or situations that appear unfamiliar to society’s accepted norms without knowing why. The fear of the unknown is a very powerful influence in all sentient life. It can take over our bodies and make us do unthinkable things that would seem impossible. Your mind can do its best to try to shield you from the fear but it’s still there festering in the back of your mind like a mold growing and getting worse. Within William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Lance Morrow’s “Evil”, Linh Kieu Ngo’s “Cannibalism: It Still Exists”, and Brent Staples “Black Men and Public Space” all fear something that they do not know. From the beginning of Lord of the Flies the young English boys had been put into a situation they could not …show more content…
Understanding evil and how it works is very important and is all over the world and can never be truly explained from one point of view. “Padrica Cain Hill, former bank teller, Washington mother and wife, dresses her three children one morning, makes breakfast for them, smokes some crack cocaine and lets the kids watch cartoons. Then with a clothesline she strangles eight-year-old Kristine and four-year-old Eric Jr. She tries to strangle two-year-old Jennifer, but leaves the girl still breathing softly on the floor. When the police come, Padrica Hill says she loves her children. Why did she kill them? ‘I don’t know,’ she answers in apparently genuine bewilderment. ‘I hadn’t planned on it’.”(Morrow) Morrow gives numerous examples that are both vague and real life events that define evil and how it brings out the good which makes you think that evil isn’t as bad as it seems. “Does the good become meaningless in a world without evil?”(Morrow) Evil is just a matter of perspective and can take any …show more content…
In Brent Staples “Black Men and Public Space” a young African-American man walks the streets with other white people who treat him as if he is a criminal without knowing his character. “It was in the echo of that terrified woman’s footfalls that I first began to know the unwieldy inheritance I’d come into – the ability to alter public space in ugly ways.”(Staples 153) They fear him because they do not understand what he does or what he wants; they act like this because of how they stereotyped young black men; evil criminals who are looking for trouble. The people who pass by don't know until he greets them as they pass by with a hello and goodbye; then they continue to walk as they don't want anything to do with
Despite mistaking fear with stereotyping, his skin color does come into play when deciding the factors that would cause one to avoid him or run away, but he does have to realize that the place and time of the event does matter just as much. Most drivers who lock their car doors at the sight of him are more paranoid at the risk of having a stranger attempt to break in and harm them; he did also mention that it didn’t matter whether that person was black and white, man and woman (Staples 369). After all, I would have avoided
Evil: A noun meaning profound immorality, wickedness, and depravity. Everyone has a little bit of evil in them, but it’s up to that person if they want to show it or not. In Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, a group of boys show the evil within themselves while being stranded on an island. Because of the situation that has been thrust upon them, they soon discover the true evil they are capable of. In the book, the boys show evil through their lust for power, the behavior that the boys express, and their murderous actions.
The black men throughout history has always had a negative perceived image of them by those in power. The idea that one’s skin give others pre-deceived notions about them. Stereotypes of black people only illustrates them as negative things in a society. The strong perpetuated stereotypes of black people create a fear based off their image. Staples states his experience “She cast back a worried glance. To her,
In certain situations even the most delightful people could become evil. In the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding’s book takes place during world war II a plane full of british schoolboys crashes, the only survivors are the children. They attempt to form a type of government but two people want to be leaders. Ralph is suppose to be “chief” but Jack also wanted to be, later in the book he got his wish. They kill two of their friends and try to kill another. They eventually get rescued by a naval officer. Golding’s major argument throughout the novel is that evil is an inborn trait of mankind.
For centuries, psychologists and psychoanalysts have studied humans in hopes of discovering a common link, a pattern per say, in what provokes their certain thoughts and actions. Many question certain values, morals, religion, even their brain chemistry, but nobody knows for certain. Sigmund Freud’s theory suggests that human actions/personalities derive from three parts of the human psyche; the id, ego and superego. William Golding analyzes this further in his novel, Lord of the Flies, which is about a large group of boys that crash-land on a deserted Island after fleeing a dangerous England in the times of WWII. These young boys are used to entertain the idea of savagery vs. civilization and how evil lies deep within us all. After
It’s WWII times and you’re on a plane when the plane suddenly crashes onto a remote island. You and everyone one else that had survived the crash are not even adults, barely even teenagers at the matter. The only way to stay alive is to not give into the temptation of evil that is growing with you and the other boys’ hearts. Welcome to the life of Ralph on Conch Island from Lord of The Flies by William Golding. He has to try and stay alive while dealing with a not so physically adapt ally and a pack of monsters society would call little boys. The only way to control them is with a conch until the boys, hopefully, get saved unless the monster destroys them all. That monster, of course, is the evil within everyone’s hearts.
In William Golding's novel Lord of The Flies he shows how evil exists inside of everyone, it is the situation a person finds themselves in allows evil to grow or be controlled. The three boys are an example of this. Jack who only thinks about himself he wants everything immediately which makes his evil grow. Ralph, however, thinks about others but at times can be selfish which can make his evil grow, but Ralph tries to keep his evil at bay. Simon on the other hand only thinks about others, he does not think about himself which stops his evil from arising. Therefore, control of the situation is control of evil self.
Evil is immoral behavior and not accepting others. This is overtly displayed when Hitler hypothesized he was superior to the Jews and his Anti-Semitic policies. In Lord of the Flies, all of the boys did not accept Piggy because he has ‘ass-mar’ and is smarter than the rest. Hitler's beliefs about his superiority above the Jews and the boys views towards Piggy are evil.
Lord of the Flies is a novel that takes place in the middle of a tempestuous war. In the midst of this war, there’s a group of boys who previously attended a private school that are now stuck on an island with a battle of their own. Civilization vs. savagery is the prime force these boys face. While the majority succumb to the barbaric savageness, there are a few who refuse to let that overtake them.
Therefore, Golding implies that underneath all of the laws, rules and government that has been established within humans, there lies a darkness and evil that is waiting to be unleashed. Firstly, numerous symbols such as the beast, the “Lord of the Flies”, the conch and painted faces and long hair emphasize the darkness in man’s heart. Next, through the apparent transformation of the boys, including Jack, Roger, and Ralph we learn that humans will devolve into their true being without civilization. Finally, the violent behaviour that is associated with the boys clearly demonstrates that without rules man is more than capable of being inhumane towards all creatures. It is through all of this Golding establishes the idea that every single person is born evil. Golding suggests that savagery is innate
Every human being is savage at heart, no matter how hard they try to oppress it. Evil is an instinct, a part of human kind, but what exactly is evil and what defines it? Mr. Golding believes that evil is intrinsic to human beings; he shows some examples of evil in the Lord of the Flies, in a form called bullying. Bullying increases the bully’s self-confidence, while it lowers the victim’s, in this case Jack harass Piggy to increase his self-assurance. Humans have two desires that conflict with each other: to live by civilization and to live by savagery. The civilized impulse we have is to live peacefully, morally, and by rules and laws. The savage characteristic we have is to act violently, using force to gain authority and power over
Influences of Good and Evil and Man’s True Nature shown in Lord of the Flies
Roger's murderous nature, Ralph and Piggy’s submissiveness to savagery, and Hitler’s cunning and manipulative ways all prove the message Golding conveys in his novel, Lord of the Flies, to be true: men are inherently evil. Roger’s sociopathic tendencies, which eventually result in the slaughter of the young boy, Piggy, expose the fact that men are born evil. The surprisingly rapid and thoughtless descent into murder that Ralph and Piggy experience, showcases people’s ability to be easily swayed to commit heinous acts. Furthermore, the Holocaust, as well as the crazed intelligence behind it, are additional examples that humans often fall victim to the wickedness inside them. Hopefully, future generations will be able to rebel against human
If we were dropped onto a deserted island, would we lose the very things that make us human? When stripped of those things, are we inherently good? Or are we inherently bad? Without even touching on the fact that using a large group of young, privileged British boys from the forties to represent the human race is quite appalling, the facts are that there is no such thing as inherent goodness or badness.
Many years ago, Charles Darwin introduced a theory that we humans are a species which evolved from animals that have inhabited the Earth for many years, and he believed that we were civilized, intelligent, and logical life forms for these very reasons. In the novel, Lord of the Flies by William Golding there is a prominent theme of good versus evil which reveals that maybe humans are not the civilized human beings that they were said to be. William Golding carefully netted this theme with his utilization of literary device such as his symbolism. Golding uses this simple story of English boys stranded on an inhabited island to illustrate how destructive humans can be when implanted in a impoverished environment where they