Innate Evil In Lord Of The Flies By William Golding

“All human beings are commingled out of good & evil” was a quote once said by notable Scottish novelist Robert Louis Stevenson. This quotation discusses and supports William Golding’s, the author of Lord of the Flies, belief that all humans have a distinct character flaw that, when left unchecked by morals and laws of society, will eventually corrupt the individual. In Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, it’s shown how due to their environment and lack of supervision, the young boys slowly progress and evolve into barbaric, bloodthirsty individuals.

Throughout the story, Jack becomes aggressive, having the urge to kill. In the text, it states, “I cut the pig’s throat” (Golding 69). This shows how Jack is proud to kill the pig, he is the only boy on the Island who is confident enough to kill, foreshadowing that he might even kill more than a pig. As the story goes on, Jack and Ralph now have their own groups and are both chiefs. Ralph cares more about surviving and getting off the Island, while Jack is more interested in hunting and having fun on the Island rather than worrying about surviving, this shows how immature and careless he is.

Humans have been around for about six million years. Humans have had their ups and their down. We have gained faith in humanity, yet we have lost faith in humanity. Which brings up the question, are humans inherently good or evil. The book Lord Of The Flies and documentary Promises clearly show how humans are inherently good. Humans are inherently good until they are changed because of the environment they are born in and how they are treated.

Throughout the novel Lord Of The Flies, the boys on the island are continuously faced with numerous fears. Subsequently there is nothing on the island which they fear more than the beast. The beast is not a tangible object that can be killed or destroyed by conventional means, but an idea symbolizing the primal savage instincts within all people. Its Golding’s intention to illustrate the innate evil inside man through his view of human nature, the actions of the Jack and his tribe, and the relationship between the beast and the school boys.

While humans try their best to stop evil intentions, evil eventually overcomes. Although humans are ignorant and live their lives normally, evil finds a way to pounce on society. In order to suppress evil dominion is needed in the world. This is demonstrated in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. In this novel, when a horrific plane crashes on an island, a handful of boarding school boys find themselves stranded on a tropical island at a time during World War II. On the island, they govern themselves, hunt, and figure things out while waiting to be rescued. As time passes, there is conflict between two main characters, Jack and Ralph, who take on leadership roles. Another main character named Simon, is a mystical boy who spends time by himself

When the boys first encounter a pig, Jack plans on killing it. However, with the opportunity in front of him, Jack hesitates and ends up not stabbing it. This failure leads to Ralph remarking; Jack, what are you waiting for? Jack claims that he is unable to choose the correct spot on where to stab it. However, the real reason is his good conscience. Jack is unable to kill a pig because of his values, his conscience is telling him not to do it. Although Ralph questions why he doesn't stab the pig, Ralph and the boys know why Jack doesn’t stab it. “They knew very well why he hadn’t; because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into the living flesh; the unbearable blood” (Golding 31). This viewpoint is held by the boys, as originally, upon arrival at the island, the boys consciousness prevents them from killing a pig, as initially Jack and the boys are innocent and good natured.

William Golding, the author of the novel: Lord of the Flies, stated; “man produces evil as a bee produces honey”. Evil is inherited in human nature. Inborn evil is expressed throughout the genetics, behaviors, and actions of humans. Although, some claim that evil is obtained from personal experiences, human evil is inborn because genetically, ones who have committed wicked acts possess certain genes that are affiliated with violence. From simulations, inborn evil is identified to be true because humans are proven to possess evil behavior and wicked thoughts during their childhoods. In addition, experiments and real life situations show that ordinary humans are willing to harm other humans, if instructed or mentally unstable.

Siddhārtha Gautama, a man who founded the basis for a religion with 500 million faithful followers, postulated that “‘It is a man's own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways.’” Gautama describes that one’s flawed decisions are not influenced by his enemies, and one’s final decision is his to make alone, not to be affected by others. This is illustrated by the actions of the main figures in Lord of the Flies. The characters in the novel are British schoolboys under the age of twelve, yet on multiple accounts it is demonstrated how violent the youngsters can be. The narrative is an ongoing struggle between the juveniles and their own thoughts, which they refer to as the Beast. They refuse to accept that the Beast is in their minds, so they portray it as a monster which lurks during nighttime. The boys whose minds develop negatively create a civilization where brutality is emboldened, while the few that resist the temptation to become hateful are loathed and killed by the others. In Lord of the Flies by William Golding the literary element characterization depicts how loneliness can adversely affect the sanity and mind of an individual.

Knowing William Golding took part of World War II, we as readers can understand why Golding wrote Lord of the Flies and other survival-fiction novels. When the story was released in 1954, Golding described his book as "an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature." It is unmistakably obvious to anyone who reads this book that Golding is trying to exaggerate the good and evil in the boys on the island. Throughout the book, we learn that people, including children, are not pure goodness. Deep inside there is an evil constantly trying to rise to the surface of our minds. Golding proves that eventually the evil within us will destroy us. Golding saw in World War II what

William Goldning’s Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel where literary techniques are utilized to convey the main ideas and themes of the novel. Two important central themes of the novel includes loss of civilization and innocense which tie into the concept of innate human evil. Loss of civilization is simply the transition from civilization to savagery; order to chaos. The concept of loss of innocense is a key concept to innate human evil because childhood innocense is disrupted as the group hunted animals and even their own. Through the use of literary techniques these ideas are seen in the passage where Simon confronts the “Lord of the Flies.”

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth. After having created everything on Earth, He made man. “The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.’”(NIV Genesis 2:15). Thus, He made Eve from the rib of Adam. God told Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of knowledge but the evil serpent, who was craftier than them, tricked Eve into eating the fruit. Eve later convinced Adam after having argued with him and he gave in. Both were punished by God for having gone against His word and would suffer the consequences of it. “So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After He drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden a cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life” (Genesis 3:23-24).

While Ralph, Jack, and Simon were exploring the island, they found a piglet caught in a curtain of creepers, trying to get itself out of the trap in all the madness of extreme terror. As the piglet attempted to struggle its way out, Jack “raised his arm in the air. There came a pause, a hiatus…” The diction, “hiatus” describes that Jack took a long pause and was afraid to kill the piglet. This part of the book was described in detail to show that Jack was nervous to kill the pig. While his arm was raised in the air he pauses allowing the piglet to escape. As a result, Jack, Ralph, and Simon laughed ashamedly and began to hike back on to the track. Nevertheless, in Chapter Four, “’I cut the pig’s throat,’ said Jack proudly, and yet twitched as he said it.” The author referred to the “pig’s throat” as it is important to “let the blood out” in order to feed on it. Jack learned that he had to cut the pig’s throat from Chapter One. The diction, “proudly” was applied to describe that Jack had fun in killing the pig. It seems that Jack enjoyed killing the piglet and is excited to kill even more. When the boys were chattering and dancing, and the twins continued to grin, “There was lashings of blood,” said Jack, laughing and shuddering, “you should have seen it!” The diction utilized to describe the blood changed from “unbearable” to “lashings” shows that he liked to perceive the glory of the pig. The

In chapter two jack and ralph had just come down from climbing the mountain, whist coming that had saw a pig and soon began chasing it, after trapping it jack pulls out his sheath knife and holds it above his head and pauses before going down to slit the pigs throat, but then the pig jumps free of his hold. This act by jack only a few days in on the island proves Jack does not have it in him in this point of time to take the pigs life. Further on in the novel jack and his group of hunters are chasing down another pig, but this time when it is cornered the boys slit the pigs throat without any hesitation, after slaughtering the pig they boys re-intact the kill with Rodger, playing the role of the pig. This is one of the ways William Golding has expressed his point of view on the question. The more time the boys spend on the island and away from society the more violet they

The boys hunting the pig have a very innocent feel to them. They are children trying their best to survive on this island till the grown ups return to pick them up. They have cheers and play around much like children do today. They don’t want to hurt anyone just help the most people they can. As the story develops some of the boys are forced to grow up too fast. They fail to go through all the stages of socialization and start to take their own path of living. Jack forces the boys to join his tribe and if they refuse Roger tortures them, taking away some of their innocence, till they agree to join the tribe. Samneric said “...they made us. They hurt us…” (Golding 188) when Ralph asked them why they joined the tribe. Jack also forces the tribe to pull away from the more civilized options and makes the decision to eliminate Ralph. The boys lose more of their innocence by being forced to go on the hunt. Being a part of Jack’s tribe forced them to grow up and lose a part of their innocence and express the evil in

potato is about a group of boys stranded on an island. As time progresses, they become more like savages and animals as their grasp on humanity slips. The real problem faced by the boys in William Golding’s Lord of The Flies is their inner evil; their solutions fall short because they are afraid to admit that they are the problem.