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Are Humans Inherently Evil In Lord Of The Flies

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Statement of intent: I am going to write a persuasive essay about how humans are born evil and are conditioned by society to act civilised, using Lord of the Flies and Goldings idea that humans are inherently evil, as well as current and historical events to expand on these ideas. “The greatest trick the devil pulled was convincing the world that there is only one of him”- David Wong. The critically acclaimed novel Lord of the Flies written by Nobel Prize winning author William Golding explores the idea that humans are inherently evil, among other ideas such as the loss of innocence, civilisation versus savagery and much more. Golding portrayed the idea that humans are inherently evil through the masterful use of symbols and motifs. In the …show more content…

One text that stands out to me is The Hunger Games. In the book, 12 teenagers are forced against their will to fight each other to the death, purely for the amusement of the rich. It is obvious that the rich spectators and the organisers are evil, but out of the teens nominated, none of them try to put an end to the bloodshed. But instead, they compete and without hesitation murder their peers. In Lord of the Flies, Golding used children as characters instead of adults because they possess a pureness of innocence, which shows the readers that the evil that they portray comes from within them. In The Hunger Games, the characters are all in their teens, I believe that the author Suzanne Collins did this intentionally to portray similar views to Golding, that humans are inherently evil, and that under certain circumstances people can be forced to succumb to their inner evil and …show more content…

World War II was the setting for some of the most horrific atrocities man has ever committed. Events including the Holocaust, concentration camps, atomic bombings and many more were the cause of over 80,000,000 deaths, which at the time was about 3% of the world’s population. The acts of Hitler and the Nazi party in the war were acts of pure evil. Hitler can be directly compared to Jack from Lord of the Flies as Jack’s leadership was based purely on striking fear into others. He made people believe that if they didn’t join him he would hunt and kill them. Hitler’s leadership also followed some of this vicious dictating. Another example of Golding’s idea that humans are inherently evil was the murder of James Patrick Bulger. James who was murdered on the 12th of February 1993 at the age of two. He was abducted, tortured and murdered by two ten-year-old boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables. The mere facts the two murderers were of such a young age and came from such good families is a perfect example of humans are inherently evil and that evil is not taught or learnt, it is simply a part of

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