Beyond Human Nature : Lord Of The Flies

The Defects in Society are the Defects of Human Nature in Lord of the Flies

Imagine if one was asked to compile a list of every flaw of human nature that was demonstrated by the boys in the novel Lord of the Flies. Among the words used would probably be naive, uncivilized, and unfocused. While these words certainly do describe the boys and their poorly constructed society, they also hold the same meaning and truth when they are applied to our own people in our own society. People in both our society and the one described in the novel exhibit a profuse amount of faults and flaws, but this extensive list of faults can be narrowed down to the three most common ones. The three most prominent flaws of human nature are being selfish, desiring power, and not following through with plans.

Human nature is altered when there are no consequences. In the novel Lord of the Flies there are young boys stranded on an island, In order to survive the true characteristics of man come out. Some characters appear to be born angelic however some are naturally born evil. When a young boy named Roger murders a boy and rapes a pig there are no consequences. Rogers lack of remorse is then exacerbated when tossing a pebble at a young child turns into murdering a young boy with a boulder, which demonstrates that mankind's pure evil will not stay hidden when there are no consequences.

Think of a bunch of boys stranded on an island and most of them did not get along. They all had different personalities, rude, cocky, mean, nice, responsible, and loving. Lord of the Flies written by William Golding is about a group of boys stranded on an island and trying to live. Human nature is essentially good and evil; this is evident in Piggy, Ralph, and Jack.

Lord of the Flies, A novel written by William Golding, teaches many themes of human nature some true and some faulty. When a group of young british boys crash land into the ocean, they find themselves stranded on an undiscovered island. No one could anticipate what these civilised boys would turn into as time went on. From proper, clean-cut, disciplined schoolboys they slowly morph into the opposite of their initial characters. Throughout the story the boys turn to their primitive sides and begin to show an unknown evil inside of them, while killing each other and forming clans. As the audience sits back and observes, it is almost impossible to not compare the boys to the rest of mankind. After all they are Golding’s little human nature experiment.

Human nature is complex, occasionally mysterious, and contains both goodness and evil. William Golding, author of Lord of The Flies, suggested in his novel the belief that evil with always predominate after the breakdown of law and order. However, this is not always the case, as shown by Ralph and the boys on an uninhabited island in the novel, Lord of The Flies. The actions of Ralph’s defiance towards Jack and his tribe, Samneric’s loyalty to Ralph, and Ralph’s rescue counter Golding’s belief and instead, demonstrate their remaining good on a wild, uncontrolled island.

The struggle with human nature was demonstrated throughout the story by the three examples from my chart. Ralph’s need for meaning, Simon’s need for security, and Piggy’s need for Belonging.

In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Golding simulates aspects of raw human nature. One part of this human nature is the division between good and evil, and how it plays a role in the personality of a human. This aspect of human nature develops a theme throughout the story. Every human has a level of evil. But the amount in which people display it can be changed through the social environment one is in. A person may appear to be “good” in every way, but inside there will always be hate, barbarism, and evil. In Lord of the Flies, this level of evil of exposure varies in each character.

Human nature is an important subject for people to think about and whether it is primarily good or evil is controversial. In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a plane crashes on an island and several pre-adolescent boys get stranded there. At first, they live in peace with Ralph as their leader. However, without adults and established rules, they cannot stay civilized for long. Jack makes a grab for power, and when he fails he breaks away and creates a murderous tribe of savages. In the end, they get rescued, but not before two boys die and the island goes up in flames. Although Ralph is nearly slaughtered and the once idyllic island has become an inferno, the officer who appears to rescue the boys ignores the obvious violence making clear

“Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is.”- Albert Camus. Humans have somehow survived as a species for millions of years by forming rules to contain the animal instincts of all people. Without rules, people would be no different from any other creature in the animal kingdom. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, the flaws of society and human nature are exposed through a tale of young boys on an island without adults. The three most prevalent aspects of human nature shown throughout the adventure on the island are: blindly following a leader, mob mentality, and loss of humanity. These negative characteristics displayed by the boys eventually lead to the downfall of the society they have created, which mirrors

In the novel “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding, his portrayal of human nature is realistic. Humans need rule and order in order to survive. Some humans are inherently evil. Humans do negative things to other members of mankind without knowing how bad they truly are. Golding does an exceptional job expressing this to us throughout the novel.

William Golding once stated, “I began to see what people were capable of doing. Anyone who moved through those years without understanding that man produces evil as a bee produces honey, must have been blind or wrong in the head”. How could it be, however, that his novel Lord of the Flies conveys pessimistic ideas about the reality of human nature? William Golding is perhaps best known for his deep understanding of the evil that exists within human nature due to the time period he lived in after World War II. Therefore in his novel Lord of the Flies he conveys the idea that evil perhaps resides within humanity regardless of age, race or social status; however, this wickedness is well hidden within every individual as it is usually restrained

Since the beginning of civilization, humans have pondered about, debated, and eventually solved a plethora of disputes, from the shape of the planet to the history of mankind. However, one fundamental question still remains ambivalent. The contention over human nature has drawn in many differing views from philosophers and scholars throughout history; among these is William Golding. In his novel Lord of the Flies, Golding writes about a group of schoolboys who are stranded on an uninhabited island in the midst of a world war. At first, the boys attempt to recreate society by establishing law and order, but over time, their civil values diminish as they turn to savagery and evil.

Lord of the Flies is a book of ideas and an allegory. The author, William Golding, uses imagery, characters, and plot for one purpose: to tell the world about his beliefs. He believes that society is the only thing that keeps humanity from falling into anarchy. In order to demonstrate this, he uses the boys on the island to show the reader what happens when humans are left to their own devices. Over the course of the novel, each of the boys undergoes a transformation into crueler, more animalistic versions of their civilized selves. The bully becomes a dictator, the quiet, shy boy reveals his true, more-violent colors, and the virtuous are slaughtered or succumb to savagery themselves. The acts of cruelty start as teasing and arguing but soon turn into murder and war. In Lord of the Flies, acts of cruelty show how characters like Jack, Roger, and Ralph transform slowly, and these acts of violence aid Golding in exhibiting his ideas about human nature.

Human nature is the “general psychological characteristics, feelings, and behavioral traits of humankind”. Between the Book, Lord of the flies and The Crucible, human nature is strongly portrayed through similar characters such as Simon and Mary Warren, Satan/Devil and the Beast, and Jack and Abigail. Simon and Mary Warren both share their wise and kind traits and being bringers of truth, while Satan/Devil and the Beast share the characteristic of exotic and the unknown, both are also able to bring out each person’s human nature like Jack and Abigail’s, which is consisted of being selfish liars. Lastly, Jack and Abigail, who both portray betrayal and the same characteristics of being evil, lying , and selfishness.