Essay On Evil In Lord Of The Flies

Their desire to please the beast leads them into golding’s theory of inner evil, shown by the gruesome slaughtering of the pigs and the “Lord of the Flies” itself, a gift to the supernatural creature. The Lord of the Flies is a direct translation to Beelzebub, which is name given to the devil in the bible. From this we can take Golding's perspective and motives not to express the relationship between the Pig’s head and the boys but human nature and evil. Soon the hunters lose sight of their school boy origins and their compassion, seeking only to hunt pigs and increase the tribe members or kill anyone standing in their way. This is a direct outcome from the beast who leads the boys into savagery and violence further developing their own inner beast.

The Lord of the Flies by William Golding is an allegory that explores the instinctual evil humans possess and how this evil manifests into our societies. The book demonstrates this through young boys who are stranded on an island due to a plane crash. Despite their best efforts, the lack of adult guidance inhibits the boys from maintaining an orderly society. The boys turn to their survival instincts, many of which are evil. The lack of order exposes the internal savagery within the boys, resulting in an understanding of the flaws within all humanity. The Lord of the Flies uses the innocence of young boys to show the societal impact of human errors through their lack of adult supervision, the desire to inflict violence, and the need for authority over others.

An example of this is seen by the quote, ‘ “This head is for the beast. It’s a gift,” ’(137). Jack mentions how the beat is a “gift” as it refers to the sow’s head on a spear. This acknowledges how the boys are offering gifts as an attempt of pleasing the beast. Eventually the boys on the island start to embrace the beast. The quote that depicts the conversation when the boys were going to attack Ralph on the beach is, ‘ “We saw your smoke. What have you been doing? Having a war or something?” ’(201). The boys act of savagery saved them as they would not have been rescued, if it was not lit for the war. Their beast-like personalities helped saved their lives, showing that the beast is not something that one can defeat. The beast is part of oneself, and it is up to each individual to tame it. Another quote that shows how the boys attempt to please the beast’s desires is, ‘ “Kill the beast! Cut the throat! Spill this blood!” ’(152). After the boys realize that they killed Simon, thinking it was the beast, they chant this. Also, this shows how the boys are starting to believe that the beast is everywhere, and they enjoy killing things as a game. The final example of how the boys try to please the beast is seen by the quote, ‘ “I’m warning you. I’m going to get angry. D’you see? You’re not wanted. Understand? We are going to have fun on this island.

The Lord of the Flies by William Golding is tale of a group of young boys who become stranded on a deserted island after their plane crashes. Intertwined in this classic novel are many themes, most that relate to the inherent evil that exists in all human beings and the malicious nature of mankind. In The Lord of the Flies, Golding shows the boys' gradual transformation from being civilized, well-mannered people to savage, ritualistic beasts.

Further blinded by the illusion that their supposedly superior English heritage precludes savagery, the boys ignore the perverse qualities of their actions. Nevertheless, they become terrified as they increasingly feel the blight of their own evil upon the island. Attempting to attribute the decay of sanity and civilization to external sources, they fail to look inwards. When Simon correctly proposes that the beast is "maybe. . . only [themselves]" (89), the others scornfully dismiss him as "batty" (52) and his suggestion as invalid; they refuse to acknowledge Simon because they are neither capable nor willing to believe the frightening truth that the evil arises from within themselves. As a result, the boys manifest their fear in a dead parachutist whose appearance they grotesquely distort. Ironically, this source of fear comes from the majestic adult world to which they have so long

This story shows that the evil around us can sometimes deceive us into wrongdoing if we do not trust our moral instincts or trust those in higher positions than us. William Golding, the author of Lord of the Flies, used his work to show the public that fear can lead people to destruction and evil ways if we do not attempt to control the beast within us. The way that Golding showed his audience this, was by carefully and thoughtfully placing symbolism throughout the novel and in each and every character.

The Lord of the Flies proves that humans are inherently evil, and strict adherence to laws and rules are the only way that humans can escape from this evil. Golding proves this through the actions of Jack, Ralph’s decent in to savagery, and the fate of Simon. The novel proves that humans are inherently evil through the actions of Jack Merridew. Jack is one of the older boys on the Island.

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

They feel a sense of security as they are accepted in the group because they are acting like the others. Ralph and Piggy do not act based off their own morals, but rather what the children in the community would do. Collectively as a group the actions that committed are evil, as the children take part in murdering Simon, who they mistake as the beast. Additionally, Jack and his group of hunters influence one another to enjoy killing and abusing a sow. The boys express their excitement when they successfully kill the sow, “He giggled and flicked them while the boys laughed at his reeking palms […] This time Robert and Maurice acted the two parts; and Maurice’s acting of the pig’s efforts to avoid

Jack had successfully killed his first pig and the hunters began chant a song “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” – (pg. 152) The kids dance around a slaughtered mother pig spilling the pigs’ intestines on the ground and rubbing the blood on each other’s faces. When all authority is taken out of the picture, the kids are free to do whatever they want. This is where their true nature is exposed. The boys don’t put into practice their teachings from school on the island, but become savage beasts. This shows us that man is civilized in our society, only because of the fear for higher authority, not because

One of the main problems that the boys had on the island was the beast. In their minds the beast was a terrible creature that was out to kill them. Their fear of the beast ruined

In Lord of the Flies written by William Golding, many kids from the ages of four to fourteen are stranded on an island and expected to learn how to survive for themselves. Throughout the book, a common theme that occurs is the consistent acts of killing pigs through imaginary and real scenarios. Since the boys were stranded on the island, food was scarce so they had to find out real life and grow up on their own. Jack and the choir boys take initiative and suggest they will “hunt pigs to get meat for everyone” (Golding 36). In the beginning, the act of killing pigs was used as a resource for food and not thinking it could do anything to them. However, the young boys could not handle the pressure of all the killings and they turned into savages.

William Golding’s Lord of the Flies is a gritty allegory of adolescence, innocence, and the unspoken side of human nature. Countless social issues are portrayed, however one of the most reoccurring is the nature of man. Throughout the novel there is an ever-present focus on the loss of innocence amongst the boys, shown by the deterioration of social skills and their retrogression into a barbaric form of society. Also portrayed is the juxtaposition of a cruel, evil main character and a more classically good counterpart, and their eternal rivalry for power and authority over their younger subjects. Does society or the lack thereof create evil in human nature, or simply magnify a pre-existing

In the words of the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, “Our greatest evils flow from ourselves.” In other words, humans harbor an ever present looming evil nature within themselves. Evil is the force in nature that governs and gives rise to wickedness and sin, or the wicked or immoral part of someone. This concept of inner evil rising to the surface permeates William Golding’s dystopian novel Lord of the Flies, that evil exists in every human, proven through the characterization of the marooned boys. There is foreshadowing of the dangers of the boys’ inner immorality from one of the boys, Simon. As the novel progresses, evil starts asserts itself as the boys cast off their innocence and humanity, and turning against each other. Even the

The innocence, humanity and natural instincts of the boys can be defined by the nature of pigs. Animals at the very basic level are composed by their natural instincts, and by instinct both the boys and the pigs are utterly harmless. This changes when necessity leads us to commit acts of evil/violence that may be out of our instinctual character. The boys and the pigs both find long term safety in numbers, but members of both groups are also willing to do what it takes to guarantee individual survival. A big aspect of the book in which this idea is seen is the argument of keeping the fire lit vs hunting for food. A signal fire will guarantee long term survival of them all, but on the other hand hunting makes sure each of them make it through