Humanity In Lord Of The Flies

A recurring theme among leaders in many societies today is that “absolute power corrupts absolutely” (John Acton, a 1700’s English Catholic historian, politician, and writer). In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, this idea of leadership, power, and corruption is put in the spotlight. Jack, one of the boys on the island, forces his way into the leadership position without actually earning it. It is clear that Jack has become corrupt as he turns into a person who is intimidating, egotistical, and selfish. Ralph, on the other hand, is a quality leader under most conditions as he appeals to the boys’ sophisticated side and has a

“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.

The relationship between the beast and the school boys is played out through the conversation between Simon and the Lord of the Flies. The Lord of the Flies or pig head tries to intimidate and forewarn Simon calling him,”just an ignorant, silly little boy”(184) and scoffs at Simon for thinking the beast is “something you could hunt or kill!” (184) Golding uses this symbolic beast, the Lord of the Flies, to reveal the truth to Simon which is that “they”(184) the boys on the island are the real beast. Before Simon faints the Lord of the Flies warms Simon that

Humanity. It means a lot of things to a lot of people, every single one of us has an opinion about it. Our base for this opinion, however, comes from what we know of humanity, how it’s treated us, how it’s treated our family, how it’s treated others around us, others we don’t even know.

It is a very arguable subject on whether or not people are born with good intentions, and therefore taught by others the ‘evil’ side of their personality. Whether it is the absence of ethical conduct in human nature, or just the way one perceives a situation, evil seems to be prominent in our everyday lives. Humans seem to have a moral code that follows them with every decision they make, yet despite the laws of morality and society, people of this world still seem to behave inhumanely because of the act of self-preservation, human interest, and who exactly the authority figure is at the time.

Despite the obvious age gap of the main characters in both novels, authors Golding and Remarque alike manipulate the text into conveying the theme of the loss of humanity that derives from violence. In Lord of the Flies, it is apparent early on that primal instincts will emerge from the innocence of the boys, such as, "He began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarl," (Golding Chapter 4). The split second snarl that escapes is a crystal-clear indicator for the future event depicting the death of a boy, Simon. "Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!" (Golding Chapter 9). Albeit the dancing boys do not know it is a fellow child and not a savage beast, they do not halt the actions taken to harm Simon, which ultimately leads to his death.

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

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).

In 1923, psychologist Sigmund Freud revolutionized his field with his model of the human psyche. According to his model, the mind is divided into three aspects: the id, ego, and superego. William Golding’s allegorical novel, Lord of the Flies, employs these three aspects of the psyche through intricate characterization representing the concepts of id, ego, and superego. Lord of the Flies tells the story of a group of young British boys who are stranded on an island in the South Pacific. They become trapped when their plane is shot down while trying to escape their country during World War II. A choirboy named Jack is shown as the leader of the savages and encourages them to embrace their barbarity. As the novel progresses, the inner evil

In literature, symbolism is one of the most important aspects in telling a story; without this, a story would simply appear to be inconsequential and have no reason. Throughout William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, it is portrayed that with a lack of unity, rules and order comes the dismantlement of civilization. Over the course the novel, Golding uses a number of symbols to represent these themes, most importantly though, piggy’s glasses. He uses this object in particular to symbolize Piggy’s feel for reason and universal ethical laws by which all human beings should follow; while on the other hand, for Jack and the other “savages”, it is are a tool to control the children and that is why Jack feels the need to break them.

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

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

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

One of the most crucial components of a storyline is the theme. It is the central message of the story. In the novel Lord of The Flies by William Golding, the message is that even the purest of hearts contain an innate animalistic behaviour. As suggested in the story, savagery is inherent in all beings because true evil lies within one’s genetics, personality, and their surroundings.

One of the themes of Lord of the Flies is that order is needed for humanity, and the absence of it results in the absence of what makes humans human. William Golding conveys this theme with the conch shell being order and eventually shattered, and the Beast being savagery and eventually growing in the hearts of every boy, except Simon. The conch shell opens as the attractor of the boys and the symbol of power that facilitates discussion and logic in the group, but, without it and it’s power the boys will “be like animals” (71); and animals they do become. As the Beast in the boys grow they soon deviate from humanity until “there were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws”(118) on Simon’s corpse as he tries to be civil