Good And Evil In William Golding's Lord Of The Flies

“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 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.

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.

The Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a novel about a group of boys stranded on an island with no adults and no rules. Golding believes that humans all have a capability to do wrong, and through The Lord of the flies portrays how certain situations make a human’s capacity for evil more prominent. Golding shows how the boys’ civilization deteriorates from being good British kids to murderous savage people. The novel can easily be connected to the Stanford Prison Experiment, and how what happened to the boys on the island can happen outside the realm of fiction. Golding shows the reader what the Lord of the Flies is in the book and how the namesake of the book is found in all of us.

Beast, devil, evil, corruption, the seven deadly sins, they all represent some form of evil within humankind. Lord of the Flies is the story of schoolboys that have crash landed on an abandoned island, and go through many hardships as they fight for power and try to be saved. Throughout the story, however, they boys go from having a civilized structure to utter chaos, they struggle for their lives and grasp for survival from a darker creature on the island. Within chapter nine, Simon discovers the beast for what it really is; meanwhile Ralph and Piggy decide to join the other bigguns for a feast with Jack’s tribe. The boys play and dine, and circle together for a “dance” when Simon stumbles out of the forest to tell them of his discovery, and lands in the circle, which results in him being brutally beat to death. This attack on Simon demonstrates how the fear of the beast that the boys are experiencing is affecting their better judgment, and pushes their morals to the side, just so that they can feel safe. In chapter 9 of Lord of the Flies, William Golding employs repetition, animal imagery, and natural imagery to convey the theme that fear can corrupt humans, which pushes them to engage in unspeakable acts.

William Golding once asked “Are men are born evil, or does society create evil men?” This is shown by many actions that mankind has shown over many years including in the book Lord of the Flies. Some people think society creates evil men. If you get bad luck or something doesn't go your way, they think you turn evil. Men as long as we know have fought for power and wealth since the beginning of time. As seen in Lord of the Flies when they fight for power as soon as the get to the island. They also participate in the killing in one of there friends simon. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, it clearly shows men are born evil. The boys just got to the island and were fighting for power as soon as they got there. Also the bullying and putting down of others. Lastly, wanting to kill and be cruel before their own well being.

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.

Although humankind attempts its best at preventing evil actions, eventually evil rises above all else. While humans are living ordinary lives and living in ignorance, evil is always scheming and waiting to slide up behind the turned backs of society as depicted in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. One could argue that this is not the case and that good deeds always overshadow evil and that evil is just an occasional blip. However, what one’s opinion of society does not outshine the cold hard facts of humankind’s natural tendencies; specifically, how things are never as they seem, how easily humans can betray their emotions and how humans choose to ignore difficult situations in the search for an easy

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).

Lord of the Flies written by William Golding is about British school boys who get trapped on an island. Who then try to create a society to temporarily suit their needs till they get rescued. There are four main characters in the book Ralph, Jack, Piggy. The character that I chose to compare the characterization that the author puts to enhance the theme loss of innocence is Simon. Innocence is considered as a nice, non-evil, clean minded person. Innocence is lost once they are not considered good people or don’t think of good things. Golding uses the characterization of Simon to enhance the theme of the loss of innocence.

Compassion and kindness, confrontation of the devil, and an unjust death. The character of Simon from William Golding's Lord of the Flies tells one of the most complex narratives in the novel, as well as carrying the strongest symbolism of all the boys. It becomes blatantly apparent Golding intended the reader to draw parallels of Simon’s character to be an allegory of Christ, both in their personality traits, actions, and in their death.

Throughout Lord of the Flies, the ideas of good versus evil and civilization versus savagery creates conflict between the boys. Readers are able to see that inside every human there is a beast, and that beast can only be released when law and order begin to fade out of the picture. Golding uses Ralph and Jack to represent good and evil in Lord of the Flies. Ralph is the main character that represents the good nature of humans, while Golding uses Jack to define the savagery and evil within. It is important that the individual brings forth the change in oneself which will result in a change in society.

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

Evil resides in every human. It is buried deep within all people. Some would say the root of all evil began in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve ate forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Their act of evil doomed the following generations by passing it on. To keep us from going totally savage and civilized, society created rules to follow.

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