Good Or Evil In Lord Of The Flies By William Golding

Throughout history, philosophers have wondered what essentially drives people to do certain actions. It is not clear whether these actions occur because humans are intrinsically good or bad. Nevertheless, the novel Lord of the Flies and several historical examples provide some insight into why human beings may be fundamentally bad.

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.

While humans try their best to stop evil intentions, evil eventually overcomes. Although humans are ignorant and live their lives normally, evil finds a way to pounce on society. In order to suppress evil dominion is needed in the world. This is demonstrated in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. In this novel, when a horrific plane crashes on an island, a handful of boarding school boys find themselves stranded on a tropical island at a time during World War II. On the island, they govern themselves, hunt, and figure things out while waiting to be rescued. As time passes, there is conflict between two main characters, Jack and Ralph, who take on leadership roles. Another main character named Simon, is a mystical boy who spends time by himself

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

In the beginning of William Golding’s novel “Lord of the Flies”, readers meet four young boys from ages 11-13 who have been stranded on a deserted island with no adults after a flight from home. Readers come to understand the relationship between Ralph, Jack, Simon and Piggy get complicated and violent once all laws and rules have disappeared by the end of the novel, 2 boys are dead and the have changed dramatically. In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech for the novel, Golding stated that, “... men produce evil as bees produce honey.” His statement is that Golding believes that human nature is automatically evil; he is right.

Humans: Good vs. Evil William Goulding exemplified the ugly side of humanity when Lord of the Flies was released. It was a controversial topic that many thought was untrue and would never happen. It has been proven that Goulding is right on humans morphing in certain times and situations. Scientists and sociologists have studied this in the Stanford Prison Experiment and others, and it has been shown humans can turn away from their moral compass.

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).

Understanding what makes good people do bad things requires a deep dive into the minds of human psychology and mindset. Everyone, no matter how good they are, will always do something bad in their life, but those bad choices do not define whether they are a good person or a bad person. The novel Lord Of The Flies by William Golding supports the idea that good people do bad things, by placing a group of innocent boys on an island and making them do bad things to survive the obstacles of the island. In addition, the short excerpt from What Makes Good People Do Bad Things, by Melissa Dittmann, also supports the fact that good people do bad things by introducing many different scenarios where different people are forced to adapt and ultimately

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

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.

Through the lens of the Lord of the Flies, we think to ourselves, Are we as humans inherently evil? In this novel, Golding commonly flips to discussing whether humans are inherently evil. Lord of the Flies gives a glimpse of how a group of boys behave in an uncivilized environment where civilized standards are not met. Throughout “Lord of the Flies”, this novel covers the idea that the boys are savage on an empty island. However, later on in the novel, the story emphasizes that evil can be the result of external influences and a lack of societal expectations.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding is an allegory for the evil embedded inside the human heart, buried and hidden by years of social conditioning. Stranded on an uncharted island, a group of young boys struggle for survival, their fate determined by Golding’s traumatizing years spent in the Royal Navy. Some authors, such as Jean-Jacque Rousseau, question Golding’s theme of organic maleficence, arguing the purity of mankind. Lord of the Flies silences this opposition through the the actions of these children: Roger throwing rocks at Henry with desire to hurt, the torturing of a nursing sow, disregarding the future of her piglets and Jack’s refusal to reason with Ralph resulting in Piggy’s death.

“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 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.

Mankind’s Infinite Battle Between Good and Evil “Human nature is potentially aggressive and destructive and potentially orderly and constructive.” (Mead) Human nature, based on this quote by Margaret Mead, has the potential to develop a flourishing society through positive action, and just as simply holds the ability to destroy it from seemingly inevitable acts of aggression. Humans seem to lack the ability to maintain a society through orderly actions and constructive governing, and tend to resort to aggression when dealing with societal matters. It is the phenomenon, human nature, that has continued to repeat itself throughout history, and one that is explored and modernly assessed by Aldous Huxley. In his psychedelic novel, “Island,” based