Human Nature In Lord Of The Flies Essay

In the early ages, mankind was savage. William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, proves that humans are savage still today. Golding does a good job of showing the readers that without civilization, people go mad. Jack shows savage ways early in the book, and it is obvious that things will only get worse. Lord of the Flies shows that when left alone, even the most unlikely people will resort to savage ways.

“There are too many people, and too few human beings.” (Robert Zend) Even though there are many people on this planet, there are very few civilized people. Most of them are naturally savaged. In the book, Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, boys are stranded on an island far away, with no connections to the adult world. These children, having no rules, or civilization, have their true nature exposed. Not surprisingly, these children’s nature happens to be savagery. Savagery can clearly be identified in humans when there are no rules, when the right situation arouses, and finally when there is no civilization around us.

Throughout Lord of the Flies, Golding shows his views of the inherent evil of humans. He shows how humans can be in such a savage state, practically mimicking the way of life of their prehistoric ancestors. He exemplifies this with acts of carnage carried on by the young stranded children. It all started with a slight urge to hunt down a pig and then continued on to murdering another human being. Golding shows his views best at the end of the book with the boys being rescued by a Navy crew, which would go on to war it self.

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.

At its core, is mankind essentially good, or does it use law and order to mask its evil? Through his book The Lord of the Flies, William Golding causes questions concerning the ethicality of humanity to rise to the surface of the mind. The stripping away of distractions and structure he depicts in his all-too-real novel reveals society’s true nature. As a reader studies the settings, characters and plots of Lord of the Flies and how they relate to significant events in recent times, Golding’s message of the evil nature of humanity becomes increasingly clear and impactful.

In Lord Of The Flies by William Golding, Golding claims that no matter how civilized or innocent all human beings are, the surrounding environment can change how people interact with each other and turn them from civilized beings into savages. He uses Jack to show that when human nature does not have any restraints, it will slowly evolve into savagery. Jack at first is a respectful, civilized person that is willing to communicate and cooperate with Ralph, but when confronting with the act of killing a pig makes him lose all sense of shame and conscience, he starts acting evil and wanting to hunt Ralph. By the end of the novel, Golding ultimately shows that everyone is capable of being evil and it is only society’s rules that keep most individuals from acting out evil.

Human nature is complex. It may take over an individual’s mind in many desperate and threatening situations. In Golding’s compelling novel, Lord of the Flies, it is implied that the evil, or bad side of humanity will overshadow the good. However, there are certain situations present in the novel that portray the opposite. The depiction of human nature in this novel creates a nice balance between the positive and negative aspects of humanity. Although Golding’s novel is portrayed as pessimistic, Ralph’s words and actions when dealing with various situations, Sam and Eric’s loyalty to Ralph, and the boys’ rescue at the end of the novel contradict this idea, creating a commendable balance of pessimistic and optimistic situations.

People generally will step-out of moral bounds given no control is present residing over them, leading to these acts of terror and violence. Aron further simplifies this saying without something to stop someone, they can do whatever they want, “There is no moral leader present to role model resistance,” (Aron). Countless number of texts and historical events show this, specifically the Milgram experiment conducted by Stanley Milgram in Yale University. Milgram asked for multiple people to participate in this for a reward in which they would require a teacher and a learner to work with each other. One would submit answers, and if wrong, the teacher would give the correct one and shock them for a certain voltage.

When humans are pushed to survive, they are willing to do anything to do so. In the novel “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding, a group of boys are stranded on an island and have to survive, however as the story progresses the boys become more barbaric and savage like. Even though there are good people in this world, there will always be evil. Why does evil exist? Golding’s belief of human nature is that humans are naturally evil and savage. However, law and civility keep humans from turning into this natural state of evil and Golding uses the development of Jack to show how savagery is created.

In the novel, Lord of the Flies, William Golding is able to use his outstanding writing abilities utilizing metaphors, symbolism, and other literary devices to establish a hidden message throughout the novel. The hidden message that Golding builds on is that there is a natural evil inside every human being, which is suppressed in an organized society through laws, rules, and punishment. The young boys in the novel are on an island all by themselves. There is no punishment for their actions, therefore allowing that evil to come out of most of the boys. All humans have an innate evil within them and that evil is brought out when there is a lack of civilization and consequence as seen in Simon’s murder,

Although Jeff Hirsch’s civil war over a deadly religion in The Darkest Path, and William Golding’s stranded boys on an island in Lord of the Flies seem to have barely have anything in common, both of their underlying themes are that humans have a propensity to fall into savagery when they are excluded from society. Part of this is due to a natural survival instinct to abandon societal norms; similarly people are forced, in such situations, to re-evaluate their values. They need to decide what they are willing to abandon in order to save themselves or others. Furthermore, in this state of acculturation; transitioning from living under societal norms to individual savagery, people will try to force others towards their own values to “save” them,

‘He meant he'd hide in there’” (192), but then regret it. This proves that when the boys are threatened they give in to what savagery wants. When we realize what we have done we regret it. When our environment changes we can succumb to doing evil

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.

The history of human nature has been bloody, painful, and even destructive. Nonetheless, before understanding their environments humans used to kill each other based on their own mindset on the ideal of violence, and what it actually meant. Pinker describes narratives of violent acts from the past, that today are foreign to us. He gives us a tour of the historical human violence and how the violence in human nature has changed throughout time. The main idea from Pinker’s book,“The Better Angels of Our Nature ', is “for all the dangers we face today, the dangers of yesterday were even worse.” He provides its readers with explicit violent stories beginning from 8000 BCE to now, and describes how violence has evolved from a blood lost to more of a peaceful existence.

All humans look and act the same until they are put in an endangered situation which brings out their evil instincts so they can survive. Over the years philosophers have argued about human nature, from our reading of Thomas Hobbes Vs John Locke we can see the two opposite extreme perspective on how to maintain order in society. While Hobbes believed that people are born wicked and only care for their personal interest therefore they need absolute monarch to govern them “Every man for every man” (Hobbes). On the other hand Locke believed that people are born good and can learn from their own mistakes and this is why they can govern themselves. In his book “Lord of the Flies” William Golding shows when a group of children are left in deserted island because of a war going on back home in England and how they return back to their savagery instincts when law and order are hard to maintain on the island. From what humanity has been facing and all the revolutions and wars we