Human Nature In Lord Of The Flies

The Defects in Society are the Defects of Human Nature in Lord of the Flies

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.

“Life is scientific, that’s what it is. In a year of two when the war’s over they’ll be traveling to Mars and back. I know there isn’t no beast, not with claws and all that, I mean but I know there isn’t no fear, either. Unless we get frightened of people.” (84). Lord of the Flies is a novel where civilization is involved and it was found surrounded by a group of little boys under-aged teenagers who try to govern themselves on an island. The boys were found in a plane crash on a island and they try to create a society based on their own rules and laws.The boys: Ralph, Jack, Piggy, and the rest of the boys try to work out their differences and make a civilized little group in order to survive. Everyone on the island wants to survive and hope to be rescued to come home to their families. As the book went on, you see changes in the characters as they are influenced from others or in society. The characters develop as the book goes on and they experiment new beginnings when they are put in difficult situations. William Golding, in the novel of Lord of the Flies, uses the characters, Jack and Ralph, to reveal that human nature is naturally corrupted.

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,

In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a group of schoolboys are stranded on an island isolated from adult authority and societal norms. As time progresses, the boys attempt to replicate a government similar to what they observed from the adults at home. However, they never succeed due to human nature that is wicked and selfish, according to English philosopher Thomas Hobbes. It is especially easy to lose the concept of right and wrong if one is at a lower level in Lawrence Kohlberg’s moral development stages. If there is no order or the higher authority of society that people need then their selfish nature emerges, exhibited when a boy’s life is lost, sand is kicked into a boy’s eyes, and rocks are thrown at a boy merely for enjoyment.

A human’s ideals vary from person to person, but humans shall remain humans. There are certain traits that make humans alike, and when put in a specific situation, the evil traits in all of us may expose themselves. In a survival situation humans struggle to cling to life, and will do almost anything to keep a firm grasp. Their “true colors” will show when the grasp weakens and strength is required to outlive other survivalists. In “Lord of the Flies” William Golding uses aspects of his life along with his philosophy of human nature to show that when life is on the line, the true nature of human beings is to stop at nothing for survival.

In the novel Lord of The Flies by William Golding, a plane crashes on an island and a group of young English boys are forced to fend for themselves as well as each other in hope of rescue. In this novel Golding makes several comments on the tendencies of man when in the absence of a social structure. Throughout the book, Golding tells the reader about human nature. When humans completely give in to human nature, chaos erupts. Through the use of the fire, the beast, and Piggy’s glasses William Golding shows how human nature slowly pulls away from civilization when there is no social structure.

I think the boys’ savage and immoral behavior should be blamed on biology. During adolescence, a teenager’s brain will go crazy. Certain parts of the brain will try to overpower the main part and that can cause some problems when it comes to decision making.

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 book, Lord of the Flies by William Golding is about human nature, but before I explain why, we will need to know what human nature is. Human nature is a set of qualities and the behavioral ranges that are shared in all humans. This includes ways of thinking, feeling, and acting that everyone is born with. Lord of the Flies was about a group of boys that are stranded on an island, trying to recreate civilization. It becomes really violent in the middle that there were boys that murdered other boys. In the end, they get saved from death on the island. In the book, the boys feared of one thing, known as the beast. The beast which one boy realized was something inside of them, something they can’t kill, known as the Lord of the Flies. It’s

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

William Golding fulfills Hobbes’ ideas about man with Lord of the Flies when Ralph and Jack battle over chief authority, when Simon gets killed, and when the boys turn savage against each other.

Before the conch is broken in Lord of the Flies, it is held as the upmost important object on the island and what stops the boys from plummeting into total anarchy. After it is destroyed, the last bit of humanity is washed away and the true mindset of humans is revealed. Golding exposes the potential for a more brutal human nature through characters, objects, and various events throughout his story.

What do you think is the main purpose of our literature? Literature that has been gone around for thousands of years and to come as well. Pieces of literature are our ways to look into the past and future and see the human conditions. The roles of literature and how they hold mirror to the human conditions. In the Lord of the Flies, Golding’s use of techniques in the literature to show how the human mind and heart is shaped through literature, by addressing the humanity along with the ignoble side.