Juxtaposition In 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.

Symbolism is prominent throughout the book, Lord of the Flies. William Golding’s stated purpose is “the shape of a society must depend on the ethical nature of the individual and not on any political system” (238). In the book, Golding demonstrates that when put into an environment without civilization, many will turn to evil. The nature within the individual, whether evil or otherwise, determines the nature of the society in which he lives. Light and dark is the most significant symbol that Golding uses to develop his purpose. He uses light and dark to represent good and evil, and civilization and savagery, and shows the stages of the descent from civilization into savagery.

William Golding explores the theme of violence throughout his novel ‘Lord of the Flies’. He believed that every individual has the potential to bring out their inner evil, and that every human being is flawed in their nature. Hence, he wrote a novel with

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.

Lord of the Flies is often claimed to be an allegory of modern society. While this is true, Golding’s intentions in writing this novel are much deeper. William Golding’s Lord of the Flies provides an enlightening insight into the true nature of human beings; along with why people refrain from acting upon the evil that resides within them. He presents these ideas through symbolism within the novel and it proves effective in many ways. Through symbolism, Golding can unfold the excellent plot of his novel, while subsequently sharing his ideas on the relationship of mankind and society. Golding uses the beast, the conch shell, and Piggy’s glasses to symbolize the human impulse towards ‘savagery’ and the social constructs put in place to prevent it.

One’s behaviour can have an substantial impact on a society's outcome. There is a common notion that humans are nurtured to be peaceful and civil. However this belief is contradicted by the action of the boys, in William Golding’s, “Lord of the Flies”. A group of schoolboys are abruptly thrown out of their controlled and civil circumstances into an inhabited tropical island in the middle of the Pacific. The novel is Golding’s attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature, by using symbolism to delineate this theme. Golding’s extensive use of symbolism, such as the conch, the signal fire and the painted faces helps demonstrates the defects of society. These symbols are used by Golding to illuminate the subsequent effects on the boys’ behaviour, which undoubtedly illustrates the defects of human nature on society.

In our society, people are often cruel to one another in the want for personal gain, but this is restrained to mere social interactions and online in our industrial world. However, when we are separated from civilized society and the pressures that it places upon us, we are quick to turn to savage, cruel behavior to survive. Golding understood this idea, that we are only civilized when others are watching, and showed the possibility for even the purest to become affected by societal pressures in his novel, the Lord of the Flies. In order to show the role of cruelty in shaping the novel Lord of the Flies, Golding uses character archetypes, the idea of cosmic irony, and extended symbolism to highlight the inherent flaws of human nature and the potential for even the purest individuals to turn to cruel ways due to societal pressures.

There is a quote by Edmund Burke, “man is the cruelest animal”, that perfectly describes the truth about human nature; that humanity, at its core, is an evil species. William Golding acknowledges this fact in his 1954 novel, Lord of the Flies. Throughout the novel, Golding highlights the cruelty of children, the carelessness of their actions, and the evilness present in the very fabric of society.

In the book Lord of the flies by William Golding, around 15 boys between the ages of 9 to 12 were left stranded on a deserted island. As they navigate through the ways of survival, many of the boys find their cause to fall into savagery. Throughout Lord of the flies, Golding draws a fine line between savagery and civilization as the novel progresses. The author suggests that human nature has an inborn sense of savagery, and evil that lies within that is only controlled by the pull of civilization.

In the novel the character of Jack represents the fastest reversion to savagery, and the human defect of evil and thirst for power. From the beginning of the novel, Jack’s main focus was hunting and finding meat. It is masked as the need for meat to survive, but it evolves into the driving force behind the bloodlust and allowance to revert from societal ways. “‘Rescue? Yes, of course! All the same, I'd like to catch a pig first-’ He snatched up his spear and dashed it into the ground. The opaque, mad look came into his eyes again.” Here it is shown that Jack has no real interest in returning to society, but wishes to pursue the regression into barbaric ways to fulfill his lust for blood. Not only does Jack regress himself, he lays his powerful influence over the group, eventually taking away Ralph’s tribe to create their own band of savages. Jack uses his evil to corrupt those around him, as the others see the ferocious behaviour, they are encouraged to demonstrate the same in order to survive and overcome the ‘beast’ of the island. In the final turn to true savagery, Jack paints his face, a representation of the evil taking full control of the human that once was there. The paint allows the boys to act barbarically without remorse, it " was a thing of its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness" (4.34), as the

Lord of the Flies is a marvelous non-fiction paradigm of the contrast of civility and savagery in human nature. In the novel, the author, William Golding, masterfully tells of how one characteristic taints the other, and eventually takes possession of its host. Throughout the novel, multiple results of these two attributes, along with many other situations, are portrayed using objects and characters, conveying the overall message

    Despite the progression of civilization and society's attempts to suppress man's darker side, moral depravity proves both indestructible and inescapable; contrary to culturally embraced views of humanistic tendencies towards goodness, each individual is susceptible to his base, innate instincts. In William Golding's Lord of the Flies, seemingly innocent schoolboys evolve into bloodthirsty savages as the latent evil within them emerges. Their regression into savagery is ironically paralleled by an intensifying fear of evil, and it culminates in several brutal slays as well as a frenzied manhunt. The graphic consequence of the boys' unrestrained barbarity, emphasized by the

In the novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding depicts the sinful nature of man, “maybe there is a beast… maybe it’s only us.” The book begins with a plane crash, which leaves a group of young boys stranded on an uninhabited island. Throughout the book, readers witness the boys losing their innocence while giving into savagery. By the end, most of the boys act upon their evil thoughts without a moment of hesitation. Although most people would think young boys couldn’t hurt anyone, Golding explains that even the most innocent people are inherently

Humans are capable of living peacefully because they are born pure. When the corruption of society approaches and influences one’s morality, they become progressively evil. The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a tragedy which explores the hardships of young boys that are stranded on an island during World War II, and are forced to create a new civilization as it is crucial for their survival. The downfall of their fate is not just a result of their lack of experience, but due to the profound savagery in humanity. The murder of Simon and Piggy are deeds that Golding uses to portray the cruelty of the boys as they lose their compassion. In addition, Roger and Jack are seen as sadists, because as they

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