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Lord Of The Flies Evil Analysis

Decent Essays

What constitutes evil? For several millennia, men have been trying to answer that question. Men have been trying to formulate a code of laws in order to combat evil and protect people. What if evil is something that isn’t after us but is within us? William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies is an allegory showing that while civilization suppresses the evil that resides in all of mankind, failure to acknowledge one’s own faults will result in chaos.
Golding uses many characters, such as Roger and Maurice, to show that there are those in society that are inherently evil. The only way their evils are kept at bay is through civilization. As the boys on the island develop a routine, the littluns adapt the routine of play time. While some of them built sand castles, Maurice throws sand in one of the little boy’s eyes. “In his other life Maurice had received chastisement for filling a younger eye with sand. Now, though there was no parent… Maurice still felt the unease of his wrongdoing” (Source C). Maurice throwing sand in Percival’s eyes is a sign that he has evil desires within him. The little boys do no harm to him, yet he still wants to harm them. The only reason he feels guilty afterwards is because he was taught to feel that way when hurting someone else. This scene suggests that despite Maurice’s atrocities, his behaviors are suppressed by the expectations of society. Having a set of rules and expectations entails following them in order to survive and be accepted in

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