Lord Of The Flies Paradox Of Humanity

It may have taken millions of years for humans to evolve enough to create the sprawling civilizations known today, but it only takes a few months for a group of civil, educated boys to regress back into savagery. In his novel Lord of the Flies, author William Golding depicts a group of young British boys getting stranded on a deserted island sans adults. The boys must look out for themselves, forming a basic governing system and trying to survive. But the challenge soon proves too much to handle, and order deteriorates. William Golding conveys the universal theme of civilization vs. savagery in his novel Lord of the Flies using the literary elements of plot, setting, and characterization.

Humanity. It means a lot of things to a lot of people, every single one of us has an opinion about it. Our base for this opinion, however, comes from what we know of humanity, how it’s treated us, how it’s treated our family, how it’s treated others around us, others we don’t even know.

Golding’s specific choice of setting and characters assists greatly in showing the essentially cruel and inhumane nature of humanity. For example, his

William Golding proceeded to tell us, “No human endeavour can ever be wholly good... it must always have a cost”. Throughout Lord of the Flies, Golding reminds us that the difference between a pessimistic and an optimistic society is in the hands of the boys themselves. All of us have savagery within but it is our choice to disguise it with the help of our morals and the structure of the boys and the society around

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.

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.

After World War II countries were in shambles, overran with fear that was fueled by the abundance of hate and violence that stemmed from Germany. The plentiful amounts of evil William Golding was witnessing drove him to write Lord of the Flies. Form this, we can conclude that aspects of his story are an allegory to what Golding observed throughout the war. In his story, William Golding expresses the importance of a civilization’s nature to be ethically correct and explains that without the precise guidance, the natural savageness of humans can prevent society from thriving. Golding’s statement is correct because without society’s moral compass humans would revert to their savage nature, pray on the weak, and would be driven toward aggression.

The Lord of the Flies tells the story of a group of English schoolboys marooned on a tropical island after their plane is shot down during a war. Though the novel is fictional, its exploration of the idea of human evil is at least partly based on Golding’s experience with the real-life violence and brutality of World War II. Free from the rules and structures of civilization and society, the boys on the island in Lord of the Flies descend into savagery. Golding’s experience in World War II had a profound effect on his view of humanity and the evils of which it was capable. Although Golding’s story is confined to the microcosm of a group of boys, it resounds with implications far beyond the bounds of the small island and explores problems

Throughout this magnificent novel, William Golding collaborated civilization with good and savagery with evil. The English boys were civilized, humane, and educated as they slowly acclimatized themselves to a vulgar, primitive, and swinish life in the jungle. The rivalry between civilization and savagery is represented between the two main characters Ralph and Jack: Ralph represents tranquility and leadership, while Jack represents boorish and lust for power.

It can be argued that Golding’s use of characterization solidifies his theory that all men have the capacity for evil due to their innate human nature. Golding depicts the two main alpha male characters of Jack and Ralph as primary examples of this theme. As the story unfolds, Golding reveals Jack to be selfish, violent, and corrupt as he was driven “to violence, the bolting look came into his blue eyes. He took a step, and able at last to hit someone, stuck his fist into Piggy’s stomach,” (Golding 71). The description of Jack towards the conclusion of the book reveals how deceitful and antagonistic Jack has become. Jack’s monstrous personality devours everyones humanity when he refuses to obey rules, and begins to let his anger out starting with piggy. Ralph accuses Jack of being “a beast and a swine and a bloody thief” (Golding 179)! Ralph’s statement is a concise summation of all that Jack becomes. Furthermore, the fact that Jack has begun to become more tribal in appearance indicates his reversion into a more primal being. Finally, as depicted midway through the story, Jack reveals his true sadistic nature as he was “on top of the sow stabbing downward with his knife....Jack found the throat and the hot blood spouted over his hands,” (Golding 135). All of these intensely descriptive characterizations of Jack committing violence as a beast and becoming a thief portray his evil nature. This proves Goldings point that all humans can succumb

Lastly, being in an uncivilized environment, without rules or consequences, the innate evil is revealed once again when Jack and his tribe attack Ralph. At the commencement of this book, it was one mighty group of young boys fighting for their survival and

William Golding’s allegorical novel “Lord of the Flies” involves many elemental fictionality’s to communicate the main idea and theme of the novel. One of the phenomenal themes conceived by the novel is, the malevolence in human nature, and it is not one that develops over time as brilliancy but it’s one that is

Golding shows evil within humans through Jack. Jack symbolizes cruel political leaders such as Castro and Hitler. He is the leader of the hunters, but the first time they find a pig he is not able to kill it. Jack not being able to kill the pig showed that he was still civilized, but later obsessing over the pig he transformed into a savage. William Golding through Jacks character showed that everyone is born good and evil, but

Once these boys join Jack’s tribe, they are forced to follow his orders, committing heinous atrocities against their former friends in a desperate attempt to avoid the physical punishment Jack inflicts on those who disobey him. Jack rules his subjects through fear and intimidation, and yet lures them in by playing on hidden desires unbeknownst to them. Jack is often shown acting cruel and menacing towards the other boys, however is he also shown as being self-conscious and a bit insecure: “Boys are desperate to distract from their own helplessness and do so by projecting their fear of subjection onto an even weaker

Golding uses hunting throughout the novel to express the changing of human beings into savages. Throughout the novel we see the character Jack start to evolve from this innocent boy into a savage when he starts hunting, “He began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling” (Golding 58). Jack used hunting as a way to survive and believed that only hunting and killing were the only tools used to survive. His desire to hunt lead to a desire to kill. Jack loved to hunt that killing came easy to him, “His mind was crowded with memories: