Lord of the Flies: Defects of Society Due to Nature of Individuals

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

Even though I was worried when we arrived here, I could still recognise that this island was beautiful. There were crystal waters and tropical palms. Sand that crunched beneath your feet and coral that decorated the ocean floor. Looks can be very deceiving though, Auntie. It didn’t stay beautiful for long and ever since we landed, I was praying that we would be rescued.

The final push that drives the young boys over the edge is when the hunters kill Piggy. Ralph, Piggy, and a few others try to reclaim Piggy’s glasses at Jack’s camp. When Ralph arrives he is met by Jack and his hunters. The boys start to argue and a fight breaks out. Roger, one of Jack’s violent hunters, shoves Piggy over the cliff side. “Piggy fell forty feet and landed on his back across the square red rock in the sea” (Golding 181). Roger had not shown Piggy any mercy. They all used to be good boys until the island took their innocence away from

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.

Imagine if one was asked to compile a list of every flaw of human nature that was demonstrated by the boys in the novel Lord of the Flies. Among the words used would probably be naive, uncivilized, and unfocused. While these words certainly do describe the boys and their poorly constructed society, they also hold the same meaning and truth when they are applied to our own people in our own society. People in both our society and the one described in the novel exhibit a profuse amount of faults and flaws, but this extensive list of faults can be narrowed down to the three most common ones. The three most prominent flaws of human nature are being selfish, desiring power, and not following through with plans.

In William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies”, the novel simulates aspects of raw human nature. One part of this human nature is the division between good and evil, and how it plays a role in the personality of a human. This idea, develops a concept throughout the story. It is that in every person, there is a level of evil and savagery, this cannot be manipulated, but the level of which one displays it can. It develops personality, some people will tend to hold in their anger or distaste, and others will let it loose, altering the personality among people. In “Lord of the Flies”, this level of evil that is shown, varies in each character among the island.

After rallying the boys from all around the island Ralph calls a meeting. At the meeting he tries to create order by having the boys elect a leader, all of the choir boys vote for Jack but the rest vote for Ralph. Ralph wins the vote. He starts organizing a way to survive. First, he assigns Jack and the rest of the choir boys as the hunters. Later he has the boys build huts for them to live in until they get rescued. He also assigns shifts for the fire to help as a signal and to get rescued. He constantly shows leadership and sense of

Ralph decides to take the conch shell to Castle Rock, hoping that it will remind Jack’s followers of his former authority. Ralph blows his conch shell. Then Jack comes out and commands Ralph to leave his camp, and Ralph demands that Jack return Piggy’s glasses. Jack attacks Ralph, and they fight. Ralph struggles to make Jack understand the importance of the signal fire which would help them get rescued, but Jack orders his hunters to capture Sam and Eric. This sends Ralph into a fury, and he attacks Jack. Ralph and Jack fight for a second time. Piggy cries out, struggling to make himself heard over the fight. As Piggy tries to speak, hoping to remind the group of the importance of rules and rescue, Roger shoves a massive rock down the mountainside. Ralph, who hears the rock falling, dives and dodges it. But the boulder strikes Piggy, shatters the conch shell, and knocks him off the mountainside to his death on the rocks below. Jack throws his spear at Ralph, and the other boys quickly join in. Ralph escapes into the jungle, and Roger and Jack begin to torture Sam and Eric, forcing them to submit to Jack’s authority and join his tribe. The fire has burnt out. The next day Ralph is awaken with the smell of smoke and is forced to come out of hiding. He runs down to the beach and sees a navy officer. Ralph and the boys are saved. “His voice rose under the black smoke before the burning wreckage of the island; and infected by that emotion, the other little boys began to shake and sob too. And in the middle of them, with filthy body, matted hair, and unwiped nose, Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy.” (LOTF page 202).

place in the jungle of the island, however it started out on a yacht and then proceeds to General

I recommend The Lord of the Flies by William Golding because it teaches us about how society’s defects are caused by human imperfections.The characters make decisions that relate to problems we have today. The lesson is that the imperfection of society is caused by the imperfection of the members of that society. I highly recommend this book so that more people can learn about how society’s flaws are created by the flaws of man.

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,

“Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals.” The posed question is if society is controlled by people, or are people controlled by society. Some may argue that society is controlled by people, but if you step into the light is that really the case. If you were to look at society, really look at it, who is being controlled. Its not society itself, sure people affect the directions society turns, but that is a small group of people who represent societies movement and trends. People do not really affect what society truly is. Society is, as said before, a mental concept, the popular, important figures in the world are the physical representation. The world is full of unique individuals, although everyone is under influence of society. It is subconscious, but always there. These next paragraphs will express how society controls people by elaborating on three main ideas that show up in the book Lord of The Flies. Society controls our actions, we learn from society and use it to try to be in control of others, and it is always there and so we have no idea what to do apart from it.

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.

James Madison once said, “If men were angels, no government would be necessary”. But men are not angels and there is a need for government, because men are not inherently good. Throughout the novel, Lord Of The Flies, William Golding successfully portrays his view of human nature as inherently evil by the actions and thoughts of the boys who are stranded on an island. The catholic church’s standpoint that human nature is inherently good is overpowered by William Golding’s view. William’s view is expressed throughout the Lord Of The Flies through the savagery in the book, the desire to kill/ hunt, and the loss of their innocence.