Lord of the Flies: William Golding and Jean Jacques Rousseau

Similar to most literary classics, William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies contains allusions to the Christian Bible and character archetypes that convey universal ideas. Golding’s story focuses on a group of British schoolboys who are stranded on an island and ultimately succumb to their innate savage tendencies. Literary analysts often compare components of Lord of the Flies to various aspects in the Christian Bible. For instance, the setting in Lord of the Flies is often linked to the Garden of Eden, and some characters are thought to have religious-inspired names. Critics believe Simon’s name originates from Jesus Christ’s disciple, Peter, whose name was originally Simon. Biblical allusions exist throughout the novel associated with

Jean- Jacques Rousseau was born on June 28, 1712, in Switzerland. The European philosopher wrote a book called A Discourse on the Arts and Sciences. His belief is that society is corrupted by evil and that man is good in his “state of nature” (Notes). He believed that man are naturally good and if we let them act on their own instinct, that they will act their true nature. He claims that politics are evil and corrupt the society with their systems.

Later social philosophe, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, believed that people are naturally good, but due to society, they become bad. In later years, Rousseau put all of his ideas and thoughts into The Social Contract. In this work, Rousseau states that society and government limit people’s behavior too much that in the end it creates a negative. He believed that people need some rules to act as guidelines and such, and that these rules should only be passed by freely elected governments to enable everyone’s

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, possibly the most controversial thinker, also believed that people were naturally innocent at birth. He thought that people became corrupted once they were exposed to society, and they needed to subordinate to the community. However, Rousseau also felt that the control of government and society should also be kept minimal. Like Locke, Rousseau also thought people shouldn't give their rights to a king, but unlike him, Rousseau thought that they should instead give them to the community. However, this still differs from the absolutist view, which stated that the ruler had the ultimate power and that people had no rights and had to succumb to him.

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.

According to Golding the inherent nature of man is evil when entirely free from societal restraints. When the boys first arrive on the island in Lord of the

Rousseau’s assumptions and beliefs of his era are society and the growth of social interdependence. He was from 1700, (1712-78) it was very different compared to our beliefs.

Rousseau thought that man was born weak and ignorant, but virtuous. It is only when man became sociable that they became wicked. (Cress, 80) Since civil society makes men corrupt, Rousseau advocated “general will”, more precisely the combined wills of each person, to decide public affairs. General will would become the sovereign and thus it would be impossible for its interests to conflict with the priorities of the citizens, since this would be doing harm to itself. Virtue came from the freedom of men to make decisions for the good of the

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.

William Golding believed that man was inherently evil. He was alive during one of the most gruesome wars of history, WWII. His experiences in the war significantly impacted his life and thus negatively influenced his views on human nature. Whilst in service, he came to the firm conclusion that humans are much more savage than he once thought. Man kills his brother so easily, and does not seem emotionally affected by it.

Rousseau believed that people were naturally good: they became corrupt by the evils of society, especially the unequal distribution of property. He also supported the idea that governments should be formed with the consent of those being governed.

2.) Rousseau saw human nature and society as unnatural and often compared what we are in the present to what we, as a species, used to be beore groups were developed. Rousseau explores the nature of a man and expanded on ideas by other early philosphers, such as John Locke and Thomas Hobbes.

Golding is displaying in The Lord of the Flies that the nature of mankind and society can be both inherently good and evil through the personalities and characteristics the characters have.

He refutes Hobbes’ idea that man is naturally seeking to attack and fight by saying that man in the state of nature is actually man in his most timid form. He states that savage man’s needs are so basic (food, shelter, water, a woman) and easily found that he can have “neither foresight or curiosity”. By this man he means that man lacks the expansive nature that Hobbes’ believed they possessed (natural eternal quest for power). He continues on man’s basic nature adding “With passions so minimally active and such a salutary restraint, being more wild than evil, and more attentive to protecting themselves from the harm they could receive than tempted to do harm to others, men were not subject to very dangerous conflicts.” This is rather opposite of the state of nature in which Hobbes calls man in a constant war with man. He argues, that without society, in fact, that man would be much more pure and that the ills of society have dirtied man. He believed that human nature is very comparable to that of an animal in that it is at its based even natured, but that the separating factor between the two is free will. He argues that since society calls for more cooperation between men, it also causes more competition, creating many of society ills. Rather than saying man fled from the state of nature like Hobbes, Rousseau rather said that man needed society for division of labor as well as the division

In contrast, Rousseau had a generally positive view on human nature though a rather negative view on modern society. He proposed that humans had once been solitary beings and had learned to be political. He believed that human nature was not fixed and was subject to changed. Likewise, he believed that man was good when in a state of nature, but was corrupted by society as shown in his quotation, "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.” Also differentiating himself from other humanists, Rousseau taught that the sciences and the arts were not beneficial to man. Rousseau believed the general will must always be right and to obey the general will is to be free.