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Lord of the Flies by William Golding

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The Lord of The Flies, an amazing and controversial book written by William Golding does have some interesting views on society. If you look on the surface you see some kids who are doing what kids do and that is to be crazy and have fun. However, if you look deeper you'll find the roots of Golding's beliefs on society and humanity as a whole. It's more of a pessimistic view. There's also the view of Jean Jacques Rousseau, the author of "Dissertation on the Origin and Foundation of the Inequality of Mankind". They're complete opposites but both have some interesting points on the nature of mankind. Golding's view is in essence stating that humans are naturally evil and the laws and structures of society are what keeps us from descending into violent anarchy. In The Lord of the Flies the one rule is "I'll give the conch to the next person to speak. He can hold it when he's speaking." (Golding, 25), while this seems like a simple rule it's the cement of their small society because that is the most important rule of the island. It's when this rule is broken and the kids do not adhere to the conch anymore that signals the breaking point of their society and their degeneration into savages. This fits with Golding's beliefs because his philosophy is based on people following the rules of a society. He believes this because he had a very difficult life. He was born in 1911 which was the start of the "Great War", and he lived until 1982. He experienced the horrors of fighting in

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