Loss Of Humanity In Lord Of The Flies

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

In William Golding’s novel, “The Lord of the Flies”, he displays human nature in an animalistic viewpoint that is not seen in “normal” people. He describes the unknown savagery of human beings, without missing the good nature found within us, which allows us to work as a well-organized group. World War Two is also used effectively as a backdrop, since it shows that the violence is found in everyone.

In the Lord of the Flies, William Golding composes a tale about a group of British schoolboys who crash into an abandoned island without any adult supervision. Their own power is the one thing controlling one another on the island, and after a while, the gentle and friendly schoolboys evolve into more evil, confused humans, influenced by war, violence, and survival of the fittest. Golding showed Biblical signs throughout the novel, which compares the positive side of people with evil, and in the text, the boys grow and emerge into totally different people from the beginning. From the oldest to the youngest kids, all of them are influenced by the acts of each other and the World War going on, as the novel is placed in the 1950’s, a time of fear

When Simon died in Lord of the Flies by William Golding, his role as a righteous and pure boy untainted by barbarity perished alongside his body. He embodied the innocence and naivety of the modern civilization and symbolized the boys before they mutated into savages, influenced by the lack of regulation and jurisdiction. However, one can argue that his passing was not a major turning point in the novel because the power dynamic between all the boys remains the same as Piggy continues to be neglected and Jack goes on gaining authority. While it may seem like nothing changes, Simon’s murder allows Jack to display his superiority and brings out the violent and uncontrollable nature within all the boys. As a result, since Jack’s philosophy of

One of the most basic human instincts, prevalent in everyone, is the act of self-preservation, which can lead to the dismissal of their morals in times of distress. In Lord of the Flies, the boys’ subconscious takes over, allowing a much more ‘savage’ side of them to hinder their decision making. This is exhibited when the boys accidentally become too rough with what they think is the beast attacking them, but actually happens to be Simon. The second their minds went into survival mode, they battered him until his death, not noticing it was their friend all along until the next morning. Their judgement was so clouded with the idea of protecting themselves, that they did not come to their senses while brutally attacking the poor boy, who was only trying to help. This act of violence is a direct example of doing something at their own self-convenience, regardless of the costs. Because

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.

At its core, is mankind essentially good, or does it use law and order to mask its evil? Through his book The Lord of the Flies, William Golding causes questions concerning the ethicality of humanity to rise to the surface of the mind. The stripping away of distractions and structure he depicts in his all-too-real novel reveals society’s true nature. As a reader studies the settings, characters and plots of Lord of the Flies and how they relate to significant events in recent times, Golding’s message of the evil nature of humanity becomes increasingly clear and impactful.

“Life is scientific, that’s what it is. In a year of two when the war’s over they’ll be traveling to Mars and back. I know there isn’t no beast, not with claws and all that, I mean but I know there isn’t no fear, either. Unless we get frightened of people.” (84). Lord of the Flies is a novel where civilization is involved and it was found surrounded by a group of little boys under-aged teenagers who try to govern themselves on an island. The boys were found in a plane crash on a island and they try to create a society based on their own rules and laws.The boys: Ralph, Jack, Piggy, and the rest of the boys try to work out their differences and make a civilized little group in order to survive. Everyone on the island wants to survive and hope to be rescued to come home to their families. As the book went on, you see changes in the characters as they are influenced from others or in society. The characters develop as the book goes on and they experiment new beginnings when they are put in difficult situations. William Golding, in the novel of Lord of the Flies, uses the characters, Jack and Ralph, to reveal that human nature is naturally corrupted.

All Quiet On The Western Front, and Lord of The Flies are similar in numerous different ways. Both works of literature explore the conditions that force men to give up their moral values, by making them fight for their lives, hunt for their lives, and steal for their lives. In “All Quiet On The Western Front”, by Erich Maria Remarque, Paul Baumer and his fellow soldiers were fighting against the French. Paul Baumer pointed out that they “have become wild beasts” who “defend [themselves] against annihilation” (Remarque, 113). Faced between killing other people or getting killed themselves, the soldiers gave up their moral values, and began to massacre each other. Another example of the human race giving up its moral values

In William Goldings book, Lord of the Flies there are many different causes and effects of the societal collapse. First, they had no emotional support. They did not have the parent love that they really needed. Second, they did not have not have adult supervision to keep them in order. Lastly, there was a lot of evil that went through the island. The boys did not mention God one time while they were on the island.

    Despite the progression of civilization and society's attempts to suppress man's darker side, moral depravity proves both indestructible and inescapable; contrary to culturally embraced views of humanistic tendencies towards goodness, each individual is susceptible to his base, innate instincts. In William Golding's Lord of the Flies, seemingly innocent schoolboys evolve into bloodthirsty savages as the latent evil within them emerges. Their regression into savagery is ironically paralleled by an intensifying fear of evil, and it culminates in several brutal slays as well as a frenzied manhunt. The graphic consequence of the boys' unrestrained barbarity, emphasized by the

Even in the kindest of boys among the Island, all of them display some form of savagery. After the boys had hunted down a pig, they got in a chaotic circle chanting “Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in!" (114). These energetic, savage, and chaotic dances would carry away even the most innocent boys. Even Ralph thought that “the desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering” (115). Ralph, among the most reasonable and helping of the group, was carried away by the thrill of hurting and killing. This represented his barbaric side, the side that existed in all of the boys, even though at times it may seem not present. This shows that people in their everyday personality show the amount of evilness they wish, and it alters the perception people will have on someone. But in “Lord of the Flies”, this raw human

Humans kill, whether it be animals, insects or people. The justice system is used to try and fix what others have done and in this way they are punished. They are punished in a functioning society with rules and laws, but when all that is stripped away, we are left with mass destruction and humans that kill. The novel Lord of the Flies, published in 1954 and written by Nobel Prize winning author, William Golding, portrays the violence and eradication of a functioning society through young boys stranded on an island. Golding uses the symbol fire and forgetfulness of the need for it to develop the theme of the loss of society and creation of uncivilized destruction.

Even though Golding had an enormous amount of symbols throughout his novel, Simon is the first to recognize the complication posed by the beast and the “Lord of the Flies” that is, that the monster on the island is not a real, physical beast, but rather a savagery that lurks within each and every human being. As a final point, the loss of social structure within civilization can lead to the demise of the boys on the island whether it's between Ralph vs Jack, the boys vs the island, or even Simon vs

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.