Lord of The Flies: Human Nature Are humans instinctively evil? Savage? In Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, young boys are left to organize themselves into a society to keep balance and peace on the island. When the society crumbles beneath their feet, one must ask these questions. The downfall and overall plot of the book is largely telling of human nature, and may be a smaller analogy for human nature in itself. The theme of human nature in The Lord of the Flies permeates the book through the characters, their archetypes, and the plot itself. In the first few chapters of Lord of the Flies, discrimination between characters is an example of the natural narcissism of human nature.. The most important of the characters include Ralph, …show more content…
The island is used as a sort of playing ground to reveal the true underlying qualities of each character, and as mentioned above, the qualities of humanity. When the boys first gather on the island, they are quick to order themselves in a society, more of a tribe in their case, that reflects the social structure they were exposed to at home. This process involves electing a leader, holding meetings or assemblies to vote on matters, and working together for the greater good of everyone on the island. The assemblies become a part of keeping order within their society. To illustrate, when Ralph finds out that Jack neglected the fire he calls an assembly to prioritize. Ralph says, “The fire is the most important thing on the island. How can we ever be rescued except by luck, if we don’t keep a fire going? Is a fire too much for us to make” (80). As an effort to show the boys their dire circumstances, he tries to convict them, including himself, of their ignorance. On the contrary, Jack Merridew counters Ralph’s authority with the proposition of thrill and amusement. Jack proposes that he forms his own tribe.. Within this rebel tribe he suggests that they act only as savages. The temptation to hunt won many of the boys over in favor of orderly society as suggested by Ralph. The two groups of boys reach the culmination of the conflict when logic battles savagery; “ ‘Which is …show more content…
Using these tools, William Golding clearly implies the epitome of human nature. The character’s exhibit realistic tendencies to discriminate, oppress, and submit to temptations on a clean slate such as the island all reflect the theme of human nature. Ultimately, these tendencies also imply that humans are innately evil and ultimately
He starts a new meeting and continues to enforce the new rules in the hope to help them create a sustainable life or leave the island. This constant push to encourage the boys to work together and have a home helps earn respect between the boys on the island. Ralph exhibits this trait due to him being the best chief out there for the boys to rely
While the boys are on the island, they fail to work together, they fail to follow these roles, and end up turning on each other. This leads to boys on the island getting hurt and they end up destroying the island itself. Jack and Ralph demonstrate
“Declare your jihad on thirteen enemies you cannot see- egoism, arrogance, conceit, selfishness, greed, lust, intolerance, anger, lying, cheating, gossiping, and slandering. If you can master and destroy them, then you will be ready to fight the enemy you can see.” - Al-Ghazali. These enemies are the evils that lurk within humans, yet we see more in others than ourselves.
Jack’s character is beginning to shine through, showing that deep down he is truly the antagonist in the story. His character represents the evil, violent side of human nature, shown by how he manipulates the other characters. The boys have been on the island for enough time to establish what they need, mainly fire. Ralph suggests they make it on top of the mountain, leading Jack
Three reasons “Lord of the Flies” and “The Most Dangerous Game” can be understood as an example of human nature are as follows: “Lord of the Flies” demonstrates how quickly people can lose social order when their lives are put at risk. At first, when the boys are on the Island, they establish a government so they can stay organized. This quickly fails when Jack doesn’t agree with who should be leader and he starts a separatist movement with his “hunters.” Order fails, and the evil within the boys starts to come out in a very primitive manner. This is similar to “The Most Dangerous Game” where Rainsford refuses to hunt another person, and is forced to fight for his life against the General.
This shows the human nature of children and men when they are away from society and order for a long time. If they do not get what they want, then they will drive themselves crazy trying to fight and in turn, become savages, who are focused on killing and hunting. They are blinded by their anger and illusions that they forget about the real point, which is trying to escape from the island and their new goal is to kill each other off so they alone can be the chief of the island, but eventually all the boys will have to end up dying from natural causes or battles if they are not saved by a ship. Their morals are ruined and this leads to further chaos on the island. Once the chaos starts to happen on the island, Ralph also starts to rethink his idea of being chief.
In Lord of the flies, Mr.William Golding uses the theme of human nature to show how easily a small society of british young men can tear apart, and how dangerous humans can be towards themselves, how a civilized human can turn into a filthy crazy savage. Mr. Golding’s fundamental
Which is about a group of young boys that are marooned on an island for quite some time and have to make their own society. Ralph steps up as the leader of the boys but later on in the book, the position is taken by Jack which turns chaotic. The chaos leads to many problems within the group of boys. In the book, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, it is shown that individuals make up society, Jack’s tribe shows this by controlling the boys with his beliefs, and making up his own rules that break the initial ones, although, the opposing side may say that society shapes the individuals. Beliefs are important in creating a society because it can organize the members values, however Jack does it tyrannically.
The 'Lord of The Flies' explores human nature through the communication of
When Jack finally voices his abhor for the rules, he starts a downward slope for the rest of the boys to follow. “'Bollocks to the rules! … and beat and beat—!'” (Golding 91). Jack's disregard for the rules here foreshadows him abandoning Ralph's rules altogether and forming his own tribe. When Jack's new tribe finally establishes itself, he abandons many of the morals Ralph had.
Now Jack calls Ralph a coward. Jack is now declaring himself chief of a new tribe. Jack says this new tribe is going to be a tribe full hunters and savages. That night the new tribe, Savages, had a hunt and brought back a sow. They had a huge feast.
Ralph, one of the most important characters in the novel serves as the human ego, a subconscious mind that works by reason and common sense. However, even the conscious and reasonable mind can vanish in a society with no structure and civilization. At the beginning of the novel, Ralph asserts “… We can help them to find us… a ship comes near the island they may not notice us…we must make smoke on top of the mountain…” (38). Ralph focuses on the important and common sense actions that need to be taken in order to survive and get rescued. Even so, Ralph is being diminished by the savagery committed by Jack and his hunters, the quotes “He tried to remember…we want smoke…
However, Jack and his tribe are eager to hunt Ralph down. In this final scene, it is clear that savagery completely took over civilization on the island. “Fun and games,” said the officer. (Golding, 181). The naval officer correctly identified the hunt, because the boys allowed the inner evil dominate themselves.
The quality that defines the human nature best is our inherent evil. In both books, the inherent evil is portrayed as the main, and most defined quality. At
William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies does not simply describe the life of a group of children stranded on an island, but rather it is a representation of the qualities of human nature. As the novel progresses, the children grow deeper into savagery, performing actions that would be often criticised in society. The absence of law and order devolves even those that attempt to recreate it, like Ralph and Piggy. In this novel, Golding uses children to answer the question whether or not humans are born inanimately good or truly evil. Golding answers this question by symbolising the main characters and their descent into savagery.