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Comparing Evil In 'To Kill A Mockingbird And Animal Farm'

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Nicole Arbut Mrs. Jackson Period 5 4/5/24 The Depths of Human Nature: Good vs Evil Something that has been debated for centuries is whether humans are born good or evil. Some people (such as Golding) believe that humans are naturally evil and need their environment to make them good, while others believe that people are inherently good and are led astray by their environment. Golding's stance on human nature being evil in Lord of the Flies is correct, and this is proven in other novels such as "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Animal Farm" which displays humans as selfish and manipulative. Golding believes that human nature is deeply rooted in savagery and evil. After being on the island for a while, the boys turn into complete savages chanting, …show more content…

At the trial where Tom Robinson (a black man) is falsely accused of raping a white woman, Mr. Raymond explains why Dill is crying to the lawyer’s children. He rationalizes that Dill is crying because of the instinctive “hell white people give to colored folks, without stopping to think that they’re people too” (Lee 229). The lack of consideration that the white people have towards Tom because of the racist society they are deeply rooted in displays that human nature tends to be evil. The white people in Maycomb County are so focused on their own pleasure in Tom losing his case because of his skin color that they totally disregard the fact that he is a human being. This reveals their complete lack of empathy in their own selfish ways. Another reason human nature is evil is because of their manipulative behaviors. At an assembly on the island, the boys are conversing about a supposed beast on the island. With the power struggle between Jack and Ralph going on, Jack assures the boys he can keep them safe saying, “We’re strong-we hunt! If there’s a beast, we’ll hunt it down and beat it!” (Golding 91). Jack is manipulating the littles on the island by using their fear to his

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In a town where everyones views are similar the majority of the towns people show their racists feelings toward Tom Robinson during the course of his trial. To start, shown when Mr. Ewell is testifying. He sheds his views on the trial and how he sees them. To add onto that, testifying in front of the court he states, “I seen that black nigger yonder ruttin’ on Mayella” (231).

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This image shows how the people in Maycomb based their beliefs, about Thomas Robinson, by his skin color. Most whites who were at the trial, didn’t want to hear anything that Mr. Robinson has to say, because he was black. Since he was black, the whites automatically assumed Mr. Robinson was guilty. Mr. Robinson says he didn’t mean any harm toward Miss. Mayella. “Mr. Finch, I tried.

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Without even stopping to think that they’re people, too” (Lee, 229). Black people get treated terribly in the town of Maycomb. People do not stop and think about them being people, and just treat them with a lack of respect. Tom Robinson during the trial is a perfect example of this, being treated horribly the whole time and Dill was the only one to say anything about it. It is not Tom’s fault for his skin color and the way he is treated.

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Jack and Ralph use barbaric behavior to strike fear in the other boys on the island and get them to follow their evil wishes (Lord of the Flies 146). People can also reveal their evil side as an attempt to conform to stereotypes and social groups. In the Stanford prison experiment, the guards and prisoners both let their savage instinct take the better of them when they were trying to fit the part of their assigned social role. “Within a very short time both guards and prisoners were setting into their new roles, with the guards adopting theirs quickly and easily” (“Zimbardo” 2). All of these outside effects take part in the internal struggle between ones good side and evil nature in adults, but the effects of evil can grow even more apparent in

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1005 Words | 5 Pages

Racism is only one of the harsh and cruel injustices of Maycomb that Dill is exposed to during his stay there. The Tom Robinson trial is his epiphany of how cruel and wicked people can be because of one’s skin color. After he witnesses Mr. Gilmer’s obvious mockery and disrespect of Tom Robinson, Dill states “ ‘It was the way he said it made me sick, plain sick... It ain't right, somehow it ain't right to do 'em that way.’" (227) Dill’s innocence to racism quickly fades away after witnessing Mr. Gilmer’s cross examination.

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In To Kill a Mockingbird, prejudice is noticeable because Tom Robinson is a colored man fighting against a white man’s alleged words. What makes it worse is that the jury is made of all white folks. The plaintiff, Mr. Ewell, claimed, “I seen that black nigger yonder ruttin’ on my Mayella!” (231). Every individual, when trying to earn people’s trust, will try their best showcase what they have in common.

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Before Tom Robinson’s trial, the town had a “gala”(182) and the town was “covered with picnic parties”(182). This use of diction creates a celebratory mood, suggesting that the town did not care about Tom’s trial. Lee creates the idea that the people of Maycomb do not care about Tom, or any African Americans for that matter. While most of the town of Maycomb is celebrating, “in a far corner of the square, the Negroes sat quietly in the sun” (182), suggesting they are outcasts. This dissimilarity between the townspeople is used to assist the reader in understanding the depth of the principal theme of racial prejudice.

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For example,Mr. Raymond tells Dill after seeing him cry about the events in the courtroom,”Cry about the simple hell people give other people—without even thinking. Cry about the hell white people give colored folks without even stopping to think that they’re people, too.” Mr.Raymond believes in how everyone are equal and that the way white people in Maycomb treats the black population doesn’t make sense as he believes that they also deserves to be treated fairly. Moreover, when Scout and Dill walked out of the courthouse after Dill cried after seeing how Tom was being treated like, Mr. Raymond asks him,”You aren’t thin-hided, it just makes you sick, doesn’t it?”. Mr. Raymond asked that since he realize why Dill is crying.

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First, in Lord of the Flies, Golding presents human nature as being inherently evil. During the novel, Jack has memories come back to him of “when they closed in on the struggling pig, knowledge that they had outwitted a living thing, imposed their will upon it, taken away its life like

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I believe that humans are evil because of the abuse of power and from abusing power, and rebellion. William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies shows that humans are evil through Jack. Jack at the beginning of this novel Jack was given power. Jack led the choir boys, then when there was another threat or leader Jack challenges him to get his power back. This split power of jack and Ralph caused tension throughout the novel.

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The character of Tom Robinson serves as a poignant symbol of racial injustice, as he is unjustly accused of a crime solely because of his race. The trial scene vividly depicts the pervasive racism and bias prevalent in Maycomb, Alabama. By juxtaposing the innocence and integrity of Tom Robinson against the bigotry of the townspeople, Lee exposes the dehumanizing impact of prejudice on individuals and society as a

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The want for power strengthens and his hunger increases, but what he was unaware of was the fact that he was destroying his own mind. He was brainwashed by his surroundings to think that in that situation, it was acceptable. Jack’s evilness has officially broken everyone's norms on the island. These young boys have been exposed to the wild and this has destroyed the minds’ of these kids and has turned the kids into

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830 Words | 4 Pages

Tom Robinson is a young African-American who's been accused of raping and abusing Mayella Ewell, a young and closeted white woman. Racial discrimination is hinted throughout Tom’s trial as Atticus Finch explains to Jem that a white man’s word will always win over that of a black man’s - "... In our courts, when it's a white man's word against a black man's, the white man always wins. They're ugly, but those are the facts of life" (220). Atticus explains to Jem that in the courts of Maycomb, a black man’s state of innocence or guilt is truly determined by a white man’s testimony.

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In Golding's novel The Lord of the Flies the author claims that human nature is naturally evil. This assessment of human nature is accurate in the real world and in other novels like Animal Farm by George Orwell. There are different levels of evil and people fall differently among those levels.  “Not all evils are equally evil, but evil is morally bad or wrong” (Vocabulary.com) In Lord of the Flies Golding presents human nature as fundamentally evil through the use of the five boys stranded on an island.

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1384 Words | 6 Pages

Is there a greater number of evil humans than good? Willaim Golding's novel Lord of the Flies, released in 1954, has several illustrations of how humans may be evil. History has often demonstrated how bad humans are. Slavery and the Pearl Harbor attack are excellent examples of terrible people. The slave trade was a mass slaughter conducted by Portugal due to a labor shortage.

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