Cruelty In Lord Of The Flies, By William Golding

Human nature is an essential question that has been pondered on for millennia. The interest in wanting to know if we are genuinely good or evil can plague the mind to such an extent that the topic can transcend into the fictional world. As a result of this question, writers have produced media that hint at their beliefs of an answer, one being Lord of the Flies. William Golding’s views of human nature being evil are agreeably accurate. These views can be attributed to traits such as cruelty and greed, which can be traced to books like Lord of The Flies, 12 Angry Men, and To Kill a Mockingbird. These novels each display the innate cruelty and greed that lie within each human and show why we are naturally evil. William Golding presents human

“Viciously, with full intention, he hurled his spear at Ralph. The point tore the skin and flesh over Ralph’s ribs.” (Golding,181) This moment of Jack’s actions is one that truly displays his cruelty, as Jack went from someone who would be harsh, but respected Ralph, to having the full conviction to kill him on the spot, and while Ralph, at this point, presented no threat, as he was alone, with his two closest people being dead. The continued trope of attempting to murder powerless innocents is continued in To Kill A Mockingbird. As Heck stated, “Bob Ewell meant business” and “Low-down skunk with enough liquor in him to make him brave enough to kill children” (Lee, 309). These actions of both Jack and Bob Ewell represent the heavy usage of cruelty in both novels. This is shown as one of them, with the numbers advantage, attempted to kill the boy he once respected, and the other, a grown man, attempted to kill the young children of the man he held a grudge against. Human nature is evil as it consists of heavy amounts of self-interest, leading to greedy deeds. This can be seen within the novel of 12 Angry Men and Lord Of The Flies. “I’m not going to play any longer, “Not with you.” (Golding, 127) This phrase from Jack shows his way of thinking: that all the events on the island were just a game and preceded leaving the group because he felt like he could do better on his own. This would go on to start a civil conflict, all due to Jack’s greed. This source of greed from the perspective of a child goes hand in hand with the immense greed from one of the jurors in 12 Angry Men. Juror 7 represents greed as he states “I’m a little sick of this whole thing”. Let’s break it up and go home.” (Rose,56). Juror 7’s claim of being tired of wanting to go home is a showing of his own self-interest, as he himself has no interest in the case,