Disharmony In Lord Of The Flies By William Golding

William Golding once said “We have disharmony in our very natures. We cannot live together without injuring each other.” William Golding firmly belied that humans are totally depraved beings. This view is rather clearly portrayed in his book Lord of the Flies. William Golding’s beliefs about the total depravity on man were shaped by his experiences during World War II. When talking about his beliefs before and after the war he said “Before the Second World War I believed in the perfectibility of social man... but after the war I did not because I was unable to. I had discovered what one man could do to another... I must say that anyone who moved through those years without understanding that man produces evil as a bee produces honey must have

This is clearly shown throughout his book through some beautiful symbolism. For example during Simons conversation with the “Lord of the Flies” the pigs head tells Simon that he is the beast and that the best is part of him. This goes hand in hand with the part in the book when Simon first suggests that the beast is them. “What I mean is . . . maybe it’s only us”. This statement is a very profound and obvious symbol. Golding is saying that there is a beast in all of us that wants to get out. Another of Golding’s beliefs in this book was that society was one of the restraints to curb our propensity to commit atrocities. We can see explicitly the restraints that society has placed on the nature of humans in the scene where Roger is throwing rocks at the littleuns’. “Roger gathered a handful of stones and began to throw them. Yet there was a space round Henry, perhaps six yards in diameter, into which he dare not throw. Here, invisible yet strong, was the taboo of the old life. Round the squatting child was the protection of parents and school and policemen and the

There are many verses that touch on this subject. For instance Micah 7:2-4 talks about how the godly have perished from the earth and that “there is no one upright among mankind”. The verse proceeds to say that the best of men “are like a brier and the most upright a thorn hedge.” The second part of this passage can be seen in Golding’s book. Even characters like Piggy or Ralph, who try to get everyone to work together for their own betterment, engage in the killing of Simon. In Romans 3 Paul talks about how there are no righteous people and how not one person seeks God. “All have turned away they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, no not one.” You can see instances of this when Jack takes almost all the children on the island away to become part of his clan where they can do whatever their hearts desire. Genesis 6:5 says “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually… from his