Evil In Lord Of The Flies

People love to think they are good. It is never their fault. Yet still the world remains a cruel place. Subconsciously humans have always had and will always have a “kill or be killed” mindset where each organism fends for themselves. This is the rule of nature and has been the case since the dawn of time. In William Golding's novel The Lord of the Flies the author argues that human nature is inherently evil through the rapid abandonment of civilization. Golding's claim that humans are inherently evil, savage, and selfish is accurate with real life. George Orwell’s Animal Farm and a scientific study on The Tragedy of the commons by Garret Hardin similarly demonstrate the evil nature of humans; they capture the way that humans will always put

After the group of boys were overcome with savagery and they killed Simon, Ralph tells piggy he is “frightened. Of us. I want to go home. Oh God, I want to go home” (Goldings 157). Ralph says he is afraid of “us” which symbolizes the evil inside of each of the boys. During this part of the book Ralph and Piggy realize after all their futile searching and hiding from the beast, that their own nature was their ultimate downfall. Golding’s stance represents real human nature, as humans often kill and hurt the humans around them. In fact, 464,000 people a year are killed through homicide while only 59,000 are killed by animals (unodc.org). During times of war is when the most savage parts of humans are brought to light. When the naval officer found the boys, he remarked that he “thought that a pack of British boys… would have been able to put up a better show than that” (Goldings 202). During the time of the book there was also a war going on, and the irony is that the naval officer is not “putting on a better show” than the boys themselves. The naval officer and his comrades kill for a job, under the honorable mask of “protecting their country”. Each person has evil inside of them, just as demonstrated in every war when people unreasonably kill each

A key example Hardin used to explain his concept was a fishing company that left “less than 100 fish after the company came and decimated the natural habitat of this environment” (hbs.edu). This reveals how selfish humans will always be, in the way the fishermen did not consider the habitat’s needs. There were no more fish to reproduce and return the lake to its original beauty and health. Hardin also observed that “an individual’s belief that others won’t act in the best interest of the group can lead them to justify selfish behavior” (hbs.edu). A desire inside of us to succeed pushes us to be selfish and justify it. This is the way nature works and will function for years to come. It is ingrained in our nature to look out for ourselves and whether that is evil or not is according to each person’s