Foreshadowing In Lord Of The Flies Essay

The novel, Lord Of The Flies, demonstrates that humans are essentially evil through the literary elements foreshadowing and symbolism, for that it is their nature when apart from civilization along with being in a state of fear, they will then unleash their true primitive selves.

Through Jack's character, it is clearly evident that with the literary element foreshadowing, humans are essentially evil for that it is their true nature. William Golding’s article, “Why Boys Become Vicious” explains how humans are initially bad and how nurture affects the boys’ personality. It is stated that “when children go wrong” they can consistently “go wrong with a vengeance” and the amount of energy in children is more “powerful than any bomb” (Golding).

Nurture alters people's state of being, but it is ultimately people’s inner workings to be evil. Everyone, even the most innocent of people, carry a sense of evil deep down inside them and have the ability to unleash their fury when pushed to the limit. Correspondingly, William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, demonstrates that humans are essentially wicked through the character of Jack and the use of the literary element, foreshadowing. After Jack and the hunters kill their first pig, they celebrate and were exhilarated that they took the life from an animal. The boys delightedly told Ralph about their hunting experience, while Ralph disapprovingly repeated how they let the fire out. Jack excitedly told Ralph, “I cut the pig’s throat” and “said proudly” all of the details about the attack including “the lashings of blood” from the pig and how he wanted to “go hunting every day” (Golding 69). The author’s use of the word “proudly” signifies how egocentric and self-glorifying Jack felt after he had just killed an innocent animal. He thrives off of killing the pig and feels satisfaction and a sense of control knowing that he has the weapon and the ability to cause fear in the animals and harm

Katy Waldman’s article, “Is Anybody Watching My Do-Gooding?” elucidates the kindness and selflessness in people to prove the claim that humans are admirable. Waldman calls to attention that humans are “reflexively pure and kind” and unfortunately are in fact shaped by and “corrupted by our hyper-rational, transactional society” (Waldman). The use of the word “reflexively” indicates automatically, or without conscious thought. This implies that humans are without a doubt, born good and pure and that, without society, humans will evidently be kind and not be shaped into embodying an evil sense. Likewise, the author’s use of the word “corrupted” signifies a change or inference by making errors or unintentional alterations. To elaborate, people believe that it was society that altered people’s behavior and tuned them evil. Due to society’s effect, people’s behavior has been manipulated but they are in fact, still essentially good. This view sounds convincing at first, however, it can be proven false as at the core of all humans lie the remains of evil and darkness. William Golding’s novel, Lord Of The Flies, along with the symbol of the beast, reveals