Good Vs Evil Lord Of The Flies Essay

Good and evil both have a place in the world and in the heart of man, but very rarely are they in perfect balance. To determine which one outweighs the other, philosophers and writers alike have delved into various historical events and speculated what would happen if humanity was stripped of civilization. In his novel Lord of the Flies, Golding conveys the notion that human nature is mainly evil. However, a natural goodness is much more predominant in people as shown by select characters in Golding’s book as well as in To Kill a Mockingbird and the article The Real Lord of the Flies. Through characterization and symbolism, Golding displays the dark side of human nature. From the moment the boys learned Piggy’s name “a storm of laughter arose

Even though they still have many of their rules from civilization ingrained in them, they are insensitive, with not one of them caring to ask Piggy’s real name. Considering that even the youngest child, who is not yet aware of good and evil, takes part in the viciousness, conveys a natural evil. This escalates to the boys taking joy in killing; even the main protagonist experiences “the desire to squeeze and hurt” while pretending that Robert is an animal (Golding 115). Overbearing urges take hold over the boys, no matter how rooted they are in civilization, and compel them to participate in malicious things without regard to morals or ethics. Ralph is one of the characters that most advocates civilization compared to other boys like Jack yet is still overcome by the dark nature that Jack represents, showing that human nature is evil. Additionally, Golding uses the symbol of a pig’s head on a stick given the name Lord of the Flies to highlight the natural darkness that lies within individuals. While suffering from dehydration, Simon’s illusion of the inanimate creature conveys

Firstly, Simon is depicted as a Christ-like figure, displaying the morality and natural kindness humans possess. For example, Simon is the only one to help Ralph to make a shelter in order comfort the children and provide a sense of safety and security (Golding 50). Simon is portrayed as selfless by devoting his time to helping, and he later helps the children get “fruit they could not reach” and “pulled off the choicest from up in the foliage”, giving them “to the endless, outstretched hands” (Golding 56). Consistently, Simon is putting his efforts toward the good of the group and the children. By building the shelters with Ralph, he is supporting the whole group and contributing to something bigger than selfish desires. Then, Simon stops and spends his time helping the children even when he doesn’t have to, showing his good heart and kindness. There is no ulterior motive to his generosity and actions, showing the virtue of human nature, where people help others just because they can. Likewise, Piggy is motivated by these good intentions. From the very beginning he is concerned about the others in the crash and shows the courtesy of asking everyone what their name is (Golding 18). He has the natural instinct to bring everyone together, and cares enough to memorize the others’ names illustrating his amiability. As a