How Does Golding Present Evil In Lord Of The Flies

Wickham 1

Kaitlynn Wickham

Mrs. R. Scalzo

ENG 2D1-01

25 November 2022 How Characters in Lord of the Flies Illustrate Inherent Evil

In society, there are rules and laws that keep people civilized and well-mannered. If society is to remove these rules and laws, people will no longer need to act good leaving nothing to stop or hold the people back from giving in to evil intentions. The novel, Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, is a novel about a group of young boys who land on a stranded island due to a plane crash, and slowly descend into savagery with no outside forces or rules to keep the boys civilized. As the boys try to create a civil society, they slowly begin to lose sight of rescue and give in to the evil that lives inside

Firstly, in the beginning when Ralph first awakes on the island and meets Piggy, Ralph is indifferent to and mistreats Piggy. For example, Ralph keeps ignoring and trying to get away from Piggy, and shares Piggy’s nickname with all the boys even after Piggy asked Ralph not to. Another way Ralph shows evil is when the boys are going around the island to find what is thought to be a beast, the group runs into a boar and Ralph successfully hits the boar Ralph then gets genuinely excited and really proud and feels that “hunting [is] good after all” (Golding 124). The feeling that Ralph has after hitting the boar is that hunting may not be so bad. Ralph usually thinks that there is no need for hunting, but after experiencing it, Ralph shows thrill, excitement, and pride in being able to have the ability to harm a living creature. Although Ralph returns to normal not long after, it does show inherent evil as even more civil characters like Ralph enjoy the thrill of hunting. Ralph keeps telling everyone, expressing excitement in hitting the boar. The boys then reenact the scene with the boar, with Robert being the boar and the boys fake hunting Robert. The reenacting goes too far as Robert starts to seriously be hurt by the boys, Ralph is feeling compelled to join in on hurting Robert, having a desire to hurt something. Lastly, Ralph participates in the death of Simon. Jack orders the tribe to do the dance, which is another reenactment of

Firstly, not long after the boys arrive on the island, Roger starts throwing rocks at the children, but aiming to miss. Roger is throwing the rocks with the intent to hurt the children, but the rules of society hold his arm back from directly aiming at the children. After that, Roger later murders Piggy by pushing a boulder off a cliff, which kills Piggy. Roger has the desire to kill while pushing the boulder and does it with no remorse. The rules of society are no longer important to Roger. Roger murdered Piggy because there will not be any consequences, and the want to hurt and kill other living things is too strong. Finally, Roger tortures Sam and Eric. After the other tribe members capture the twins, the reaction the twins have is “looking up in quiet terror as Roger [advances] upon [Sam and Eric] as one wielding a nameless authority” (Golding 202). The reaction of the twins and the way Roger is described can imply that Roger is about to torture and harm the twins. A bit after that event, Sam and Eric talk about how Roger hurt the two, which confirms the implications. In the beginning, Roger wants to hurt the children, but ties to civilization results in throwing the rocks but aiming to miss, but now Roger has let go of any previous ties with civilization and goes completely evil, becoming cruel. Roger now hurts and kills with no remorse or second thought. The action of torturing the twins that Roger does can show the more sadistic side Roger has, by torturing