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How Does Golding Present Evil In Lord Of The Flies

1578 Words7 Pages

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 …show more content…

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 …show more content…

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

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Continuing on his actions of acting like an animal, Jack’s tribe started to use Robert as a fake pig and hurt him, but Ralph did not try to stop them, instead he joined them. The narrator vividly describes Ralph’s reaction, “Ralph, carried away by a sudden thick excitement, grabbed Eric’s spear and jabbed rover with it” (Golding 114). In the beginning of the story Ralph had no desire to kill or even hunt animals and now was pretending to kill a human. Ralph could no longer deny that his civilization was slipping away. Along with that Ralph justified his actions by saying it was just a game, I have gotten hurt playing before it’s fine.

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Roger chose to torture the boys, and eventually he chose to kill Piggy. The experience of the island pulled something ugly out of him specifically, but in all the ways that matter, he was fully aware and in control of his choice to murder another person. The other murder, Simon’s, is different in that no one person chose to kill the boy. No one in particular summoned the malice to beat him to death, but the group as a whole lost their individual values and assimilated into the group. Chapter 2 of Opening Skinner’s Box explains that people abandon their core beliefs in order to satisfy some primal need to conform.

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So far the worst thing Roger has done is torture a pig, but he soon will take it up a notch and make his biggest act of cruelty: murder. In the middle of a stand off, Roger, “...[leans with] all his weight on the lever. … The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee…” (180-181) By committing murder, Roger has completed a heartless act, making him the most savage person on the island and revealing how his morals are wrong.

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After being on the island for a long time, the boys start to become uncivilized too. After Roger already becomes a criminal by aiding in the murder of a boy, Simon, he murders Piggy on his own. Roger understood that he was committing murder, so he should be fully responsible for his actions. What Roger did is unacceptable, he murdered someone by choice. Because even though “We are born with evil in us...

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Having power over the boar gives him a sense of superiority and pride which is shown when he boasts. Ralph’s intention to kill shows that he has evil hidden inside his heart, although he tries to hide his own

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“And in the middle of them, with filthy body, matted hair, and unwiped nose, Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy” (Golding 202). In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Ralph is a boy who had a crony that has been killed. The friend, with the name of Piggy, was a sharp-witted, affable boy. Both of the boys were stranded on an island, due to a plane crash. Ralph becomes extremely distraught when the killing of Piggy occurs.

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Upon arriving, Ralph’s primary ambition is to get off the island safely, considering the expected immaturity in reaction to the boys’ sudden loss of authority. He manages to maintain this intention regardless of his job or worth in society among the boys. As evil challenges his capability to retain this quality by the irony of the fire, breaking of the conch, and overall destruction of civilization, demonstrates his level of mental strength considering all of the odds against his favor. Having the, “voice of someone who [knows their] own mind,” and instituting an independent attitude towards his goal, Ralph displays competence and trust in his capabilities rather than depending on that of others. As displayed in his immediate need for order, Ralph establishes a plan to get off of the island.

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Although Ralph may be a good leader and Piggy may be smart, they both have evil inside of them and want to be a part of Simon’s murder. Ralph and Piggy are nowhere near being savages at this point, but their love of death still shows, even if they regret it later. Their savagery is just the result of the evil human nature inside of them that is left unchecked by civil society. On the island, the boys do not have the benefit of civilization, so they revert to human nature and instinct for survival.

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When Ralph encounters old friends while hiding from Jack, they warn him of their plan, “’I dunno. And Ralph, Jack, the chief, says it’ll be dangerous-’ ‘- and we’ve got to be careful and throw our spears like at a pig.’” (Golding 188). The spear that was created to hunt pigs for food to survive, to protect their group for safety, is now used to hunt down their friends without remorse because of the fear that Jack instilled in them. Ralph wasn’t an exception to this contagious fear for it also changes him, “While he was eating, he heard fresh noises- cries of pain from Samneric, cries of panic, angry voices.

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His brutal behavior reveals when he kills the character of Piggy by throwing the stone. He throws it intentionally without any sorrow. Roger becomes a savage totally and brutal when he enjoys the murder of Piggy: “The storm of sound beat at them, an incantation of hatred high overhead, Roger, with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever” (Golding, 222).

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Ralph tries to prioritize creating a society and establishing order but gives out when “under the threat of the sky, [Piggy and Ralph find] themselves eager to take place in this demented but partly secure society” (Golding 212). At this moment, the boys are reenacting the hunting of a pig. Ralph has never been someone to participate in this kind of foolishness, but in a situation like this, one can lose themselves and bring out the evil that lies within. He is tempted another time when Robert is getting beaten during a chant and “Ralph too was fighting to get near, to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh" (Golding 159). Naturally, one wants to fulfill their immediate desires whether they are harmful or not.

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Notably is Roger who entertains himself by generating emotions such as fear, sorrow, and anger out of the boys and more specifically, the littluns. It is the littluns that provide an easy target for Roger to pick on as they are virtually innocent, and harmless. Henceforth, a littlun named Henry becomes a victim of Roger’s sadistic pranks. After Roger loses pleasure in kicking down sandcastles, he turns to the delight of throwing rocks at Henry but aiming to miss. Roger misses because the rules of society tell him to do so.

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When rumors cause chaos on the island, Ralph, as the appointed leader, is obliged to join an expedition to find a supposed beast. As the boys try to find dinner during the journey, he manages to spear a boar. Golding describes Ralph's need for acknowledgement, writing, "he sunned himself in their new respect and felt that hunting was good after all"(113). Killing is morally incorrect, yet Ralph is thrilled to have used it to capture the others' respect. Caught up in the moment, all he cares about is the boys' acceptance of him.

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Roger represents Satan as throughout the book his character is based on an evil behaviour. The characters are the key to the civilization they build and destroy. Piggy and Ralph try to find a stable position for everyone to be in to be able to create the political environment they think is needed to survive until they are rescued. Jack and Roger, try to build a dictatorship using the littler kids to serve them. They use their power to fulfil their desires.

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