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How Does Golding Present The Evil In Lord Of The Flies

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Evil Within Us
Adrian Chau Humans are born to be evil, according to the story Lord of the Flies by William Golding. We were born to kill and hunt. Evil means to be morally wrong, wicked and actions that go against the common good. Lord of the Flies presents evil as an inherent nature suppressed by civilization, evil grows as power rises, and is represented by the “beast” within the story. Humans are made to be evil and those thoughts are hidden by our societal structures. The book takes this idea and separates children from all civilization, ridding the society they once knew. Everything started fine but eventually, all hell broke loose, leading to the death of their good friend Simon. All Piggy could say was “It was an accident” and “he …show more content…

Jack is a prime example of this. The whole story shows Jack’s attempts at threatening Ralph’s leadership role but to no avail. The first sign of his desire is the shattered conch. Representing control and power, it was never in his hands but slowly lost its power and eventually the conch was completely ineffective. Breaking the conch shows his ambition for control and will do everything in his power to take every last drop of it. His craving for control eventually led to his blindness to morality. For example, once attaining his desired role as chief, he uses Piggy’s death as a threat toward Ralph to establish his power as chief by stating, “See? See? That’s what you’ll get!... There isn’t a tribe for you anymore! (201, Golding).” His desire for control led to him killing Piggy and threatening everyone else who did not follow him to make himself the one and only chief. His power-hungry nature led him to do unlawful things in the real world increasing in severity over time and representing the evil growing in him through his influx of …show more content…

At first, the beast is thought to be a physical being, threatening the safety of the island. This created fear within the island for whenever or wherever the beast may be at the moment, so the children vowed to kill and remove it. As the story progresses the beast is revealed to be an imaginary being built upon the boy's fears and evil. Their fears of the beast were stacked and released as Simon landed on the beach. The audience immediately deemed him as the beast and stabbed him continuously with their pointed sticks. The beast represents the children’s descent into their primal instincts. As they descend further, the beast becomes more and more of a real entity and eventually becomes worshiped by all because of the god-like abilities it possesses in their minds. Each boy on the island sees the beast differently, Simon sees it as the hallucination of the Lord of the Flies, different from others, representing their differences in mentality and violence but essentially roots from the evil within

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656 Words | 3 Pages

Initially, the beast manifests into the form of fear. In the document, “The terrors of the unknown”, it states that, “They externalize these fears into the figure of a ‘beast’.” (Doc.A). This shows that the young children stranded on the island let their imaginations rule their lives, manifesting the beast in their fear. With no mothers to comfort them, these boys have become to reliable on their imaginations, which have, in return, caused them to believe that the beast is what they fear.

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1453 Words | 6 Pages

”(156) Piggy understands that Simon was killed because the boys were scared, and that they were influenced by what could have been. Fear destroyed the boys, as it destroys society, and will always be present

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827 Words | 4 Pages

The Beast was first perceived as a fearsome animal that lived on the island with them as seen in this quote by Jack, “my hunters will protect you from the Beast” (p. 150). Jack is on a quest to prove his hunting skills, believing he can hunt the Beast as if it’s an animal rather than a fear living within each of the boys. Also, the Beast symbolizes the mystery of the unknown they are experiencing on the deserted island. Similarly, the Beast has possessed the minds and thoughts of the boys, “The Beast followed us” (p.100). In addition, this quote represents how the Beast is not a physical presence on the island; evading from the Beast is unavailing since the beast is within the boys themselves.

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1115 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout William Golding's, Lord of the Flies, fear and agonizes and controls the boys. The beast, representing fear, terrorizes the boys into savagery. When the boys land on the island, the idea of no adults and freedom overcome them. They start to explore and wander through the island.

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542 Words | 3 Pages

From the very start fear is in the air as the boys crash onto the island but soon after fear starts to take over with the mention of a beast. During a meeting about the beast and debating if it's real or not, Simon decides to speak up “Maybe there is a beast” (89). This caused the downfall into savagery because now these boys have something to fear, something new to hunt, something to push them down the wrong path, the path of savagery.

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830 Words | 4 Pages

It has been said several times throughout history that human nature is constitutionally a negative force. This is further shown in William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies when numerous young boys aged twelve and under are stranded on an island after a plane crash during World War 2. These children abandon all civilization and grow more savage as the literature progresses. The main boys: Ralph, Simon, Piggy, and Jack change exponentially throughout the novel, gradually losing themselves and any culture they had. Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, depicts human nature’s inherent evil and man’s inability to escape it.

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815 Words | 4 Pages

“‘ Come away. There’s going to be trouble. And we’ve had our meat”’ (151). In the end, Piggy was right and Ralph not listening to him unfortunately killed him. With no leader to lead society stands still, and devastation begin to take

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522 Words | 3 Pages

All throughout the book Piggy is faced with many challenges where most people would act in a bad manner, although Piggy is always responding very appropriately and does not act wrongly against the other. All these examples show how Piggy

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662 Words | 3 Pages

In the novel, the beast doesn’t exist and was in the boys themselves all along. During an epileptic episode, Simon has a vision of the beast speaking to him. “‘Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill…’ ‘You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close!

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1125 Words | 5 Pages

The boys being on the island show that when there is no guidance under the minds of children, this will corrupt their mental state leading them to corrupt morals. When Simon comes back to tell the rest of the boys about how the thing they thought was a beast is actually a dead parachutist, this leads to the boys viciously killing Simon in which they think he is the beast. The boys spot Simon, which they think is the beast, and come after him trying to kill him and “At once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt on to the beast, screamed, struck, bit, and tore. There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws. ”(Goulding, Lord 153).

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578 Words | 3 Pages

Most children are scared of things such as monsters under the bed or the dark, but this story does not occur in these places, nor does it occur anywhere close. The “Beast” in the story is much different than monsters or the dark and the “Beast” differs or changes in ways. One thing that the Beast symbolizes is fear. In the text it states “They externalize these fears into the figure of a “Beast”(Doc A). To clarify they turn their fears into a figure of something they all fear or they are all afraid of this thing they call the “Beast”, they think that there is a monster after them or that there is a monster on the island that wants to kill them when in hindsight there is nothing there trying to kill them or eat them but instead it's just their fears turning into something even

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732 Words | 3 Pages

The beast represent the evil in the world or fear. They fear it will attack them. In chapters 9-12 the are drifting from civilized to savages and Simon wakes up from his faint and speaks to the kids and gets beaten up by the kids. Fulfilling what the lord of the flies told him. They set a fire upon the whole island.

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798 Words | 4 Pages

Being on the island everyone is contsantly faced with the fear of the unknown the younger boys need someone to protect them from the fears on the island. Although nothing manages to scare the boys as much as the beastie does. When a little boy with a mullberry birthmark informs everyone that he has seen a beastie. The older boys emitiatly belive its his imagination but even later in the novel the boys start to question the exsitance of the beast. After the killing of simion, jack is belives ut was simon disguised as the beast, and that the beast is not dead.

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1127 Words | 5 Pages

(Golding, 77). Although the boys laugh at Simon’s idea, his belief conforms Golding’s idea that inner evil exists. The boys develop into the beast when they kill Simon. Simon was desperate to explain the unidentified creature on the mountain but the boys weren’t in the mood for listening to him. With his brutal murder by the other boys, chaos takes over civilized order on the island.

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1528 Words | 7 Pages

The “Beast” give the children frightens all the boys, this gives the readers a symbol for the instinct of savagery. As their savagery grows, their belief in the beast grows stronger “Beast” grows, "There was confusion in the darkness and the creature lifted its head, holding toward them the ruin of face. "1 As the boys begin making it sacrifices and treating it as their leader, the boys' behavior is what brings the beast into reality, so the more savage the boys become, the more real the beast seems to be. After Simon discovers, the severed pig’s head, Lord of the Flies, Simon believes that it is talking to him and telling him about how evil lies within every human heart.

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