How Does Golding Present The Evil In Lord Of The Flies

Are all humans capable of evil? In Willian Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Golding portrays human nature as evil through depicting how easily the boys lose their humanity on the island. This is an accurate depiction of human nature because humans tend to lose morality when they are put in a situation that requires it. When discussing the beast, Simon says, “What I mean is... maybe it’s only us (Golding, 89).” Simon is saying that the only beast on the island is the boys, implying that they are the evil ones. This conveys Golding’s view of how human nature is evil. Later in the book Lord of the Flies tells Simon, “Fancy thinking the beast was something you could hunt and kill... I’m part of you (Golding, 143).” The Lord of the Flies symbolizes

After the Battle of the Cowshed when Boxer thinks that he killed a stableboy, Snowball tells him, “War is war. The only good human being is a dead one (Orwell, 22).” Boxer responds with, “I have no wish to take life, not even human life (Orwell, 22).” Boxer did not mean to kill the human, but was forced to under the circumstances he was in. This displays how it is human nature to be evil, even when people think they are good. At the end of the book Orwell writes, “The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but it was already impossible to say which was which (Orwell, 71)” This conveys Orwell’s comparison of humans to the pigs in Animal Farm. The comparison expresses how humans are equally as corrupt and evil as

It shows how ordinary people can do horrific things. On April 6, 1994, an airplane carrying President Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down. It was blamed on the Tutsi people, causing a genocide. According to History.com, “The genocide spread throughout the country with shocking speed and brutality, as ordinary citizens were incited by local officials and the Hutu Power government to take up arms against their neighbors (History.com).” This highlights how the genocide was done mostly by normal citizens. They did evil things because of the circumstances they were under, such as being encouraged by the government and other people. This is like how Ralph, Piggy, Sam, and Eric helped kill Simon because of peer pressure from the other boys. Encyclopedia Brittanica summarizes that, “Radio broadcasts further fueled the genocide by encouraging Hutu civilians to kill their Tutsi neighbors, who were referred to as “cockroaches” who needed to be exterminated (Encyclopedia Brittanica)” This is an example of how propaganda and dehumanization can also cause people to do evil things. This is similar to how in Animal Farm Napoleon called Snowball names to convince the other animals he was bad. It is also similar to how in Lord of the Flies, the boys called Simon “The beast” to convince themselves that they had not murdered a human. This highlights how evil can be brought out in people by