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How Is Mankind Inherently Evil In Lord Of The Flies

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Throughout a lifetime, a person goes through many stages and phases. They change and refine their personalities and grow into their bodies, moulding that person into their unique character. Amidst this perpetual evolution, one constant endures, its intrinsic nature. Underneath the facade of societal conventions instilled in youth lies a commonality between all humans. Within each human heart resides a latent propensity towards malevolence manifested in egocentrism. The exposure of this evilness changes depending on how long a person has been taught to be civil in order to fit into society. As shown in Lord of the Flies by William Golding, during childhood, humans are more? aware of the evil they have in them. Their actions solely rely on their …show more content…

In Lord of the Flies, evil is represented by young children who lack a proper understanding of keeping inherent nature hidden when they drop society's civility and resort back to their instinctive and primal instincts. And in turn, they slowly hunt each other down and kill each other. Similarly, A Clockwork Orange represents evil by presenting a teenager who doesn’t abide by the rules of society by choice—selfishly deciding that his desires overruled the laws that kept society alive—but still learning from his mature side to keep his actions hidden, understanding that there would be consequences for acting on his inherent evil so directly. Candide offers a different perspective on the inherent evil manifested by selfishness. As a full adult raised in an environment that taught inherent evil not to be acted on, he shows how malice still hides in his actions despite being taught these things. Even if not intended, he still makes evil and selfish decisions to help himself while harming others. Whether it be something small or large, as an adult, he doesn’t learn to hide his evil, indeed, but to represent it in an underhanded way. Each stage of life offers a different expression of evil, but ultimately, every human being is selfish and greedy in their acts. Ultimately, each stage of life provides a distinct expression of malice, but the common thread of selfishness remains a constant in humans' inherent evil

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Humans have the ability to be evil inside them ever since birth; and British Literature is a good analysis on how evil is presented in people’s lives and how people ‘become’ evil, such as how Grendel and Macbeth become evil in their respective stories. There are many theories on why people act evil, including theories from, Hannah Arendt, Elaine Pagal, and Thomas Hobbs. Most of the theories say generally the same thing. Evil is essentially a part of a human’s character and nature, and the evil inside of one can be triggered by a number of things, such as self interest and being influenced to do evil. All the British Literature that was read in this course has contained evil, as evil is an essential part to make a story.

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With this in mind, I could connect with two people who also thought about how evil people can be. William Golding and Elie Wiesel wrote books that magnify the circumstances under which people act evil. Wiesel explores the conditions and the uncivil actions of the people in concentration camps during the Holocaust. Golding, too, takes a dive into the human capacity for evil in post-WWII times. Evil is causing harm to others that are unnecessary or over

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808 Words | 4 Pages

In closing, the book lord of the flys is an excellent book that tells of the lenths man will go through when left alone with their own survivival it shows the way man has been and always will be with evil in their hearts. No matter how you were raised how you have lived or will live your life you will always have evil the only thing that controls whether you express that evil is you, as only you can control how you live your life much like how the boys let the seetbacks and overall bad situation get the best of them letting the very evil that resided within them since birth break their moral, and ethics, letting their evil consume them. “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.” (Psalm

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608 Words | 3 Pages

‘Evil’ is almost in itself undefinable. As an adjective or as a noun the need to categorize and label ‘evil’ is a common problem tackled throughout history and literature. The most puzzling aspect of ‘evil’ though is how and why humans have the ability to become so inhumane and immoral to commit these malice actions. Many psychologists and psychotherapists have tried to make sense of the transition to evil, including Dr. Gwen Adshead the author of “Capacities and dispositions: reflections on Good and Evil from a forensic psychiatrist,” who defines ‘Evil’ from her experience at Broadmoor Hospital. While defining evil, Adshead explains in her opinion the development of it and how this step towards evil is unintentional.

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People are often presented with making a choice of good or bad. These opportunities can define an individual's life. Someone does not turn evil with the flip of a switch. There is always a process whether it is noticed or not. The reason a person does something in the nature of evil is commonly hard for others to understand.

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1411 Words | 6 Pages

The novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini suggests that evil is not just subject to a mere one form, but rather appears in innumerable, disparate respects and that the simplest method in which to discern this myriad of evils is to categorize them into two separate groups - evil actions and pure evilness. An evil action is when someone deliberately behaves in a certain manner towards another person that consequently or directly causes the other person serious harm, whether it be physical or mental. An evil person is someone who does the aforementioned evil actions repeatedly and with no remorse or guilt, even taking pleasure in what they are doing. This is seen when Hosseini portrays the main character, Amir, performing evil actions in his youth, but then ultimately showing that Amir is a decent person that simply makes various unethical choices that he regrets for nearly two

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As humans, it is not only perfectly normal, but almost inevitable that we will question ourselves. Such a question may seem simple in thought. However, the question is much more obscure than its demeanor: Are humans inherently good or evil? William Golding urges the reader to inquire this throughout his notable novel, Lord of the Flies, as young, well-mannered English boys transform into primitive, belligerent beasts. I believe that most humans strive to good, but that they are inherently flawed due to their selfishness.

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772 Words | 4 Pages

Every person is innately evil in some way. People may seem perfectly sane on the outside but on the inside they could be one of the most evil people. Whether it be a child, teen or adult everyone at any age can be innately evil. The idea of people being innately evil shows throughout many short stories such as The Lottery, The Most Dangerous Game and Tell-Tale Heart. In the three short stories the theme of evil is relevant in each.

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Are People Naturally Evil? With a world that has no law and order there would be no control and no control would lead to destruction. If the government wanted to get rid of all laws, then human beings will come to see that a majority of them are born hateful. An allegory story called Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding is about a association of British schoolboys that crashes onto an unknown island with no adults to administer them.

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Humans are not born evil, it is the matter of the environment in which they grow up in that causes their person to change. Adolf Hitler is branded with the uprising of the Holocaust and this gives much of the world the belief that he was evil and that he killed millions of people. During this time period, parents practiced the act of ‘child-rearing.’ This is a form of punishment in which the parent, usually the father, physically abuses the child of his/her feelings, thoughts, and creativity. The purpose of this punishment was for absolute obedience to the ‘master plan.’

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859 Words | 4 Pages

The novel “Lord of the Flies” written by William Golding shows us different faces of a human being. In the novel all the boys are stuck on the island in different situations they show their different sides. It is not always important to be a good or bad person every time. Golding shows how a human can take someone’s life for their benefit, he shows us the savagery taken to the next level by the boys on the island. It was mostly hard for boys to stay in a civilized manner without any adult supervision, although when they come from such civilized families.

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157 Words | 1 Pages

In the novel, Lord of the flies, is the conflict between the loss of innocence and innate of human evil. This conflict might be expressed in different ways: civilization vs. savagery, reason vs. impulse, or the broader heading of the good vs. evil. Throughout the novel, the narrator expressed the civilization with good and evil expressed with savagery. The conflict between loss of innocence and innate of human evil inform readers that the young English boys’ behavior dissolution as they lived in the jungle. In the novel, the narrator also represent the theme of Lord of the flies, by representing the civilization and savagery between the two main characters: Ralph, who represent leadership; and Jack, who represent savagery and power.

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1238 Words | 5 Pages

Firstly, man is born evil because society shows him to be evil. An example of this is how parents must raise their child to be good. A parent never has to raise their child to do bad things. A young child might draw on the wall and believe that it is art, however the parent will stop the child and tell them that drawing on the wall is a bad thing to do.

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658 Words | 3 Pages

Man is Inherently Evil In Lord of the Flies, a novel by William Golding, there are several themes expressed through the boys from the beginning to the end. The main theme conveys that man is inherently evil. This can be understood from most aspects of the book. Golding conveys that man is inherently evil through the boys need to undermine each other and the loss of morality in their decent to chaos.

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638 Words | 3 Pages

Evil is a simple word that we learn at a young age and that we understand is bad. However, our youth and innocence prevents us from knowing the weight the word holds. As our understanding of evil develops, we begin to see evil all around us. Although we hold common societal definitions of evil, each person is bound to view evil slightly different from others. Someone might consider alcoholism evil, while others consider it normal: someone might believe racism is evil, while others believe it is natural.

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