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Human Nature In Lord Of The Flies Quote Analysis

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The Truth About Human Nature
My perspective on the goodness of humanity was completely altered after not only reading Lord of the Flies, but also from personal experiences in my own life. Recently I was shopping at DSW with my brother, a 12-year-old who made it clear that he would rather be doing anything but shoe shopping. He was complaining and insisting that we go home, but my mom was in need of a new pair of shoes for work. I was killing time browsing for shoes when my brother kicked me in the shin and hit me for no reason. Where did that come from? Why did he become violent without being provoked?
Before I read the Lord of the Flies, I believed in the inherent goodness of all humans. After completing the novel my view had changed. Rather …show more content…

He was never exposed to violence as a child. Babies and toddlers are always instructed by their parents and peers to be good, yet they still misbehave and do fairly ill-mannered things. At that age, they’re too naive to know the difference yet they usually turn to evil rather than good. As these children grow up, society teaches them to hide their dark instincts and act good.
The children on the island in Lord of the Flies were well-behaved British boys. When they arrive on the island, the topic of leaders is brought up by Ralph: “‘Seems to me we ought to have a chief to decide things,’” (22). Although the boys were excited about having no adults on the island to boss them around, they still selected a leader because they knew that is what is typically done in society. They’re trained to know what should and should not be done because that’s what they have been taught since birth, even if it’s not natural …show more content…

In 1971, a famous experiment took place in the psychology department of Stanford University. College students were randomly divided into the roles of either prisoners or guards and put into a prison-like environment. There were no clocks or any other people in the prison. The only rule was the guards were not allowed to physically hurt the prisoners.
The situation got out of hand. After only a few days of interaction, the guards began to treat the group of “prisoners” as real criminals. They would hit, kick, punch, and verbally abuse these prisoners, even though their imprisonment was simply part of an experiment. Like the boys in Lord of the Flies, these college students quickly descended into savagery when isolated from the rest of society.
Before I read Lord of the Flies, I carried a pristine image of humanity. How could humans possibly be born evil? Babies are born innocent and free of corruption. I’ve witnessed people go out of their way to do generous things for their peers. However, my eyes were opened to the darkness that truly lies within human nature. Evil isn’t learned, it’s part of who we

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At the end of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, the children whose actions were chronicled in the book committed atrocities like murder and torture. Regular children somehow did things worse than anything that they ever could have imagined back at home. This begs the question of what prompted what once were normal children to snap: the circumstances or something that was inside of them all along. The answer in my mind isn’t as simple as one or the other. A winning combination of both spurred average boys into becoming killers, because without something dark being triggered in some of the boys, no one would have even thought about the horrible things that ended up happening.

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When it comes to the novel, Lord of the Flies, some of us will readily agree that the boys’ immoral and savage acts exposed at the end of the novel, demonstrates the evil that lives naturally within humankind. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of was the cause for the boys’ immoral and savage conducts a biological or an environmental factor. Whereas some are convinced that biological factors are to blame, others maintain that the situation or the environment is to blame for their behavior. In my own view, both factors are to blame for the boys’ immoral and savage behavior, but the environment the boys’ where force to live had the most impact on their actions. Being deserted on an unknown island can cause any individual to experience a variety of emotions all at once; from fear, to anger, and then excitement.

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In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, a group of stranded boys survive on an island with no adults, soon their sense of morality falls apart and violence takes place. The loss of morality causes the boys to break the rules and become violent. Eventually, the boys become uncivilized and stop caring about their actions. They get to a point where they disregard logical thought and resort to violence without reason. As the story progresses, the absence of morality causes violence to reign among the boys.

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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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William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies is about a group of young boys, aged around 6-12, that crash land on an uninhabited island, and without adults, they fail miserably. In E.L Epstein’s article “NOTES ON LORD OF THE FLIES” Golding reveals in his novel that the flaws in human nature lead to a flawed society; which is seen in society (Epstein par. 3). Lord of the Flies provides an example of how imperfections in human nature start to surface when people are in a groups. One imperfection is their tendency to do violent and demeaning things as a mob.

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This experiment was conducted in Stanford University by Dr. Zimbardo. During this two week long session, Dr. Zimbardo had several volunteers agree to act as prisoners and as prison guards. The prisoners were told to wait in their houses while the guards were to set up the mock prison, a tactic used by Dr. Zimbardo to make them fit into their roles more. The official police apprehended the students assigned to the role of prisoner from their homes, took mug shots, fingerprinted them, and gave them dirty prison uniforms. The guards were given clean guard uniforms, sunglasses, and billy clubs borrowed from the police.

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The Beast in Every Human Thesis Statement: The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding portrays the theme that regardless of each person’s different background and characteristics, every individual has the ability to commit brutal acts. While this book depicts Ralph and Piggy as the most civilized characters, and Jack and his hunters as young English choir boys, their actions reveal that they all have the capability to act violently. While Jack and his hunters started out as just choirboys, they become obsessed with violence and are driven to kill. At the beginning of the book, Jack hesitates and misses his chance to kill a trapped pig. Later on, as Jack and his newly formed tribe hunt in the forest, they discover a sow.

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Thesis Statement: In Lord of the Flies William Golding throughout the book is trying to show you that society should recognize man is evil. Introduction Paragraph: In the book Lord of the Flies the author William Golding shows a group of boys losing their innocence throughout their life stuck on this inhabited island in the pacific ocean. These boys go from being quiet and shy to violent and dangerous young little boys. Golding uses the pigs, hunting, and the boys face painting to show their lose of innocence throughout the story. There 's no rules of any sort on this island these boys landed on they are free to do whatever they want whenever they want.

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Lord of The Flies: Human Nature Are humans instinctively evil? Savage? In Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, young boys are left to organize themselves into a society to keep balance and peace on the island. When the society crumbles beneath their feet, one must ask these questions. The downfall and overall plot of the book is largely telling of human nature, and may be a smaller analogy for human nature in itself.

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The guards began teasing them and making them “sing” their numbers and assigning punishments as needed, such as pushups and jumping jacks. The guards took role almost all day everyday. The prisoners, tired from being woken up, broke out into a rebellion on just the second day. They put their bed springs against their cell doors the guards used force to get the prisoners back in their place. They threw prisoners in the pit for hours at a time, denying them food, water, and social contact.

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Lord of the Flies Are people born evil or good? Some people believe that humans are born good but get tempted into sin. Some people believe that humans are born evil and stay that way. Some people wonder if there is an inner debate of the soul. Because everyone is different could we be born with different souls.

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In Lord of the Flies, William Golding shows the progression of absolute power, and how ambition can take over one's mind. Stranded on an island after their plane crashed, the boys create their own democracy with one absolute ruler, just like many other governments throughout history. The boys voted Ralph as their ruler, but Jack slowly starts to take some of Ralph’s power, and eventually usurps him as their chief. Lord of the Flies suggests that absolute power is corrupt, and that humans are overly ambitious in wanting to take power from the person who has the most of it. Just like any large group of people, the boys decide that they “ought to have a chief to decide things” (Golding 22).

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”(Shelley 146). He got fed up with people and so he acted with such an evil intent. Thus releasing all his anger. But, here is the weakness, people get scared and resort to what they have learned over the course of their lives in times of strife. Other people that resort to the violence they speak of could be from there genetics.

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Throughout the novel of Lord of the Flies, William Golding provides a profound insight into human nature. Golding builds on a message that all human beings have natural evil inside them. To emphasize, the innate evil is revealed when there’s lack of civilization. The boys are constantly faced with numerous fears and eventually break up into two different groups. Although the boys believe the beast lives in the jungle, Golding makes it clear that it lurks in their hearts.

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Hobbesian Theory in Lord of the Flies The question of whether man is inherently good or evil has been debated amongst religions, philosophers, and many great thinkers since the beginning of man itself. On one hand, there are those who believe we as humans are naturally moral beings, and it is society that makes us evil. However, others argue society is not only good, but needed to control our inhumane and animalistic tendencies. One of the most famous believers in this theory is English philosopher, Thomas Hobbes.

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