Human Nature In Lord Of The Flies Literary Analysis

Throughout life, people often lose track of what is really meaningful and important. In Lord of The Flies by William Golding, this element of human nature is portrayed through the children’s failure to complete necessary tasks due to their inclination on the island. It is simply human nature to fulfill desires before priorities. When the children first arrive on the island, the priority is to “be rescued” (37). The group decides that the best way to fulfill this is to build and maintain a signal fire (38). Later however, this necessity is overarched by Jack’s desire for meat and “blood” (70) as he abandons the fire, allowing it to dissipate. Although food is a necessity, the children already have a supply of fruit near the shore, showing that the signal fire (rescue) was a prerequisite to hunting (page number). Jack’s mind forgetting the priorities on the island supports the fact that it is human nature to do as one pleases.

The children decide that constructing shelters for weather protection is a necessity (page number). However, they build two “shaky shelters” (50) and become distracted by relaxing and “bathing” (50). Ralph and Simon are left as the only ones and do not succeed, resulting in the necessity not being achieved. Ralph even later states that their needs “don’t get done” (79) on the island due to the element of want before need in human nature. Through the children relaxing at the beach instead of working for shelters, this element of human nature is