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Humanity In Lord Of The Flies

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The True Nature of Humanity represented in William Golding’s, Lord of the Flies

Humans are complex creatures thus capable of both heroic, selfless compassion, and darkly motivated evil. Throughout a lifetime people are faced with many different challenges that will change them as a person. In some cases it may be for miniscule periods of time or may last interminably.
Predominantly, humans can be easily swayed by social forces that affect them in more ways than they may realize. Family, friends, and the ability to take the lead or control in a situation can greatly change a person's personality and the way they act. Right away it becomes apparent that Piggy is thinking of others and influences Ralph as he says, “We got to find the others. …show more content…

When faced with the chance to stay above others, humans will almost always take advantage of the opportunity even if it negatively affects others. Whilst Jack has his group of choir boys set with jobs such as tending to the fire he is anxious to go on a hunt. He tells his boys who are maintaining the smoke signal to help with the hunt as they need extra people. The two boys desire meat and to enjoy the thrill of capturing a pig without caring about the effects of their actions. “We had to have them in the hunt, or there wouldn't have been enough for a ring”(73). Jack states, all that his hunters care about is getting the kill on the pig as he has said, “We can light the fire again”(73). The boys show no regard and do not even think of asking anyone else to take over for them, truly showing their selfishness. Once Jack has broken off from the main group he recruits the rest of the older boys to join him gaining more influence and social standing. Inevitably, Jack uses his power and intimidation to rule over the boys forcing them to obey all of his commands, as he belittles the others without a care it is apparent as Jack is speaking in a different style. “His tone conveyed a warning, given out of the pride of ownership”(165).Ralph thought, while attending the feast. After Jack has effectively established his standing he decides to delve deeper into the dark side of human nature to cause chaos on the island. He viciously attacks Ralph’s camp without warning just to steal Piggy’s glasses “We shall take fire from the others.”(178). Jack conspires the night just before. As Piggy’s glasses are the only means of fire, Jack’s tribe would stop at nothing to acquire the

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This only further proves my point that jack represents savagery in this novel. Due to Jacks overwhelming desire to hunt a pig he along with a small group of boys go into the jungle to try their luck. Because of Jacks carelessness, though the fire is extinguished and they lost a chance of being rescued. We also learn in this chapter that the fire symbolizes the hope they share a group, when the fire went out so did their hope, but when they relight it they regain some of their hope. Piggy being the “fat nerd” of the group his thoughts and beliefs are immediately shot down, its only when Ralph tells them to do the suggested task do they listen.

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A major part of Jack’s tribe that made him the superior leader over Ralph, was discipline, which Ralph did not have. When Piggy defied Jack and was killed, Jack yelled,” There isn’t a tribe for you anymore” (181)! Jack utterly destroyed Ralph’s power and led the boys with a sort of crazed discipline and order. Jack inadvertently, with the smoke from a fire, drew the attention of the Navy and had the rest of the boys on the island rescued; nevertheless, his real intention was to kill Ralph with fire. Jack had all of his tribe work hard for meat, or they would not eat.

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Ultimately, the boys give into their own evil and the largest example of this, is in the slaughtering of the pigs: hunting. Most the group find amusement and excitement in these hunts. Eventually the boys hurt each other, due to their hunting mindsets, and this is proven when the Lord of the Flies says to Simon “We are going to have fun on this island. Understand? We are going to have fun on this island!”

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At the end of the book, Jack has become a beast at heart who lusts for blood and blood alone. Jack and Ralph get into an argument for the right to use Piggy's glasses to cook the meat that they hunt. Jack starts to get violent and they start fighting each other for the glasses. In an act of trying to stop the fight, piggy grabs the conch shell to get the attention of everyone and tell them to stop fighting. Soon after the hunters notice Piggy, they push a boulder off a mountain to kill piggy.

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They figure out how to use these glasses to make a fire which is then used to cook and make the signal which stood for civilization on the island. The one thing Ralph reiterates is the importance of the signal fire; however, Jack makes hunting as his only priority and this leads to tension among the two. During one particular scene, Ralph and Piggy chastise Jack for leaving the fire when a ship passed and there was no signal which could had led to their rescue and with that news Jack “smacked piggy’s head. Piggy’s glasses flew off and tinkled on the rocks” (70), He takes the opportunity to not only be the first person to physically hurt another boy, but he ruins one of the only source of technology the boys had available to them. Inevitably, when Jack makes his own tribe he needs everyone on the island to know he’s in charge and does the one thing

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After Jack says that he meant Piggy's death, he throws a spear at Ralph with the intent of harming him, showing the tribe he isn't to be messed with. Though Jack is corrupt with power, the boys are fearful of what he will do to those who oppose him and his

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From the moment the boys grouped, Jack reveals his ambition and lack of empathy. Jack uses verbal abuse towards everyone in order to gain control, but especially Piggy. When Piggy tries desperately to be heard while creating the fire, Jack tells

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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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Throughout the novel, Jack consistently demonstrates a disregard for rules and a desire for dominance and power. When he leads the boys in hunting and violence, he taps into their savage and primal instincts - including Ralph’s. As Jack proclaims, "The conch doesn't count at this end of the island" (Golding, 150) it becomes evident that he prioritizes dominance and power over order, authority, and the established rules on the island. In the midst of their destructive rivalry, Jack’s failures teach Ralph important lessons. Witnessing Jack’s inability to maintain the signal fire makes Ralph recognize the value of collaboration, communication, and planning for survival.

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Should the boys’ savage and immoral behavior be blamed on the situation/environment or on the biological factors? I think that the boys’ savage and immoral behavior should be blamed on biological factors. Your decisions and behavior reflects your brain and your biological factors. In the novel, “Lord of the Flies”, by William Golding, he writes about characters who are lost on an island after their plane crashed.

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After going off on his own and killing a pig, Jack decides to make an offer to the other boys in order to try and convince them to join his new, savage-natured tribe. After returning to his old camp, Jack announces, “Tonight we’re having a feast. We’ve killed a pig and we’ve got meat. You can come and eat with us if you like” (Golding, Lord 140). This offer made by Jack is very convincing and greatly influences the other boys.

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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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Power and manipulation takes over people’s minds and turns us into egotistical people without even knowing and the sense of having control or authority can brainwash us into the people who we despise. William Golding fabricates his ideas around the time period 1933 after he received his English degree where he mostly wrote poems. Golding’s world consists of writing novels, pulling ideas from the real world into his own creative words on paper, this is where he developed his most famous book, Lord of the Flies, throughout 1954. The perspective of Lord of the Flies is through the eyes of the Second World War and since he was in this war, his point of view on violence changed and gave him a different outlook on society. In the Lord of the Flies

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Few of the boys actually support Ralph’s thought process, but now, when they are in trouble, his intelligence finally proves a point. Although, Jack and his tribe still do not want to follow Ralph again; but that does not impact Ralph’s confidence into reuniting his tribe. The main character tries to explain to Jack that everyone needs to be compatible again for them to be found but another fight uprises: “ Jack made a rush and stabbed at Ralph’s chest with his spear […] Then he brought the end round and caught Jack a stinger across the ear […]” (177). Back and forth the boys fight because of Jack stealing Piggy’s glasses and the conflict between the fire; furthermore, the readers see the foreshadowing of Jack’s evil throughout the fight.

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The human nature can be a vile, corrupt, and heinous object that will do anything to benefit itself and put down others. This is the bleak reality of the human nature. LoTF, written by William Golding, and Kite Runner, written by Khaled Hosseini are two books that follow the tragic stories of young boys who lost and sacrificed everything when they succumbed to their evil desires. Lord of the Flies and Kite runner both shed light on human nature by showing the inherent evil that can be evoked, how it can lead to the loss of childhood innocence, and the sacrifices we are willing to make.

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