Inherently Evil In Lord Of The Flies Research Paper

In a recent study of U.S. residents, when questioned about the idea of humans being inherently good, 83% answered that they believed people to be fundamentally good. This may be viewed as quite surprising as much of the persuasive media that is placed in front of everyone's eyes are the most negative aspects of the world. However, many parts of humanity that are not as frequently shown come to contradict what is commonly shown. In William Goldings novel, Lord of the Flies, Golding presents the idea that human nature is inherently evil; his novel does display some accurate depictions of the evil in human behavior, but many other novels and pieces of literature argue that human nature is inherently good through generosity and morality.

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Throughout the course of a feast in Lord of the Flies, Simon displayed generosity while he was “sitting between the twins and Piggy” and decided to give “his piece of meat over the rocks to Piggy” who excitedly “grabbed it” (Golding 74). During the feast, Simon did not have to give his piece of meat to Piggy. He could have very easily sat and ate his piece of meat in peace, while Piggy would be left with none. Instead, Simon decided to do the right thing and give Piggy a piece. No one forced him to. Secondly, Simon did it to Piggy, who has been outcasted almost the entire time they were on the island. This furthermore proves that he went out of his way to give an act of kindness to Piggy. Golding chooses to have Simon be generous towards Piggy to convey how even though Piggy is treated as less than and unfairly, someone still chose to reach out to them and show graciousness towards him. Therefore, Lord of the Flies shows an accurate representation through kindness and generosity of how human nature is inherently good. This contradicts Golding's overall idea of how human nature is inherently evil. Similarly, generosity is shown through the character of Boo in To Kill a Mockingbird. While Scout is reflecting on how Boo Radley acted towards her and her brother, she thinks how kind he was to them: "Boo was our neighbor. He

Lord of the Flies convey’s this through Roger’s perspective of hitting a littl’n: “Roger stooped, picked up a stone, aimed, and threw it at Henry. He threw it to miss” (Golding 62). During the interaction between Roger and Henry, Roger was fully capable of throwing the rock at Henry to truly hit Henry. He would have received no form of punishment for doing so, as they were on the island. Instead, every rock Roger threw was thrown so that it purposely would not put any harm or danger in Henry's way. This is because of the morals and norms that the world and society have implemented into citizens' minds for many centuries. For example, it is the reason someone doesn’t act out in random bursts of violence, even if they want to. That is very uncommonly seen because of how morals and ethics have been implemented in people. This is the reason Roger does not directly hit Henry. Although he has free will and no punishment if he does so, he still chooses not to because of the ideas other humans have enforced. And humans have only forced others to not do bad things to others because humans are inherently good and care about the wellbeing of others. Although some may have an incentive to do harm, they still are constrained by the regulations others have implemented on them to do good. Golding chooses to represent morals through