What Is The Evil In Lord Of The Flies

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Lord of the flies analysis
Evil within the human being

Lord of the flies is a novel from 1954 by William Golding. The novel was awarded a Nobel prize for literature in 1983. The book was chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 best English language novels from 1923 - 2005. William Golding was an English novelist and poet best known for his novel Lord of the flies. The novel is about a group of British schoolboys that had to flee their country because of the war. The plane they boarded crashed on a desert island where they assemble and wait to be rescued. The boys are all fighting to have leadership over the group. There are no adults present on this adventure. This is why they forget what civilization is like and what is right and wrong. …show more content…

The younger boys are scared of the island and cannot speak out the exact fears they have because they are inarticulate. They demonstrate their concern with a snake as a symbol. Jack counters these thoughts in a rather aggressive way as he tends to kill the snake. This shows that the island itself is harmless but that the boys bring the violence and fear. The snake represents the symbol for fear but in reality there is no snake present.

The story Lord of the Flies is a good representation of how people and especially young people can influence each other in many ways. This can either be positive or negative. In this case it has turned out negative as the boys have constantly tried to seek power and use fear as a tool to get that desperately wanted power. William Golding paints a very harsh picture of humanity. He shows that living under the rules of civilization is not part of our human nature. The book shows that when human beings are freed from civilization they tend to inherit capacity for evil.

The book showcases that under certain circumstances a human being can adjust and develop strongly towards the evil