Lord Of The Flies Essay On Human Nature

The Evil Within Human Nature Hsun Tzu, a Chinese philosopher, once stated: “Human nature is evil, and goodness is caused by intentional activity.” Although many try to argue that the goodness of mankind outweighs the bad, that idea is simply false; the evilness of human nature has been responsible for mass genocide, exploitation of minorities, discrimination, and millions of other tragedies. The natural desire for violence and savagery, no matter how civilized society is, will always lie in human nature. Throughout Lord of the Flies, Golding portrays human nature as fundamentally evil, which is a fair depiction due to other literary works and instances in history where humans have shown selfishness and cruelty. Golding presents human nature

His novel is an allegory to the Russian Revolution; however, it can also be seen as an allegory to mankind’s natural behavior. In one instance, the pigs of the farm begin to steal milk and apples for themselves. When the rest of the farm finds out about this, the pigs are quick to make up excuses as to why they, over the rest of the animals, deserve those items. They use a fear tactic to frighten the animals into thinking that it’s fair for the pigs to have more, and it was “agreed without further argument that the milk and the windfall apples should be reserved for the pigs alone” (Orwell). In this allegory, the pigs are a representation of man’s selfishness; this specific scene demonstrates how man will take advantage of the helpless minds of others in order to get what he wants. Comparably, mankind will use manipulation strategies to receive what he wants, thus proving mankind is inherently selfish. To further prove that human nature is evil, Napoleon, the eventual dictator of Animal Farm, uses his power to murder and manipulate the rest of the animals, showing how humans will go as far as hurting others to get their way. When Napoleon calls for the animals to confess to any crimes they’ve committed, he brutally murders any animal that follows these orders, until “there was a pile of corpses lying before [his] feet and the air was heavy with the smell of blood” (Orwell).

Christopher Columbus, who is best known for his discovery of America, is a great example of mankind being selfish. When he first arrived in what is currently the Bahamas, he became familiar with a tribe of Indians known as the Arawak Indians; he wrote in his journal of their generosity, yet he “quickly took a group of Arawaks captive, hoping they would lead him to gold” (The Real Legacy of Christopher Columbus). Columbus enslaving these kind people for his personal benefit demonstrates how mankind will take advantage of others to get what they want, thus showing selfishness. Moreover, Columbus and other Spanish colonizers created a rule that every Indian over the age of fourteen must gather a hefty amount of gold each month. If someone was not gathering enough, the Spanish would “cut off their hands and let them bleed to death” (The Real Legacy of Christopher Columbus). Not only were Native tribes being taken advantage of and enslaved, but they were being murdered like they were nothing, all because mankind was hungry for