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Lord Of The Flies Human Nature Analysis

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Lord of the Flies: Human nature and Society People interact together to create a society. And within that society, a political system is formed to regulate and govern. However, when that society corrupts, who is to blame? The leader? Political system? Or the people? William Golding, the author of Lord of the Flies believes the defects of society are caused by the defects of human nature. The novel demonstrates the defects of individuals’ human nature corrupting society through Ralph’s failed civilization, Samneric’s fear, and Roger’s natural evil. Ralph, the elected leader of the boys’ society attempts to build a successful civilization, but fails wretchedly due to the individuals’ flaws. To build a strong civilization, contribution and participation …show more content…

Samneric maintain their civilized behaviour until they face overwhelming power, and feel fear. When Jack threatens Samneric, they betray Ralph and “[Jack’s] yelling ceased, and Samneric lay looking up in quiet terror. Roger advanced upon them as one wielding a nameless authority.” (202) Even though Samneric do not want Jack as the leader, their fear of Jack’s power led them to go against their will to fight against savage. The fear causes Samneric to ignore their rational beliefs and purposely choose the wrong path. As the result of their wrongful and cowardly decision, Ralph, the leader of civilization loses power and wields “nameless authority”. Furthermore, they participate in killing Ralph by giving his location when Jack asks and, “The twin moaned faintly and they squealed again. ‘He meant [Ralph]’d hide in there?’ ‘Yes-yes-oh-!” (214). Samneric’s cowardice and fear impinge them to ignore their morals in making decisions, and take part in barbarous murder. Samneric allow the fear to take over their sanity and become savage, and abandon the civilized society they once lived in. The human nature of fear shown through Samneric is a strong emotion that will cause people to give into the sin and discard their …show more content…

Roger is a character who is evil from the beginning but restricting himself. In the beginning of the novel, when the boys were once civilized, “Roger stooped, picked up a stone, aimed, threw it at Henry-threw it to miss.” (64). Roger hesitates to aim at Henry because of the teachings of society remain in him, but still throws because of his natural cruelty. However, when the society’s rules that constrain the evil within Roger’s human nature cease to exist, the evil will take over him and lead the society to corruption. When Piggy tries to practice the society’s rule, “High overhead, Roger, with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever. […] The rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee; the conch exploded into thousand white fragments and ceased to exist.” (200) Previously, Roger could not harm Henry, but when the rules of society change, Roger does not hesitate and commits murder without guilt. In addition, he also destroys the rule of the civilization, the conch with feeling of freedom. Ergo, Roger is Golding’s attempt to show the relation between human nature of evil and the

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201 Words | 1 Pages

After the standoff, Sam and Eric are captured by Ralph’s tribe and, “The yelling ceased, and Samneric lay looking up in quiet terror. Roger advanced upon them as one wielding a nameless authority.” (182) The fact that Sam and Eric are quiet in terror reveals how much power coming from fear Roger has aquired by his

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651 Words | 3 Pages

Initially, Roger reveals his cruel behavior by merely crushing the littleuns’ and castles and throwing stones around the boys. This demonstrates Golding’s theme of savagery as Roger realizes he can now do these things without punishment from adults or civilization. This is verified by the quote, “Roger led the way straight through the castles, kicking them over, burying the flowers, scattering the chosen stones” (Golding pg. 60). Yet, Roger’s evil is still slightly

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959 Words | 4 Pages

The conch is gone-[Golding, 201]. In this quote, Jack is taking responsibility for Roger’s actions of being Piggy’s murder. By doing so Jack now seems more powerful to the other boys, therefore resulting in a more feared leader. Along with being power hungry, Jack has a more democratic leading style. He constantly brainwashes the little uns, by telling his that Ralph is boring and wrong and he only hunts and has fun.”

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767 Words | 4 Pages

(Golding 180-181) At this point in the story, Roger is acting on his primitive instincts and becoming the biggest savage on the island. Speaking about his savagery, Roger kills Piggy with a huge boulder, which not only kills Piggy but destroys the conch into smithereens. Savagery has overtaken Roger, and his murder of Piggy symbolizes savagery and the destruction of their civilization. This quote shows that Jack's cruelty is rubbed off on his people.

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1227 Words | 5 Pages

Humans, according to the philosopher Thomas Hobbes, are selfish by nature. In his landmark work, Leviathan, he explains the importance of a strong government in society. According to Hobbes, without a strong system of government people would revert into a primitive state; war would run rampant, the natural law would not be abided, and those once tamed by society would become evil. William Golding based his novel, Lord of The Flies, on a similar idea. In this novel, many characters digress from civility into savagery.

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1611 Words | 7 Pages

Roger goes from a bully to a murderer throughout this book. Near the beginning, he doesn’t dare to hurt anyone because “invisible but strong, was the taboo of the old life. Round the squatting child was the protection of parents and school and policemen and the law”(Golding 62). Later, his behavior was explained to be limited by “a civilization that knew nothing of him and was in ruins”(Golding 62). At the conclusion of the book, Roger becomes the biggest savage in the group of boys.

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1088 Words | 5 Pages

Democratic power can be used to control a society, as well as establish a closeness as civilians. To lose sight of this can mean the corruption of a civilization caused by the lack of order. One’s choice of independence in order to better the chances of their survival requires complete dedication and willingness to risk. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Ralph loses his democratic power due to his failure to ensure survival and protect the boys as a leader. Ralph’s failure to lead the group is due to his initial and chronic independence and inability to compete with Jack’s followers, accounted for mainly by fear.

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975 Words | 4 Pages

Roger killed Piggy by a boulder when, “High overhead, Roger, with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever,”(180) and after the boulder fell, “... the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist”(181). The end of civilization on the island was symbolized by both Roger’s murder of Piggy and the destruction of the conch. At first Roger threw pebbles around Henry to test the consequences of their island civilization and over time, when he learned that there were none, he crushed Piggy with a much larger pebble. Roger’s motives stemmed from a lack of respect for basic human morals because ignoring them allowed him power over others, meat and safety, whereas following them lead to malnutrition and a fear of the beast. Because Jack gave Roger the authority to defend against those who would “sneak” in, Roger with “delirious abandonment” became crazed with the ability to kill Piggy and acted on that intense

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344 Words | 2 Pages

Ralph, one of the most important characters in the novel serves as the human ego, a subconscious mind that works by reason and common sense. However, even the conscious and reasonable mind can vanish in a society with no structure and civilization. At the beginning of the novel, Ralph asserts “… We can help them to find us… a ship comes near the island they may not notice us…we must make smoke on top of the mountain…” (38). Ralph focuses on the important and common sense actions that need to be taken in order to survive and get rescued. Even so, Ralph is being diminished by the savagery committed by Jack and his hunters, the quotes “He tried to remember…we want smoke…

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731 Words | 3 Pages

" After a moment 's silence, Sam spoke in a strangled voice. " You don 't know Roger. He’s a terror." Ralph says, "But what are you going to do when you catch me?"

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870 Words | 4 Pages

Ralph was the leader of the civilized group, and Jack was the leader of the savage and bloodthirsty hunting group. Important arguments between the civilized boys and savage boys come up in three important moments throughout the book: when the signal fire is allowed to go out and a boat passes by the island, when Jack leaves the civilized group to create his group of savages, and when the savages steal Piggy’s glasses to make their own fire. The first key moment near the beginning of the book shows the growing tension between civilization and savagery. It comes up when

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966 Words | 4 Pages

By illustrating the differences of their growth from civilized to moreso savage and the switches they make from Jack and Ralph’s tribes, Samneric portray just how good and evil can consume an individual in dire circumstances. When faced with a situation most unfavorable, the individual will be forced to either make a good or bad decision that ultimately affects the society they live in. In other cases, how an individual’s ethics and moral codes differ can play a major role to the amount of stress or evil they can handle. Overall, Samneric play a position as the followers for either Jack or Ralph’s side to eventually benefit themselves in the long

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1057 Words | 5 Pages

Jack proposes that he forms his own tribe.. Within this rebel tribe he suggests that they act only as savages. The temptation to hunt won many of the boys over in favor of orderly society as suggested by Ralph. The two groups of boys reach the culmination of the conflict when logic battles savagery; “ ‘Which is

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836 Words | 4 Pages

His brutal behavior reveals when he kills the character of Piggy by throwing the stone. He throws it intentionally without any sorrow. Roger becomes a savage totally and brutal when he enjoys the murder of Piggy: “The storm of sound beat at them, an incantation of hatred high overhead, Roger, with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever” (Golding, 222).

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1361 Words | 6 Pages

Throughout history, men and women have had different expectations placed on them by the society in which they live. A traditional idea that can still be found in the modern world is that men are supposed to be strong and assertive, able to protect and provide for their families, while women should be mild in temperament and content with taking care of the home and raising children. Although these archaic notions of masculinity and femininity are slowly but surely on their way out, their demise did not begin until relatively recently. During the latter part of the 19th century, the time that author Sarah Orne Jewett lived, these social constructs still dominated American society. Jewett was a woman ahead of her time; writing stories such as “A White Heron,” “Farmer Finch,” and “Tom’s Husband” that expressed her disagreement with these constructs of stereotypical gender roles.

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