Lord Of The Flies Nature Vs Nurture

One of the oldest controversies in psychology is whether a person’s development is determined by their DNA or their environment and life experiences. This argument is known as the nature versus nurture debate, where nature represents an individual’s genetics and inherited components, while nurture refers to the environment an individual grew up in and their life experiences. The concept of nature versus nurture is seen throughout William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, a novel that follows a group of English schoolboys stranded on an uncharted island, struggling to survive while keeping their civility intact. In “The Destructors” by Graham Greene, the topic of nature versus nurture is also raised among the actions and mentality of the Wormsley Common Gang,

In Lord of the Flies, the reader is exposed to the idea of nature, specifically human nature, through the concept that some are leaders while others are followers. “The Destructors” conveys that it is human nature for people to assume the worst of others. However, it is also proven that the nature behind these actions was influenced by the environment and experiences of the schoolboys and Wormsley Common Gang. By knowing whether the way an individual acts and thinks lies within their nature or nurture can help in determining the reasons behind one’s actions and reactions, as well as answer whether who they are today was a result of their heritance, or their environment. In “The People” by Charles Bukowski, it is said that “when things get bad enough the kitten will kill the lion” (Bukowski). The question that remains is whether the kitten killed the lion solely because things got bad enough, or because through heritance, the kitten possessed the same instincts as a lion would have in order to