Lord Of The Flies: Revealing The Truth

Revealing the Truth Humans are a unique species with minds that advance the world. When looking closer at human nature many natural defects lie underneath the surface and cannot change. In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the theme of his novel focuses on the primal instincts of human and how the seclusion from society brings these behaviors into an action. This idea of naturally evil-hearted humans can be seen through Thomas Hobbes’ theory. Golding adapts his characters from the book The Coral Island, in which the characters face more optimistic situations. However, in Lord of the Files, set during a war, the children are stranded on an island all by themselves. Ralph is the light of good, Jack is the one who desires power, Piggy

Ralph is the good guy, the “fair-haired boy”, who was raised in a very civilized manner to be good. He is the only character besides Simon who progresses from having the savage urge to be completely wild to slowly realizing that this environment is getting him to reveal his defects. Ralph develops a lack of self-control, and slowly reveals the imperfections of humans that substantiate Hobbes's theory. The environment, in the beginning, made him want to “have fun”, however, slowly the way he’s treated by the other children make him want to leave the island: "This is our island. It's a good island. Until the grown-ups come to fetch us we'll have fun."(35) This shows that although he wants to leave he is actually enjoying his time, and wants to have fun and discover things that he couldn’t normally do in a civilized world. Ralph slowly leans into the idea of the savage survival, that is until Piggy dies because of the primitive actions and mindsets the children develop: “ ‘The tears began to flow and sobs shook him. He gave himself up to them now for the first time on the island: great, shuddering spasms of grief that seemed to wrench his whole body.’ In the middle of them, with filthy body, matted hair, and unwiped nose, Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy,”(248). Ralph in this moment realizes how all the boys were revealing their real evil defects. Because he saw the true form of the beast, he learns that they need to leave or slowly they will kill each other to death. To conclude, the imperfections and savagery of the human nature appear to Ralph. He becomes aware of this and understands the necessity of them adapting back to a civilization where it’s structured so the barbaric human core doesn’t disclose. All in all, especially because they were children, whether or not