The fictional novel, Lord of the Flies, by William Golding uses a group of British boys stranded on a desert during a world war to demonstrate the malicious nature of mankind. Lord of the Flies deals with the changes the boys underwent as they gradually adapted to the freedom from their society. William Golding expresses his basic philosophy that man is inherently evil through different symbols such as Piggy’s glasses, the killing of pigs, and the face paint.
On the first day of exploring the island, Jack, Ralph, and Simon encounter a pig which Jack attempts to kill. After he realizes that he is unable to do so while still feeling so close to civilization’s bonds, Jack amends his hesitation by saying, "I was just waiting for a moment to decide where to stab him (31)." This incident clearly demonstrates that along with inherent evil, man is capable of being moral. However, Jack’s mercy does not last long as his links to society slowly fade with the aid provided by his face paint. Shortly after, he manages to kill pigs in increasingly
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It is only when Jack puts on his paint, distancing himself from his cleaned-face look that was one of his only links left to civilization left, that he is able to kill the pig. "...The mask was a thing of its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness. (64)" Ralph and his tribe of still-civilized boys also recognize the power of the paint and fear it when Ralph proposes that they confront Jack and his band of barbarians. "’But they'll be painted! You know how it is.’ The others nodded. They understand only too well the liberation into savagery that the concealing paint brought (172)". The paint liberates the boys into savagery, freeing them to act in a way that their past lives wouldn’t allow and represents the savage within. Indeed, the paint does not disguise the boys’ true nature, it reveals