Perception Of Human Nature In Lord Of The Flies

Paige Gowan
Mr. van Tright
ENG1D
21 December, 2022

The Authors Perception of Human Nature and How Its Shown in This Novel

In the book Lord of the Flies the author is trying to tell us how humans naturally have savagery, and in certain circumstance even when we try and fight it, savagery will triumph. In this book there is a capacity for humanity and civilization, and many of the boys stick to this civilization for a long time. The boys began to make impulsive decisions, they don’t act on reason, and we begin to see savagery. As the boys spend more time on the island their impulsive decisions cause them to go savage and all hope of civilization is lost. Therefore, I think the author is trying to show

All boys agree and feel the need for rules on the island, Jack strongly believes in these rules “We’ll have rules! He cried excitedly. Lots of rules!” (33) They used the conch to call meetings, and they attempted to keep a sense of their previous life, throughout the book we notice the three symbols of humanity in the conch, piggy, and Simon. The conch is a representation of civilization and its journey on the island, they use the conch as a talking stick reminding them how they acted in school. Piggy and his specs represent intelligence, and we see how all the boys turn away from this, they mock him for his appearance and the ideas he envisions, lastly Simon represents the good on the island, he is deeply connected with nature and contrasts to Jacks evil. Lastly the boys come up with appreciable ideas to remain civil and get recued, Ralph wants to get rescued and pushes this idea upon the boys, he suggests building

They impulsively surround him and continue their chant, overcome with savagery the boys began to violently bash at Simon. This leads to his death.
Piggy is killed when he is vulnerable, without his glasses. Him and Ralph travel to castle rock in order to get Piggy’s specs back, Roger free from his civilized barrier knocked a boulder which fell on Piggy, Piggy was knocked off the cliff and fell to his death. The conch, which Piggy held was crushed as the large boulder fell, the boys no longer tried to justify this like they previously had with Simon’s death. They knew it was murder, but instead of feeling a loss Jack laughed and screamed saying, “See? See? That’s what you’ll get! I meant that! There isn’t a tribe for you anymore! The conch is gone-” (200) I think this truly shows how we can be so heartless, when the situation benefits us. The boy’s human nature has taken over, they are no longer innocent civilized boy. They are