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Selfishness In Lord Of The Flies

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“Declare your jihad on thirteen enemies you cannot see- egoism, arrogance, conceit, selfishness, greed, lust, intolerance, anger, lying, cheating, gossiping, and slandering. If you can master and destroy them, then you will be ready to fight the enemy you can see.” - Al-Ghazali.
These enemies are the evils that lurk within humans, yet we see more in others than ourselves. Selfishness is one of the weaknesses in human nature, caring about yourself and not others. In the allegorical novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the antagonist, Jack, represents selfishness in humans. Jack’s selfishness and pride cause a variety of problems for the group as a whole. This contributes to the work as a whole because every time Jack causes problems,
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Dalai Lama stated, “A lack of transparency results in deep distrust and a sense of insecurity”. William Golding faces this topic of insecurity in his book, Lord of the Flies, in this book a group of schoolboys, after crashing on an island, become trapped, and succumb to their insecurities so tremendously that it leads to distrust between them. His book reveals that one’s insecurities lead to changing oneself and putting on a show, as done by the antagonist, represented through the juxtaposition of treatment towards a side character and the character vs. character conflict. In Lord of the Flies the antagonist, Jack, puts on airs and applies a new persona to himself.

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In the novel, Lord of The Flies, author William Golding tells the tragic and profound story of a group of boys stranded on a deserted island after their plane crashed and mysteriously disappeared during the 1940’s. By repeatedly showing the boys lust for power and disregard for others when fighting for the conch and control of the island, Golding suggests that selfishness leads to the downfall of relationships and society. Selfishness is one of the main themes throughout the story, though it mainly surrounds Jack and Ralph. Jack wants to be chief; he promises fun and full stomachs. Ralph wants to be leader; he promises order and rescue.

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The Peer Pressure Factor of Lord of the Flies William Golding’s Lord of the Flies paints two stark and opposing images of reality. On the one hand, the novel suggests that certain characters have venerable attitudes, making them seem like the protagonists, like Simon or Piggy. This can be seen from the motivating forces behind Simon’s decisions, or by the civilized behavior portrayed by Piggy. On the other hand, the novel also suggests that a deep built-in mechanism exists in every human being, one that prioritizes survival over morality. Just by observation, the novel demonstrates Jack’s exercise of hunting instincts, his combat of the social recourse from Ralph, his influence on everyone else to join him, and his eventual takeover of the

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In this world, the rich stay rich. Greed is an ugly attribute, and those who need the least often take the most. Typically, the antagonists in most literature find themselves in very comfortable places yet still choose to go down evil paths for selfish satisfaction. The novel "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding explores a group of schoolboys who survive a plane crash and are forced to survive on their own. The boys initially attempt to establish order and civilization.

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“Beware of Envy because Envy consumes Virtues just as Fire consumes Firewood” (Muhammad). There exists a tremendous amount of emotions that can alter a human into someone they thought they would never become. Envy can consume the strongest of people from the inside out. William Golding shows this envious behavior in his book Lord of the Flies through a boy named Jack Merridew. However, this behavior can also occur in the real world, quite more often than someone would expect.

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Should the boys’ savage and immoral behavior be blamed on the situation/environment or on the biological factors? I think that the boys’ savage and immoral behavior should be blamed on biological factors. Your decisions and behavior reflects your brain and your biological factors. In the novel, “Lord of the Flies”, by William Golding, he writes about characters who are lost on an island after their plane crashed.

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Throughout the novel the boys demonstrate ruthlessness, however their lack of remorse for their ruthless actions conveys an even stronger sense of loss of identity. With the help of the hunters, Jack kills the first pig on the island. When they carry the gutted pig back to Ralph and the others, Jack holds in his excitement. “He noticed blood on his hands and grimaced distastefully, looked for something on which to clean them, then wiped them on his shorts and laughed” (Golding 69). Jack demonstrates no sign of guilt for touchering and killing this innocent pig.

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Every child comes into this world as a selfish, manipulative, cruel and stubborn being. It is the parents and society that teaches children how to function in a civilized world, and societal laws that keeps them under control. William Golding wrote this novel in the early years of the cold war and the atomic age. In William Golding's classic novel Lord of the Flies, Golding uses Jack, a young savage who looks to lead a group of stranded kids on an island with no food, no rules, and no adults. The effect freedom has on Jack has turned him into a savage because he does not have to listen to anyone since there are no adults on the island.

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Being stranded on an island can change you. Studies have shown that it can change you and your mentality. The Lord of the Flies is a novel written by William Golding, in September of 1954. It is about a group of young boys that get stranded on an island with no adults. Throughout the book, the boys’ go insane.

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In the novel Lord of The Flies, William Golding illustrated how dark our human is in our inner world. In his novel, everyone is born evil and even the kindest has an inner beast within them according to narrating a group of school boys’ tragedy path from civilization to savagery because of their natural evil and self-interest. Here, I do agree with Golding’s idea, believing in Thomas Hobbes’s theory on the state of nature where he stated that humans are selfish by nature when facing being threatened. In front of the challenge of survival, egoism can be proved by their biological origin.

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Humans are complex creatures. Understanding human nature is difficult, but the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding helps to show what true human nature looks like. Humans are inherently evil, but that evil is hidden by societal dictates. Throughout the novel, the human societal mask is stripped away and true human nature can be seen. Society enforces rules and trends that people feel they must follow.

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