Evil Influence In William Golding's Lord Of The Flies

Countless works of literature have mused on the complex struggle between the human characteristics of greed, selfishness and treachery and the edifice of morality and reason on which human society is built. Often times this struggle is characterized as a battle between the forces of good and evil, good being the desire to help mankind and evil the desire to do the opposite. George MacDonald’s poem “Evil Influence” follows this trend in its title and subject matter, describing the terrible nature of evil that precedes violent deeds. While William Golding’s Lord of the Flies primarily explores the natural state of man contained by the walls of society, the presence of its titular being

~Raw Writing~

...brings up the idea of something sinister influencing the boys’ actions on the island. Using the poem as a field guide for finding the signs of evil influence, and assuming the beast is something inside the boys that is awakened by the island (seen by how bad the kids already are and stuff- pg 28), we can break this down following the poem.

Tis not the violent hands alone that bring

The curse, the ravage, and the downward doom,

Although to these full oft the yawning tomb

Owes deadly surfeit;

So

Either way, it sowing the gloom with seeds of death that spring up because of circumstances and stuff makes sense with Jack’s, Roger’s, and the future savages’ stray from civilization over time. Jack is snotty and bossy at the start of the story (), but he still likes Ralph despite wanting to be the leader (). Likewise, Roger throws stones at the helpless , but throws to miss. By the end of the story, Jack is trying to kill Ralph out of jealousy and Roger full-on tortures the twins to indoctrinate them into the tribe. The boys through all of this are drawn ever closer to the hunt, mostly forgetting about trying to get rescued and