Today, society is curbing humanity’s natural instincts towards evil. However, the innate nature of humans is up to question. Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies grapples with his question. Lord of the Flies suggests that humanity is naturally evil, an inaccurate representation of humans because humans are compassionate and reasonable. Golding presents humans as naturally evil, using Roger’s fierce desire to harm life. For example, Roger didn’t just kill the sow when hunting: Roger “push[ed] [the spear] till he was leaning with his whole wait” which turned the terrified squealing into “a high-pitched scream” (Golding 135). Golding highlights the brutality of humans by using Roger’s desire to not only kill the pig, but to harm the pig as much as possible. However, this is not an accurate reflection, because compassion also exists in this microcosm. For example, Simon would “[find for the littluns] the fruit they could not reach [and give them] the choicest fruit up in the foliage” to ensure that the littluns don’t eat unripe fruit and get sick as a result (Golding 56). Simon proves that humanity also has good by …show more content…
When Jack refused to give Piggy some meat, Simon “shoved his piece of meat over the rocks to Piggy” (Golding 74). Compassion drives Simon to give up his meat so that Piggy can have his portion of meat, which shows that humanity is naturally good due to compassion. Lee also highlights the good of humanity by using compassion in To Kill A Mockingbird. After escorting Boo Radley home, Scout reflects that “standing on the Radley porch was enough” to understand Boo and that she “never saw him again” (Lee 320-321). Lee illustrates humanity’s compassion by using Scout’s understanding of Boo Radley’s trials and decisions and Scout respecting Boo Radley’s privacy from that point onwards, regardless of rumors about Boo. This shows that humans have the capability to be good and respect