Imagine crashing on an uninhabited island as a young boy with multiple other young boys. In the novel Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, this is the case for a large group of young men who have to learn to fend for themselves and be organized. They have to be civilized and decide on leadership in order to have a successful, running society. However, through time, the boys begin to give in to the inner evil inside of all of them. Through the setting and conflict between characters, this story proves the idea that although men are inherently good, there is a natural side of man that when listened to and given priority, can corrupt one and cause them to become a natural, evil man. To begin with, they are rational and organized with their decisions because they are working towards the similar goal of survival. They are all aware that they will have to “look after [them]selves,” (Golding 26). Everyone knew that chaos and unorganization would cause death and destruction. The most important …show more content…
The boys no longer hunted only for food, they hunted for the “knowledge […] that they had outwitted a living thing, imposed their will upon it, taken away its life like a long satisfying drink,”(98). It pleased them to feel powerful and superior to another being. In a way, it gives them a sense of worth, strength, and purpose. Through this, the natural man inside of the boys could be satisfied. However, in the story, jack and the boys were not acting as themselves, they were actually wearing masks and the “mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness,”(89). The mask represented the natural man inside of him which was the part of him which he allowed to have priority to act. This primal being is not really jack, but a manifestation of him wearing the mask of savagery, representing the decision to give in to the will of the evil in his