Human Nature In Lord Of The Flies Essay

In a New York Times article, it is stated that “The public at large, only 30 percent of Americans say they can trust people around them” (Brooks). Golding did not like human nature as well and before he had written the Lord of The Flies, he served in the royal navy during World War 2. This changed his outlook on the way people are affected by his war experiences. Lord of The Flies shows some of his views on human nature through how he described the boy’s actions. In his novel, Lord of The Flies, William Golding shows the evil that is in humanity through the actions of the characters by showing the cruel and controlling nature of humans; human nature’s evil is also seen in other fictional and real-world scenarios.

Golding believes that human

After Jack leaves Ralph’s group, he decides to control his own group. To show his power, he ties up with a boy named Wilfred. Robert tells Ralph’s group about what Jack is doing, saying “He is going to beat Wilfred” (Golding159). As he is asked more questions, he says “I don't know. He didn't say anything about it. He got angry and made us tie up Wilfred. He’s been”-he giggled excitedly-” he’s been tied up for hours, waiting-” (Golding 159). Jack made the boys tie up Wilfred because he was mad and wanted to beat him. This is cruel of him because he is going to hurt Wilfred because of his anger. The boys mindlessly followed his order to tie up Wilfred and not let him out. They also seemed interested and excited to see what would happen with Wilfred. Another example of cruel human nature is seen in an experiment directed by Zimbardo. In 1971, Zimbardo’s Standford Prison Experiment took place in which college students took on the roles of guards and inmates. Less than a week into the experiment “the guards became brutal and abusive towards the prisoners” (Dittmann). Zimbardo had to prematurely end the experiment because of the abuse that the prisoners were suffering from. This showed that pressure had led the guards to disregard the harmful effects of their actions. This shows the cruelty that human nature can display if there is little regard for their actions and results. Human nature also exhibits other evil

Jack uses fear to control his group many times throughout the book. He tells them what to do when they hunt and says that they should offer the head of the pig to the beast. He convinces them to do this, exclaiming “We’d better keep on the right side of him, anyhow. You can’t tell what he might do” (Golding 161). He threatens the boys by telling them that the beast might do something to them if they do not listen to what Jack says to do. He uses this fear to control the actions of the boys. Another example of controlling nature takes place in Animal Farm, where the pigs take control of Manor Farm and run it the way they think best. They eventually decide that the pigs should be the only animals to eat apples and drink milk. Squealer then manipulated the other animals to think that the pigs need the apples and milk, claiming, “Milk and apples contain substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of a pig” (Orwell 23). He also added this to scare the animals asking “Do you know what would happen if we pigs failed our duty? Yes, Jones would come back!” (Orwell 23). The pigs want all the good, fresh food for themselves, and they scare the animals into doing what they want. They control their emotions because they want to be believed. This shows that they only want what is best for themselves, controlling others to do