Human Instinct In Lord Of The Flies Essay

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Recommended: The literary analysis of Lord of the Flies by William Golding

William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies reveals the savage human instinct that dwells within us all and the measures we take to control it. Golding’s novel proves that no amount of government can control human impulse and desire, and that “evil is innate in man; that even the most suitable environmental conditions … will not suffice to overcome man's capacity for greed, his innate cruelty and selfishness; and that those, therefore, who look to political and social systems detached from this real nature of man are the victims of a terrible, because self-destructive, illusion” (Spitz 3). The setting of Golding’s novel is a deserted tropical island in the South Pacific during a nuclear war. A group of English schoolboys becomes stranded after their plane malfunctions and crashes. Two boys, Ralph and Jack, become rivals after challenging each other for the role of leader. Ralph is the fairest of the boys and encourages them to stay focused on domestic order and the rules of civilization. He represents democracy and the civilized instinct that society tries to maintain. Ralph eventually gets overthrown by Jack, the cruelest, most sadistic of the …show more content…

“The Lord of the Flies, then, is darkness--the embodiment and voice of evil and the demoniac. It is Beelzebub, lord of the flies and dung, the Prince of Devils. And it is the beast--the beast that is part of all men. The materialization of this devil coincides with the emergence of savage evil in the boys, revealed in the acts that they commit” (Buffkin 6). The beast represents the inner savagery of the boys and all mankind. With the boys being “too immature to account for the enemy within, [they] project their irrational fears onto the outside world. The first of these projections takes the shape of a snake like "beastie," the product of a small boy's nightmare” (Friedman 2). Simon is the only boy who understands that they are all beasts

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