Instinct In Lord Of The Flies

Lord of the Flies

In a life or death situation, would you save your best friend or yourself? It is often questioned whether human instinct is good or bad. Some people seem like they do have good human instinct on the inside but that claim may be questionable. I believe that everyone has bad human instinct, it just sometimes takes other people to bring out that bad instinct. In Lord of the Flies, Jack and Roger had bad human instinct that was exposed immediately, while others such as Ralph and Piggy took time to have their bad instincts be presented, once others helped lead it out.

Jack always had an extremely violent personality, no matter what the situation was. He always had his mind on killing things such as when he pointed and said, “Of

He created a game where a boy would pretend to be the pig and his hunters would circle around and act as if they were on the verge of killing the boy. At one point, Jack wanted to “[u]se a littlun,” (115). This proves that he wants his victim to be weak. He wants them to struggle, while he can overpower them to give himself the pleasure of feeling dominant. Not only is he putting his friend in danger, he is possibly making them feel embarrassed in front of the others. He is putting his own needs above others, once again proving his bad human instinct to be

He also talked of the other boys in an uncivilized manner. As the group of boys followed Jack towards the end of the island instead of listening to Ralph, Piggy proceeded to label their actions “‘[l]ike kids!’ he said scornfully. ‘Acting like a crowd of kids!’” (38). By calling the others like a group of little kids, he is implying that he as above them, or better them. This is a major change from when he accepted a random stranger into his society. His bad human instincts were brought out into the open yet once again. These bad human instincts that were suddenly being exposed are comparable to Jack’s. Jack wanted the littluns to suffer in the dancing game instead of him, implying that he thinks he is better than them. This is exactly what Piggy is doing in this situation, implying that he is better than the others. A legitimate explanation for this is that the spending of time that he had with Jack throughout island stranding, allowed for his bad human instincts to finally come out.

Lastly, Simon once had a very honorable character. He was very helpful to the others, and did what he could to help. One day, Ralph said that all day he had “been working with Simon. No one else. They’re off bathing, or eating, or playing,” (50). While Simon could have been having a lot more fun playing with the other boys, he decided to stay and help Ralph with what really needed done. This paved the perfect path for readers