Human Natures and Destruction of the Society
The novel, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, is an allegorical novel that shows the destructive nature of human beings. Through the breakdown of the society formed by innocent kids who survived the plane wreck, Golding shows that there are many basic human traits that can lead to the destruction of the society. However, the most predominant human trait that leads to the destruction of the society in the Lord of the flies is the struggle for power, the disposition toward savageness and the fear of the unknown.
The most obvious human trait that leads to the destruction of the society in the Lord of the Flies is the
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struggle for power. Humans constantly want to be above other human beings. From the very beginning of the novel, the conflict between Ralph and Jack emerges. When all the boys in the island gather for the first time, Jack shows his autocratic characteristics by treating the choir as the military. Jack even arrogantly says ¡°I ought to be chief, because I¡¯m chapter chorister and head boy¡¦¡¦¡± (Golding, 22). The conflict between Ralph and Jack becomes more obvious as the novel progresses. One of the reasons why Jack hunts is for power. By leading the hunters, he obtains a power base and by providing the meat to the kids, he provides immediate gratification for the group. To gain more power, Jack promises littlun to give meat without any responsibilities that Ralph has demanded (Moody, 12). This difference eventually leads to the worst case scenario: the separation of the group. Now the kids fight each other rather than working together for the benefit of the whole group and
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rescue. If Jack had corporate with Ralph, everyone might have been rescued safely. However, Jack¡¯s desire for power leads the whole society to chaos and destruction.
A Human disposition toward savagery causes total destruction in the society. The central concern of Lord of the Flies is the conflict between two competing impulses that exist within all human beings: the instinct to live by rules, act peacefully, follow moral commands, and value the good of the group against the instinct to gratify one¡¯s immediate desires, act violently to obtain supremacy over others, and enforce one¡¯s will (Phillips). This second trait is quite blatantly shown through Jack and his hunters. In the beginning of the novel, even Jack is not quite savage yet.
Throughout the novel several different characters are introduced to the reader, such as Ralph, Jack, Simon and Piggy. With all these characters presented to the reader, one can get to see into their minds-eye, which allows the reader to analyze their character. In this case one could examine their basic morals and distinguish between the person’s natural instinct to rely on civilization or savagery to solve their problems. The author of the novel, William Golding, had a “first-hand experience of battle line action during World War II” which caused him to realize, “[that] The war alone was not what appalled him, but what he had learnt of the natural - and original- sinfulness of mankind did. It was the evil seen daily as commonplace and repeated by events it was possible to read in any newspaper which, he asserted, were the matter of Lord of the Flies” (Foster, 7-10). This being said by Golding leads one to the central problem in the novel the Lord of the Flies, which can be regarded as the distinction between civility and savagery. This can be seen through the characters that are presented in the novel, and how these boys go from a disciplined lifestyle, to now having to adapt to an unstructured and barbaric one in the jungle.
Both of them are English schoolboys who know how to follow rules and be civilized; however, only one of them will maintain that position throughout the novel.Though Jack has proven experience at being a leader, Ralph is the one the boys choose to be their leader, despite his lack of demonstrable leadership skills. He blew the conch, so the little boys see him as leader. Ralph graciously allows Jack to be in charge of the hunters, so Jack is appeased.” So basically the both want to try and be the leader of the group also they're both really controlling in my
What is human nature? How does William Golding use it in such a simple story of English boys to precisely illustrate how truly destructive humans can be? Golding was in World War Two, he saw how destructive humans can be, and how a normal person can go from a civilized human beign into savages. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses the theme of human nature to show how easily society can collapse, and how self-destructive human nature is. Throughout the story Golding conveys a theme of how twisted and sick human nature can lead us to be. Many different parts of human nature can all lead to the collapse of society. Some of the aspects of human nature Golding plugged into the book are; destruction, demoralization, hysteria and panic. These emotions all attribute to the collapse of society. Golding includes character, conflict, and as well as symbolism to portray that men are inherently evil.
Through strong propaganda, fervor from others, and superior verbal skills, Jack eventually took power over the island. His propaganda weakened Ralph by spreading pretenses about him; to supplement this weakening of Ralph, more and more tribe members supported Jack, displaying affection for his powerful personality, appearance, and verbal skills. Without his charisma or dominating tactics, Jack would not have been able to take such effective leadership, eventually isolating Ralph completely.
William Golding wrote the novel, Lord of the Flies, to express the concept that a society is a representation of the individuals within the society. A society does not cause the members to become corrupted instead, it is corrupted because of the unethical nature of the citizens. Golding portrayed this in Lord of the Flies by making a microcosm in which many boys were stranded without help from any adults. This caused the kids to take control of the government and make their own rules. Golding represents the corruption of society by having the boy’s leave a huge impact on the island. Before the kids crash landed on the island, it is shown being very peaceful, but by the time the boys leave the island, it is trashed, “but the island was scorched
Jack decides to set fire to the island to force Ralph out of hiding. Jack was the perpetrator of all three deaths that happened on the island. He systematically removes forces opposing him. Ralph realizes that man is not a kind creature by nature.
Lord of the flies dramatizes the conflict between the civilisation and savagery that exists in all human beings. Every choice that the author makes is designed to emphasize the struggle between the order of society, which includes morality, order, law and culture and chaotic elements of humanity’s savage instincts, which include anarchy, bloodlust, the desire for power, amorality, selfishness and violence. As the story progresses we see the swift fall of civilisation and the rise of savagery which is a key motif of this dystopian novel. One of the main characters, Piggy is used to present many allegorical messages such as injustice in society. However as savagery becomes more intense in the novel, Piggy is defenceless and weak so begins to suffer more injustices and eventually
In the Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses characters to convey the main idea of his novel. The story begins with a war, and a plane carrying several young boys, who are being evacuated, is shot down from the sky. There are no adult survivors; however; the boys were brought together by Ralph blowing on the conch shell. They formed a tribe to stay alive. Slowly the stability and the sense of safety in the group started to deteriorate, similar to the downfall of societies during World War II. They are not only hunting animals now, but they are killing each other like savages in order to stay alive. This action of killing is like Hitler during World War II and his persecution of Jews during the Holocaust.
Civilization struggling for power against savagery was shown throughout Lord of the Flies. These opposite mindsets are shown battling while determining who had the right to speak during assemblies, when the group hunted pigs, throughout the struggle over Piggy’s glasses, and finally with Simon’s death. These polar opposites are shown throughout these examples and reveal the desperation of clinging to civilization while savagery took over the actions of the some of the boys in Lord of the Flies.
In the novel “Lord of the Flies” the author William Golding sets out to demonstrate what can happen when good clashes with evil, or in this case the Civilized versus the Savage. He selected two individuals to represent each group. Jack represented the savage and Ralph represented the civilized. As the novel progressed their priorities became clearer. Ralph wanted to be rescued and Jack wanted to kill. Due to their personality clashes, later in the novel series of unfortunate events occur at the end of the novel. It can be learnt that the rules and laws that guide us are there for a reason. To teach us the difference right and wrong and keep us behaved.
Golding has a rather pessimistic view of humanity having selfishness, impulsiveness and violence within, shown in his dark yet allegorical novel Lord of the Flies. Throughout the novel, the boys show great self-concern, act rashly, and pummel beasts, boys and bacon. The delicate facade of society is easily toppled by man's true beastly nature.
Ralph shows that he has a better understanding of the boys than Jack. He knows that the boys need some sort of order on the island in order for them to survive. He starts a simple form of government and sets a few rules for them. Even though they don’t last very long, the fact that he tried to help the group is what makes him a better leader. Ralph’s wisdom and ability to look toward the future also has an advantage over Jack. He has a sense to keep his focus on getting off the island. When the fire goes out, Ralph gets upset because the chance to be rescued was gone as well. Ralph enforces his role of leadership as he gives the boys a sense of stability of an authority figure. He keeps the boys in pretty good order at the meeting by making a rule that they can only speak if they have the conch. Ralph knows that the littleuns are afraid and they need shelter to feel more secure. They work together for a while, but as the time goes on the smaller boys want to go play. They slowly lose all their help until Simon and Ralph are the only ones left to work on them. Ralph knows that this is a necessity and keeps bringing it up at the meetings. Jack, on the other hand, is doing nothing but causing chaos.
Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a novel that represents a microcosm of society in a tale about children stranded on an island. Of the group of young boys there are two who want to lead for the duration of their stay, Jack and Ralph. Through the opposing characters of Jack and Ralph, Golding reveals the gradual process from democracy to dictatorship from Ralph's democratic election to his lack of law enforcement to Jack's strict rule and his violent law enforcement.
In Lord of the Flies, William Golding expresses the idea that humans are naturally immoral, and that people are moral only because of the pressures of civilization. He does this by writing about a group of boys, and their story of survival on an island. The civilized society they form quickly deteriorates into a savage tribe, showing that away from civilization and adults, the boys quickly deteriorate into the state man was millions of years ago. This tendency is shown most in Jack, who has an animalistic love of power, and Roger, who loves to kill for pleasure. Even the most civilized boys, Ralph and Piggy, show that they have a savage side too as they watch Simon get murdered without trying to save him. Simon, the only one who seems to have a truly good spirit, is killed, symbolizing how rare truly good people are, and how quickly those personalities become corrupted.
Lord of the Flies provides one with a clear understanding of Golding's view of human nature. Whether this view is right or wrong is a point to be debated. This image Golding paints for the reader, that of humans being inherently bad, is a perspective not all people share. Lord of the Flies is but an abstract tool of Golding's to construct the idea of the inherent evil of human nature in the minds of his readers. To construct this idea of the inherent evil, Golding employs the symbolism of Simon, Ralph, the hunt and the island.