William Golding's The Lord of the Flies” is an exploration into the idea

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William Golding’s novel “The Lord of the Flies” is an exploration into the idea of the savage natural instinct of human evil. It is suggested that Golding’s novel is partly based upon his real life experiences with the violence and brutality of World War II. The novel defines the struggle within all humans to differentiate between the learned civilized instinct and the human savage instinct. The civilized instinct is the impulse to obey rules, behave morally, and act lawfully. The savage instinct is the impulse to seek brute power over others, act selfishly, forget morals, and indulge in violence.
Early on in the novel the boys elect Ralph as the leader who has a strong civilized instinct. He quickly tries to restore order and direction to the boys stranded on the island. Ralph appoints Jack as the leader of the hunters who are in charge of hunting and keeping the signal fire lit. Early on all of the boys still have the civilized instinct that they have learned as their moral foundation. This is evident by the fact that Jack can’t kill a pig that is tangled in a vine in t...

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