ipl-logo

Is Man Inherently Evil In Lord Of The Flies

658 Words3 Pages

Man is Inherently Evil In Lord of the Flies, a novel by William Golding, there are several themes expressed through the boys from the beginning to the end. The main theme conveys that man is inherently evil. This can be understood from most aspects of the book. Golding conveys that man is inherently evil through the boys need to undermine each other and the loss of morality in their decent to chaos. Golding portrays mans evil through the boys' need to undermine others. In the beginning of the book Jack becomes obsessed with hunting the wild pigs that live on the island. “Jack was bent double. He was down like a sprinter, his nose only a few inches from the humid earth … Then dog-like, uncomfortably on all fours yet unheeding his discomfort, …show more content…

When Jack finally voices his abhor for the rules, he starts a downward slope for the rest of the boys to follow. “'Bollocks to the rules! … and beat and beat—!'” (Golding 91). Jack's disregard for the rules here foreshadows him abandoning Ralph's rules altogether and forming his own tribe. When Jack's new tribe finally establishes itself, he abandons many of the morals Ralph had. The boys interaction with the sow demonstrates their loss of morality through Jack's actions. “Jack held up the head and jammed the soft throat down on the pointed end of the stick … a little blood dribbling down the stick” (Golding 136-137). There was a major use of imagery, which helped to set an ominous mood, in Golding's description of the sow's head being mounted for the beast. Jack uses this act to to his advantage, scaring the boys even further into the places of his devoted savage-servants. Simon's death was one of the boys ultimate losses of morality. “At once the crowd surged after it … no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws” (Golding 153). Simon was the main symbol of pure innocence on the island and the boys have destroyed that, taking away any morality that they had. Golding's use of symbolism here shows that the final drop into chaos for all the boys on the island is coming and will happen faster now that they have lost all innocence. Through Jack's disregard for the rules,

Show More
Related

  • Corrupted In Lord Of The Flies, By William Golding

    730 Words  | 3 Pages

    From this quote, it explains to us how one of Ralph's loosely executed rules, are simply treated like nothing. We can see how Ralph tries to carry out his rule but Jack seems to think it doesn't apply to

    Read More

  • How Did Jack Merridew Change In Lord Of The Flies

    1349 Words  | 6 Pages

    He instills fear in the other boys and is now completely different than he was before. Jack is at the most savage and loses all civilization when he participates in the killing of Simon. He tells everyone to dance and then Simon comes in and then they “leapt onto the beast, screamed, struck, bit, and tore.” (153). Allowing someone to be murdered is the worst.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Evil In Lord Of The Flies

    4385 Words  | 18 Pages

    Evil is a part of man 's nature. In Lord of the Flies Golding shows us that this evil must be accepted, not ignored, and we can 't pass the buck to the society or

    Read More

  • How Does Ralph Change In Lord Of The Flies

    967 Words  | 4 Pages

    At the beginning Jack is very agreeing with Ralph and tries to follow the rules to keep the boys civilized. One example is when he takes the takes the boys watching the fire hunting, and the fire goes out, he apologizes to Ralph for letting it go out. But as the story moves along he starts to move away from Ralph and his ideas. When Ralph and Jack are arguing and Ralph brings up the rules he seems appalled.

    Read More

  • How Does Ralph Fail In Lord Of The Flies

    1094 Words  | 5 Pages

    This gets him nowhere among the boys, and he stays a follower. Since the boys are split up, Simon is the only one to believe there is no beast, and he dies attempting to preach there is no beast. Jack’s ruthless hunters attacked him when he was “crying out something about a dead man on a hill” (Golding 152). This shows Simon is a smart guy, but his lackadaisical attitude leads him to his demise, which ends up being his most significant failure, costing him his

    Read More

  • Foreshadowing In Lord Of The Flies, By William Golding

    993 Words  | 4 Pages

    Simon is the only kid on the island who still cares for the littluns by feeding them and making them shelter and a well-rested night's sleep. Even so, not all wonderful experiences can last with Golding, so he decides to play a bit of foreshadowing with Simon’s death with a pig head. When Simon had gotten lost in the woods, he accidentally stumbles across Jack’s sacrifice to “The Beast”, which is a pig’s head on a stick. The Pig head had begun threatening Simon because “we are going to have fun on this island! So don’t try it..”

    Read More

  • Jack's Evilness In Lord Of The Flies

    583 Words  | 3 Pages

    Lastly, Jack is known as the rebel of the story who disagrees with the leaders, and is pure evil from middle to end. Although Jack is evil, his bad character trait ensures his survival and alliance with the boys. The first example of when Jack’s evilness is shown in the story is when Jack hunts the pig and puts its head on a stick, the line says “ Jack held the head up and jammed the soft throat down on the pointed end of the stick which pierced through into the mouth. He stood back and the head hung there, a little blood dribbling down the stick” ( Golding, 150). This shows Jack’s evilness because instead of fearing the beast he is offering him the head of the pig that he just brutally murdered.

    Read More

  • Why Is Jack Merridew Murder In Lord Of The Flies

    913 Words  | 4 Pages

    This action causes the boys to go into a savage frenzy , screaming, yelling, and mass chaos, all because Jack told them to do their dance. Their dance turned into ritual killing where all the boys, including Jack, ruthlessly stabbed and beat Simon repeatedly to death. Jack had caused the mass chaos and if he had never done that, Simon would still be alive and not a corpse at the bottom of the ocean. Jack and his tribe committed murder and only Ralph recognized it for what it was: “that was murder…. I wasn’t

    Read More

  • The Pig's Head In Lord Of The Flies

    431 Words  | 2 Pages

    As the novel develops, the boys are left to their own devices and morals to survive on the island. Golding implies that when this happens, people naturally revert to cruelty, savagery and a human evil that he believes is in everyone. When Jack kills the mother pig, he is in great triumph over outwitting a living thing. This shows that he has become a savage through his time on the island, and his inner evil has taken over him. It also shows that Jack has become more violent over time, as if killing pigs is normal to him.

    Read More

  • How Does Golding Present Human Nature In Lord Of The Flies

    1164 Words  | 5 Pages

    In his 1954 novel, when the boys on the island are left without regulations of society they revert to their savage ways. This is explored through the symbol of the conch and its representation of democratic unity and order. The beast is also a reflection of the boys violent and cruel behaviour and their superstition is their dark nature. The main character Jack is an example of Golding's attempt to confront that all humans are savages when left without civilisation. The barbarity is developed when the boys are left to their own devices and this is discovered and introduced by Golding's work through symbols and characters.

    Read More

  • Evil Is Within Everyone Lord Of The Flies Analysis

    902 Words  | 4 Pages

    However, these boys have been taught right and wrong, and they still do horrible acts because of the evil within them. Although Simon may seem like an outlier because he represents goodness and is a Christ-like figure, he is not born good, he just becomes good out of the knowledge that it is right. When Simon is killed, it is out of pure evil and love of death by Jack and his followers. Besides this, there is no other reason for the boys to kill him. Even seemingly good figures like Ralph and Piggy “Found themselves eager to take a place in this demented but partly secure society” (Golding 152).

    Read More

  • Lord Of The Flies Human Nature

    1057 Words  | 5 Pages

    Jack proposes that he forms his own tribe.. Within this rebel tribe he suggests that they act only as savages. The temptation to hunt won many of the boys over in favor of orderly society as suggested by Ralph. The two groups of boys reach the culmination of the conflict when logic battles savagery; “ ‘Which is

    Read More

  • Human Nature And Evil In William Golding's Lord Of The Flies

    1127 Words  | 5 Pages

    Throughout the novel of Lord of the Flies, William Golding provides a profound insight into human nature. Golding builds on a message that all human beings have natural evil inside them. To emphasize, the innate evil is revealed when there’s lack of civilization. The boys are constantly faced with numerous fears and eventually break up into two different groups. Although the boys believe the beast lives in the jungle, Golding makes it clear that it lurks in their hearts.

    Read More

  • Setting In Lord Of The Flies Essay

    882 Words  | 4 Pages

    This adds to the aggression in jacks tribe. Simon then came out of the woods and Jacks tribe thought he was the beast and they and killed Simon by stabbing him many

    Read More

  • Simon Lord Of The Flies Character Analysis

    268 Words  | 2 Pages

    Simon- Character Analysis Simon’s death made me feel sympathetic towards the boys because not only have they lost a friend, but they have lost the only form of purity and natural goodness in the island. Furthermore, by this point of the novel, the island has been taken over by savagery and pure evil. We see this with acts such as Jack’s boys killing a sow and her piglets out of pure cruelty, as well as the boys’ reenactment of them hunting and killing the beast, resulting to Simon’s death.

    Read More

More about Is Man Inherently Evil In Lord Of The Flies

Open Document