Between the Extremes of Good and Evil
William Golding’s Lord of the Flies and Kahlil Gibran’s “Good And Evil”, from the collection of poems titled The Prophet, express radically different ideas about the inherent nature and presence of good and evil in human beings. Beyond the clear difference between inherent good and evil, Gibran’s viewpoint offers a more thorough look into the gray areas between the two while Golding focuses on the extremes. Throughout Lord of the Flies, William Golding illustrates his belief that humans are innately evil beings. He often references a “beast” on the island - a creature that all the boys fear and aim to kill. Though the boys speak of a real, physical beast, Golding is actually talking about a more theoretical
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However, there is a much greater contrast than the mere good or evil nature presented in these texts. The perspective in “Good and Evil” allows for there to be gray areas in life, where a person is neither good nor evil. In Lord of the Flies, Golding expresses a much more simplistic, black-and-white viewpoint. There is a lot of focus on two extremes: the goodness of society and the evilness of savagery. Near the end of the book, after Jack and his gang have split from the group, Piggy shouts a question at him. He asks, “Which is better - to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill?” (Golding 180). This question has a very obvious answer and is meant to knock some sense into Jack; however, it does not acknowledge an area in between the two options. Of course it is better to have rules and agree, but isn’t hunting important, too? Hunting is necessary on the island; it is a vital source of food. Killing a pig for food was not what led to the boy’s downfall; the problems arose when the boys started to make a game out of it. There are necessary evils, such as killing animals for food, that Piggy does not acknowledge in his question. In “Good and Evil,” Gibran almost exclusively focuses on the area between good and evil. In one of his examples of being neither good nor evil, Gibran writes, “You are good when you walk to your goal firmly and with bold steps / Yet you are not evil when you go thither limping / Even those who limp go not backward” (Gibran 22-24). These lines follow a similar pattern as the “staggering tongue” lines referenced earlier in this essay; both portions of the poem discuss how a person can be various amounts of good. While limping is nowhere near as good as walking firmly with a goal in mind, it is not evil because it still allows for forward
I believe good is intrinsic, while evil is extrinsic. Intrinsic means essential. Extrinsic means not part of the essential nature of someone or something. Everyone is born with a friendly soul but they have the ability to learn to become evil. Some people in life may seem along the lines of evil since they were born.
The true nature of human instincts and evil actions lurk behind the social masks that society forces upon. In William Golding’s fictional novel Lord of the Flies, the author features the alteration of a group of young males who are isolated on a deserted island, projecting their regression from innocent children to killer savages. Golding conveys how effortlessly one's morality can be ripped apart when isolated from civilization which is shown through the savagery and remorse of the group of boys. In chapter 11, the young group of boys dispute on the idea of civilization or savageness being better. Ralph, who stands together with Piggy, fights for the goodness of mankind and believes in orderly conduct as opposed to unlawfulness and killing for fun.
In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, young boys get stranded on an island with no adults in the midst of a war. The boys were orderly and civilized in the beginning but then as they began killing pigs they slowly became savages and lost their civilization. The boys began turning on each other and the evil within them became present. Golding uses a variety of literary devices including personification, symbols, metaphors, and irony, to project the theme that pure and realistic people in the world can be unheard and destroyed by evil.
Instead of an idea or subject viewed as a root cause in destruction and corruption, the Lord of the Flies represents evil within. Golding introduces this sinister being with; “They were black and iridescent green and without number; and in front of Simon, the Lord of the Flies hung on his stick and grinned” (138.Huxley). The Lord of the Flies limits all of the boys to their fear and savagery throughout the novel. The evil in man’s mind
The ¨Stanford Prison Experiment¨ was a breakdown of the morals and rules on how people would act toward one another due to their environment, rather than how they should. The study had created more questions than answers, specifically about the darkness and lack of moral standards that inhabits the human soul. It showed that methodical abuse and denial of human rights is nothing new in prison facilities. The novel Lord of the Flies shows how easily people become dangerous depending on their situation, and how easily humans become savages when there are no definite rules. Lord of the Flies and ¨The Stanford Prison Experiment¨ have many similarities in the way they both show the effects that occur when you lose all moral standards, and lack of rules.
Humans have often disregarded that evil is inherited by nature; humans in the modern day are apparent to doing "good," but overall goodness is controlled by the underlying aspect of order and civilization. The issue of inheriting evil by primal desire is explicitly shown in the novel The Lord of the Flies by William Golding. The novel uses the characters as vessels to express his idea. In the novel "Lord of The Flies" by William Golding, he , who expresses the idea that man's inheritance is evil by showing that humans are savages by nature and are moved by survival, turning to selfishness, brutality and dominance. Golding shows significantly how man's instinct for brutality and immorality instigates evil.
Thesis Statement: In Lord of the Flies William Golding throughout the book is trying to show you that society should recognize man is evil. Introduction Paragraph: In the book Lord of the Flies the author William Golding shows a group of boys losing their innocence throughout their life stuck on this inhabited island in the pacific ocean. These boys go from being quiet and shy to violent and dangerous young little boys. Golding uses the pigs, hunting, and the boys face painting to show their lose of innocence throughout the story. There 's no rules of any sort on this island these boys landed on they are free to do whatever they want whenever they want.
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.
Even though Simon warns them about the evil inside them, their actions still reflect their inherently bad human nature. As the time on the island goes by, the boys kill Simon and Piggy, along with a mother pig, and a well-timed rescue is all that prevents Ralph’s death. Even if people can act good, there is still greed, selfishness, and evil within everyone. It is only through the influence of civil society that the worst of human nature is kept in
Everyone will face evil at some point in their lives, but the way the evil is embraced or deflected will differ among every man. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, symbolism is used to communicate the theme of Understanding the Inhumanity/Inherent Evil of Man as represented through the double ended spear, the fire, and the Lord of the Flies. The spear represents the evil inside of humankind and the perception that killing and hurting each other out of anger is acceptable. Fire symbolizes the evil act of stealing to achieve a human wants. Lastly, the Lord of the Flies symbolizes the Inherent Evil of Man through demonstrating that a boy understood that the evil is within them instead of around them, and is not something that could be killed
Good vs. evil. Reason vs. instinct. Civilization vs. savagery. These are all examples of internal battles that occur within oneself and which can lead to horrifying consequences. In William Golding’s, Lord of the Flies, a group of young boys find themselves stranded on an island, after a plane crash.
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
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,
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.
William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies does not simply describe the life of a group of children stranded on an island, but rather it is a representation of the qualities of human nature. As the novel progresses, the children grow deeper into savagery, performing actions that would be often criticised in society. The absence of law and order devolves even those that attempt to recreate it, like Ralph and Piggy. In this novel, Golding uses children to answer the question whether or not humans are born inanimately good or truly evil. Golding answers this question by symbolising the main characters and their descent into savagery.