Personality In William Golding's Lord Of The Flies

The novel the ‘Lord of the Flies’, by William Golding has a main theme that touches on the human condition – ‘the struggle between civilisation and savagery’. Golding advances in his writing techniques, showing symbolism and characterisation throughout. Golding chose to create a ‘Beast’ that would soon cause an emotional ‘rip’ between the boys. This beast is a symbol for the evil and the malice that resides within the children. Characterisation is shown with Ralph displaying different concepts like leadership and order, Piggy, intelligence and reason, Simon kindness and Jack, savagery.

A man’s evil is mostly similar to a bee’s love of producing honey (“Sir William Golding”). To go deeper evil is in all of us, we were born evil and learned how to be good. According to the Biography Channel, Golding is stated as saying, “ ‘I began to see what people were capable of doing’ ”(“Sir William Golding”). In the novel a character named Ralph was a good child but when Jack the leader of the savage pack takes him to go hunting for pigs, Ralph starts to brag about how he stabbed the pig and cut his throat (“Golding 113). Golding’s views on human nature is very deep but it influenced the theme of the novel.

But Simon intended to inform the boys of the imaginary beast as only being the instinctual savagery that exists within every human being. Throughout the novel, the boys’ believe in the beast grows stronger simultaneously with them growing more savage. The boys never get to know of Simons realizations. Earlier in the novel, the hunters spear a pigs head as sacrifice to the beast. Simon ends up having an imaginary dialogue with the pig head.

Another example would be Simon’s encounter with the Lord of the Flies, and his realization that the beast is the darkness corrupting the boys souls. The paint masks that the boys wear are also what released the darkness within the boys and let it control them. Therefore throughout the entirety of the novel, William Golding has shown multiple examples, to prove that evil is intrinsic to humans and how easily consume a person. The awakening of Jack Merridew’s intrinsic evil, is the cause of his bloodlust and obsession to hunt. Jack’s lust for the hunt first started when he had failed to kill a pig during the island expedition, and after the pig ran away, out of anger, Jack stated fiercely that “next time there would

Creon’s overall power grants him his free will. He says, “I know. You point the horns of my dilemma. It's hard to eat my words, but harder still to court catastrophe through overriding pride.” (240). Creon tells the Leader that even though Tiresias has shown the truth of his actions, he cannot admit them or change them because he has no power left, no free will.

“An irrational society is a society of moral cowards – of men paralyzed by the loss of moral standards, principles, and goals” (86) says Rand, and I feel that too far have the men in the society sunk away from moral standards, like putting their knowledge to use and expanding it, simply because they do not believe in judging others for fear of what others may see in them, especially Equality since he always abides by the strict standards with fear of the civilization itself. Equality would certainly agree with Rand’s advice, “One must never fail to pronounce moral judgement”, as Equality did by leaving the controlled society that brainwashed

Simon, being one of the wiset boys, said, “Maybe there is a beast...maybe it’s only us…” (Chapter 5, page 80). Some boys believe that there is a wild beast roaming about and others think that it is nonsense. The boys are beginning to split up and divide themselves over the thought of a silly creature when in reality, they should be packing together. A dead parachutist lands on the island, stuck in the rocks and trees and the boys mistake it for the beast. The boys have officially decided that continuing hunting on the island is better than trying to get off the island which makes Ralph very angry.

His group goes as far as killing Piggy. The killing of Piggy declares an end to civilization on this island, where savagery takes over, and the evil internal conscience has consumed the good within them. In the beginning, the boys sought to work together to make a just society, a society where they could add knowledge that they have gained from their previous culture. Violence starts to take place when Jack and his hunters take on the job of hunting for food. The society built off of civilization starts to fall apart when jack starts his own group, which leads him to inflict pain on others.

“I was just waiting for a moment to decide where to stab him.” (Golding 31). Jack was not yet accustomed to killing so the thought of stabbing a living being scared him. The author is showing that the boys were still innocent because they were new to the island and learning how to stay alive. Also at this point in story the boys have not succumbed to the madness of the island. Jack had spent a long time hunting the pig and was ecstatic when he finally killed it.

This quote suggests that Simon's character is passionate and understands the building tension and the boys' anger, but is set apart from it, preferring to show compassion to Piggy when Simon picks up his glasses for him. Another example of when Simon demonstrates empathy to others is on page 74, when Jack uses the pig meat as a way to manipulate the boys and gain power. At first, Jack deprives Piggy of meat because he sees him as a

He then holds a grudge on Ralph for acquiring the position of chief, leading to an unhealthy relationship between him and Ralph. Similarly, the crave for power and domination over others can result in the downfall of relationships. After Jack attempts to overthrow Ralph out of his chief status and fails, “I’m not going to be a part of Ralph’s lot-…. I’m going off by myself” (Golding 127). Since Jack’s craving for dominance over others cannot be fulfilled, Jack acts in an immature manner by walking away from everyone who he deems to be disloyal to him.

Backwards possessed control over the delegation he sits on. But now we see, there are finally fractures in his once stalwart faction. I must confess that I am grateful that we are finally free from tyranny, and that he is exposed for what he truly is. He cares not for this convention nor the work we do, and would like nothing more than to witness it’s destruction. That is not to say, however, that Mr. Backwards cares for nothing at all, as I have stated before, he cares much for himself and his drink!

It’s as if everyone has a ticking time bomb of malevolence that is kept in check by our moral values and societal standards. When not kept in check, however, individuals with the tendency to act on said malevolence will slowly find the beast inside themselves surfacing. The dark part of every being can be instigated when provocative circumstances deem it so, and when encouraged by a group. We find comfort in numbers, and we tend to do things we wouldn’t normally find ourselves doing simply for the sake of the togetherness. Simon is killed through this very premise, when he stumbles upon the tribal dance of Jack’s hunters.

Spill his blood!’” (168) Jack’s tribe, overcome by their inner savagery, without thinking kill Simon thinking he’s the beast, this shows that the boys on the island have lost the part of civilization inside them. Piggy 's murder was also unjustified but also done with intent, “Piggy fell forty feet and landed on his back across that square, red rock in the sea. His head open and stuff came out and turned red, piggy’s arms and legs twitched a bit, like a pig who had just been killed.”(201) This death is different than the other one, in that they were fully aware of what they were doing and killed piggy anyway with no remorse. Inhabiting the island for the amount of time the boys have been there has caused the boys to revert to savages who resort to

Hitler “rounded up” and “systematically slaughtered” millions of people because it was something he didn’t even have to think about, he just did it. Likewise, Jack doesn’t think twice about going out to hunt and murder Ralph. However, Jack Merridew changes the once democratic society on the island to a dictatorship lifestyle. During one of their meetings, Jack decides that the conch is useless and they are better off without it. He shouts “‘Conch!