Billy Wang – Grade 11
Ms. Petula Wang
English Literature
December 2019
Wordcounts: 970
Is Humanity Evil in Lord of the Flies
Lord of the Flies is an engaging Allegory in literature history. Its author Golding wrote this novel based on his service in the Navy and the experimental science. By setting the plot on an isolated island, the story started from an air crash. Although the story takes place among a group of boys, the main idea of this book is a little scary and uncomfortable. That is humanity, or we can call it human nature. In this book, through the detailed descriptions and Golding’s magic imagination, the story develops from happiness to depression, as he used to do. As the storyline pushes, the dark side of humanity exposes gradually. Hence this book report will focus on humanity which is mentioned in this Lord of the Flies indirectly, revealing the dark side of human nature. The saddest point is that this group of boys is doing something correct assumed by themselves but is improper in the world which involving adults, and no one can tell them. Humanity is evil and dark.
There is no adult on that island. The group of boys always asked whether there are grownups or not. When they ensure that they are the only people on that island, they wish they could live on, waiting to be rescued. It is a single island with no adult, they can do whatever they want. However, I will regard this as the start of their barbarity.
In fact, at the very beginning, Ralph showed his barbarity which is inside his innocence. “He dived in the sand at Piggy’s feet and lay there laughing. ‘Piggy!’” (7) Piggy chooses to trust Ralph and tells him his funny name. Nevertheless, on the contrary, Ralph mocks his name relentlessly. In the real world, we can surely assume that this kid is so innocent, but here is a place where hardly have connections with others. Each subtle behavior will alter someone’s mentality, changing his mind little by little. Luis Fernando Gomez R. believed that “his innocence is remarked as he plays around the island without pondering about the real harmful consequences of being trapped at an isolated place.” As I mentioned before, this is a relatively isolated island, it is no longer a civil world based on human law and morality. Because of this, no one can tell them whether it is true or not even though the thing they are willing to do is negligible. Indeed, any reckless action with no warning is dangerous while it is done by infants, distorting infants’ cognitions. Unfortunately, it is such kind of circumstance that incites boys on the island to show the dark side. For instance, there is one spot that readers will always overlook.
“Piggy and Ralph, under the threat of the sky, found themselves eager to take a place in this demented but partly secure society…and made it governable.” (212) From this, we can infer that Ralph and Piggy join the dance and kill Simon with other boys. In the novel, the writer does not spend more paint depicting it. But the fighter of democracy, the one who holds the conch, the leader who stands for rationality, and the guy who keeps the fire from going out to maintain the chance of being rescued, Ralph, he also has the dark side. At that night, he and Piggy just want to get their fire, calling them back and ensuring that they still have the opportunity to live. But he killed Simon with other boys. Ralph’s divine action exposes his track of bestiality. Under the stimulation of the savages, Jack’s group of boys, Ralph and Piggy cannot take control of their mind and show the primitive bestiality around the boys. “Gold says that every man is part savage.” This can illustrate that no matter how well a person is educated, there is still something that no one can change, like humanity. it roots deeply inside that person’s heart. Normally, he will not let this seedling grow, but sometimes.
Even though this book is fulfilled with barbarity, there is also something different. Jack, represents tyranny and brutalization, speeds up the process of falling apart of the group. But Ralph, who firmly keeps the democracy, begins to show his weakness under the anarchy. Jack’s hostility toward Ralph is endless. Their antagonistic relation, unconsciously, is the epitome of politics of the modern world. Dictatorship versus democracy, in an isolated world, dictatorship holds all the aces because at that time, people eager to follow the one who orders them directly and defend their property or interest, which is more powerful than democracy. Gulbin illustrated that “Golding seems to feel that the success or failure of any government depends on the relative leadership strength or weakness of the individual or individuals who head it.” That is also the fragile side of humanity. Democracy has nothing to do with a dictatorship under such a frightening situation, and it is the most low-efficient way to make decisions. Dictatorship, a reflection of barbarity, dominates boys’ mentality and push them to approach the edge of the cliff. In other words, it is the evil humanity that drives them to emerge a dictatorship, and no one tells them whether it is correct.
Humanity is evil, just like the serpent in the Garden of the Eden, causing people to break rules do something improper even severely wrong. No matter how friendly he or she looks like, the evil humanity remains. As divine as Ralph is, however, the dark side never leaves him. More importantly, doing what someone should not do but he does not realize it is the biggest sadness of humanity. Golding reveals the truth of human nature boldly and criticizes the politics sharply, which means that humanity is always evil. It is hard to say Lord of the Flies is not a good artifact.
Works cited
Luis Fernando Gomez R. “Lord of The Flies: The Innate Evil of Man” 2001 http://biblioteca.clacso.edu.ar/gsdl/cgi-bin/library.cgi?e=d-11000-00—off-0co%2FcoZz-014–00-1—-0-10-0—0—0direct-10—4——-0-0l–11-es-Zz-1—20-about—00-3-1-00-0–4—-0-0-01-00-0utfZz-8-00&a=d&c=co/co-014&cl=CL1.3&d=HASH013ceb998f668a44291e6df3.9
Gulbin. “Parallels and Contrasts in Lord of the Flies and Animal Farm” 2 May 2016
