Evil In Lord Of The Flies, By William Golding

Evil is a quality that everyone possesses in some form, whether known or not, that manifests itself in various ways. After crash landing on an island, Ralph, and the rest of the children, have to learn to work together in order to survive and return home. In doing so they form a society which soon becomes dominated by a fear of ‘the beast’. This beast symbolizes the fear and evil within all of the children on the island, showing itself through many different forms. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses the idea of the beast in order to show how each character has fear and evil within themselves, and by doing so he is able to show that the characters themselves are evil, which he uses to show that humanity itself is innately evil. Out of all the boys on the island, Simon seems to be the most level headed when it comes to the beast. He is able to rationalize the idea of the beast and understands that the beast is a symbol for the evil not only within each boy, but the evil within mankind itself. He expresses his belief by saying, “‘there is a beast… maybe it’s only us’” (Golding 89). When Simon looks at the other boys on the island he can see that the fear of the beast is present in each of them in one form or
Simon is able to rationalize the idea of the beast and sees it as the fear and evil within humanity itself. For Ralph the fear of not getting rescued is represented by the beast and is ever present within him which in turn causes him to be in constant turmoil. Jack internalizes the beast and as a result becomes consumed with evil and the desire to kill. While the beast can be seen as something to be feared due to the fact that it represents the fear and evil within everyone, it can also be viewed as a basis for what needs to be fixed and what each person needs to