Human Nature In Lord Of The Flies Analysis

Aristotle once said, “Man, when perfected, is the best of animals, but, when separated from law and justice, he is the worst.” The author of Lord of the Flies, William Golding, has a viewpoint on human nature complementary to Aristotle’s. William Golding’s perspective of human nature that humans removed from the constraints of society will be drawn from civilization to savagery and brutality, is developed by the boys’ declining morals, the increase in brutality, and the recurrence of the beast. The boys’ morals deconstruct throughout the progression of the novel, as they become savage and impulsive. At first, it seems that the boys will have everything under control. "We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages" (Golding
In the beginning, their brutality is the normal teasing without physical harm. “Roger stooped, picked up a stone, aimed, and threw it at Henry— threw it to miss...Roger’s arm was conditioned by a civilization” (Golding 62). Roger throws stones at Henry, indicating his brutality, but he throws to miss because civilization’s restraints have not abandoned him yet. As the novel progresses, the boys begin to bring physical harm towards one another. ‘“He’s going to beat Wilfred.” “What for?”... “I don't know.”’ (Golding 159). The boys brutality has increased to the point that they do not know why they are hurting each other because as Golding believes, the boys are becoming savage and brutal do to the fact that they have been separated from civilization. The boys’ brutality towards the end of the novel reaches the max; they begin to kill each other. “Roger, with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever,.. the rock struck Piggy a glancing blow from chin to knee” (Golding 180-181). Roger’s brutality has evolved from throwing stones to miss into rolling boulders with the intention to kill. The boys’ brutality was escalating quickly throughout the novel as though they were transforming into
The boys know this towards the end of the novel and one boy, Ralph, even accuses the other, Jack, of being a “beast and a swine and a bloody, bloody thief!” (Golding 179). Ralph knows that Jack is full of evil, and he references him as a beast, which they conceive to be savage and brutal. When mentions of the beast first begin surfacing, one boy, Simon, does not believe that there could be a beast on the island, and he concludes that it is all inside of their heads. “maybe there is a beast… maybe it’s only us” (Golding 89). Simon’s belief that the beast exists only inside of them is controversial to the boys, and they choose not to acknowledge this notion, rather they attempt to come up with a more “logical” solution. Somewhere towards the middle of the novel, Simon meets the Lord of the Flies, symbolized by a sow’s head on a stick, who reveals the truth about their existence on the island. ‘“Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!” said the head...“You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? ... I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are what they are?”’ (Golding 143). The Lord of the Flies confirmed our belief, and Golding’s belief, that the beast dwells inside all of the boys, and they are the cause of their own predicament. With these examples, Golding is concluding his view that we all have a beast inside of