Preview

Innate Evil in Lord of The FLies

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1034 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Innate Evil in Lord of The FLies
James Oliver Curwood once said, “In every man’s heart there is a devil, but we do not know the man is bad until the devil is roused.” In Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, a group of schoolboys are stranded on an island after their plane crashes. Ralph becomes the leader of the boys and tries to maintain civilization on the island. In order to maintain a civilization there must be authority, hope, and intelligence. On the island, these aspects begin to break down and disintegrate quickly when human nature takes over causing civilization to fail. Consequently, many of the boys become savages and fight amongst themselves. The Lord of the Flies implies that all humans are born evil, but clearly not everyone acts in an evil manner. Golding suggests that the laws and norms of society restrain humans’ innate evil, and, if these laws are not reinforced, then man’s evil nature emerges. Throughout the book, the conch and signal fire become important symbols and help maintain civilization on the island. Initially, Ralph and Piggy find a conch shell on the beach. Whenever Ralph blows the conch, all of the boys gather together and hold a meeting in a civilized manner. Ralph implements a rule stating the holder of the conch is the only one that can speak. The conch represents democracy and authority because during these meetings, the boys gather and talk in an organized way by listening to other people’s ideas and deciding on priorities. When Ralph blows into the conch to call a meeting, the boys “[obey] the summons of the conch, partly because Ralph [blows] it, and he [is] big enough to be a link between the adult world of authority” (59). This shows how the conch effectively governs the boy's meeting and they obey it because they recognize that the holder of the conch has authority. Secondly, the signal fire becomes an important symbol of hope. It provides a bridge back to society, the outside world, and rescue because if a nearby ship sees the fire, it will come to the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    The conch perhaps is one of the most important symbols in the story. It is referred to many times in the story. It is first used when Piggy spots it and tell Ralph to blow it. It signaled the boys and they started to flood the beach and over to Ralph. Right away they establish a rule with it. Only the person with it can talk, right then and there it symbolizes the power of the conch. Just like in society there are rules, and if the group has rules it with keep their ties to society. The conch symbolizes law, order, and power. Whoever has the conch is in power, it keeps the boys somewhat civilized and it has rules.…

    • 380 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The author of Lord of the flies, William Golding, uses literary elements such as characterization to support his argument that man’s capacity for evil is revealed in his human nature. Golding uses his main characters- Jack and Ralph- as examples of inner evil. Jack is shown as unjust, mean and self-involved when “[he] took a step and…stuck his fist into Piggy’s stomach” (Golding 71). Additionally, Golding describes Jack as asticious, inimical, and down-right terrible.…

    • 74 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    We think of a person that is evil to be bad, although without the presences of a higher figure or rule are people naturally good or naturally evil? What would happen to a people or person that was in a situation where all forms of authority were removed. Would such person remain the way they are, or would they become savage and completely forget what it’s like when there are restrictions. In the book The Lord of The Flies, the author takes the side that people are naturally evil. In a nutshell, the book is about a group of boy’s crash landing on an island and trying to survive until they are able to be saved. As time progresses there is a clear change in the boy's actions. They become more savage like as if they were animals, the boys had completely forgotten about what it meant to be human or civil. The author is showing what he thinks would happen to kids without a figure of power or rules. Without the presences of a higher figure or rules. people are naturally evil, as time goes on in the story…

    • 868 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The conch is a symbol that builds up civilization on the island, law and order. At the beginning, when Ralph found the conch on the beach shore, he blew it. This call, ordered all the boys to the beach shore. The conch governs the boys’ meetings; establishing the rule of the right to speak when holding the conch, which worked well in the beginning. However, after the fire had been let out by the hunters, they started to disrespect the conch and what it stood for. This was the beginning of the decrease in power of the conch, which now represents the savagery on the island, then eventually ending it when Roger rolls the boulder on Piggy who was also clutching the conch. This was also the beginning of the end of Ralph.…

    • 533 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    First off, the conch becomes a symbol of authority as well as law and order when Ralph and Piggy find it shortly after crash landing on the island. “Where’s the man with the trumpet?” (20) supports my theory of the conch being a symbol of authority. When others first hear the conch they believe that it is a trumpet and it is a “man” and not a “boy” who is in possession of the source. This shows that the conch is a sign of sovereignty. The conch is used to call assemblies and only the person holding it is allowed to speak. The boys have imposed this “rule of the conch” on themselves, and thus the conch represents society’s rules, politics, and speech or in shorter terms, law and order. When the conch shatters into pieces, anarchy takes over because any hope of strong, central leadership is destroyed.…

    • 782 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The first of the two major symbols that will represent this conflict is the conch shell. In the book it says, ["S'right. It's a shell! I seen one like that before. On someone's back wall. A conch he called it. He used to blow it and then his mum would come. It's ever so valuable –" (Golding 15)."] The boys grew familiar to the lifestyle of structure and laws set forth by their parents, so when they crashed on the island, Ralph attempted to try and create a similar lifestyle when Piggy and Ralph both finds the conch shell in the water. Ralph uses the advice of Piggy and attempts to use the conch to call the boys for meetings and for right of passage to speak. The conch symbolizes comfort, in the sense that for the younger children that they do not get scared. Rather, the conch helps them stay with what they know, discipline and innocence. The…

    • 699 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lord of the flies

    • 1176 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Golding uses the conch the boys find in the beginning of the story as a symbol for order. When Ralph wakes up, he finds a boy named Piggy. Then, they both find a shell called a conch. Piggy tells Ralph how to blow into it. '"We can use this to call the others. They'll come when they hear us-"' (16). Ralph spat into the conch and called the first meeting the boys have ever had. They made a rule that only the person who is holding the conch can talk. The conch became one of the most important things on the island. "Hands where reaching for the conch in the light of the setting sun" (81). The boys where very civil at the time and even though they would not get in trouble if they disobeyed, they felt as if it was necessary. As time passed the boys began to forget the rules and become more and more savage like. '"Conch! Conch!' shouted Jack. 'We don't need the conch anymore…'" (101-102). Jack is the boy who influences the others to forget the rules. This causes a lot of trouble upon the island. Jack forms his own tribe and most of the boys follow him to Castle Rock. By the end of the book, nobody cares about the conch. "…the conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist" (181). At this point of the book, the boys in Jack's tribe are completely savage. Golding uses a conch as…

    • 1176 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In 1954 William Golding wrote The Lord of the Flies, a book depicting a group of young boys surviving alone on a pacific island. The books shows the slow decline of the boy’s sanity and depicts the true evil lurking deep within man. Since its introduction the book has sparked many discussions about man’s true nature. I believe that humans are naturally evil because they discriminate against those different to them and people are ultimately selfish.…

    • 635 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lord of the Flies

    • 502 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The conch is symbolic of the descent of social order between the boys. The conch is a shell that is capable of making a loud, attention grabbing noise, Piggy describes this noise by saying it “moo-ed like a cow”. It symbolizes order between the boys and was used to call attention. When ralph used the conch to call the other boys for a meeting, it gave him a sense of leadership and then granted Ralph the title of chief. The symbolization of the conch was first demonstrated through the calling of the meeting. The first thing the boys learned on that island was that when they hear the conch, they find or pay attention to whoever is blowing it. They knew to respect whoever had the conch, whether that person was simply presenting an idea to the group, or calling a meeting. The conch then transition into a talking stick, meaning who ever has it, has the right of every ones respect. The boys however take advantage of this, and the conch is passed around and fought for so much that it starts to lose its symbol of power. From pages 194- 195, ralph has to announce three times that he is calling an assembly, yet no one comes to him. This shows the conch has sure lost its power, symbolizing the boys have also sure lost their instincts and morals. They no longer have social order or any sort of hierarchy. When piggy dies, any civilization and order left on the island dies too. Piggy was the symbol of law and order of the adult world; he was the superego, the part of a man’s personality which attempts to act accordingly to an absolute set of standards.…

    • 502 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The destruction that occurs on the island is due to the natural instinct of humans to destroy and tear down one another. In Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies Golding uses three major symbols, the conch shell, fire, and the beast support his theme that mankind is evil. The conch represents the order in humanity until it brakes and all hope is lost. The fire represents the hope to be saved yet in the end it only destroys. Lastly, the beast represented the fear of the unknown and is the origin of violence throughout the novel. The three symbols show the humans natural instinct to overrule and destroy one another no matter how young. The boys on the island suffer through the loss of innocence that they come to the island with and by the end of…

    • 1392 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    lord of the flies

    • 544 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The conch is a symbol of order, power, and democracy. The con’s power is shown early on because “one had to sit attracting all eyes to the conch, and drop.”(Golding 23) One had to do this because they made it a rule that if you had the conch you can say what you have to say and no one could say anything until they had the conch. This quote shows how much power the conch has when someone had it. Also this quote shows order because when someone has it everyone had to stop doing what they were doing and pay attention to whomever has the conch. In the second part of the novel the conch is still a symbol of order, power, and democracy because when piggy dies and the conch breaks Ralph said, “see? See? That’s what you’ll get! I meant that! There isn’t a tribe for anyone anymore: the conch is gone.”(Golding 181) This shows that the boys are now noticing that their only way of having authority that they used on the island is now gone.…

    • 544 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Prompt: What is evil and where does it come from? Support your answer with Lord of the Flies and your own example. Two direct quotes needed: one for each body paragraph about Lord of the Flies.…

    • 677 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Through the symbol of the conch, the importance of stability, order, and civilization are established. When the boys first arrived on the island the conch was used to summon and unite the boys in order to form a civilization. The conch also serves as a regulator of democracy, " We'll have to have hands up, like at school… then I'll give them the conch [to speak]" (Golding 31) said Ralph. This universal understanding that everyone would follow and respect the rules of the conch allowed every individual to speak his mind and to be a functioning member of society. However, as time progressed the mutual respect for authority and the power of the conch began to diminish. The assembly began to disrespect the whoever held the conch. As a result, the rules of their society began to become unstable. "As Piggy stood on the platform, the white conch gripped in his hands…" (141), the conch that was once vibrant in color and importance, was now faded and irrelevant. As the walls of civilized society crumbled, the boys gave into their animal desires and disregarded the only element of order apparent on the island. The symbol of order and civilization continued to lose its value as Jack mocked its importance. "The sound of the inexpertly blown conch interrupted them. As though he were serenading the…

    • 873 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout literature we have seen different characters struggling with their inner evil. That inner evil can be brought out by a trigger incident or environment which drastically affects a character’s nature. In the Lord of the Flies, being marooned on the island brings out the evil and savage side in the children. It is shown through their disregard for social norms, merciless killings, and lastly turning on each other. In Lord of the Flies, the boys let out their inner beasts by showing no regard for social norms, remorseless killings and turning on each other.…

    • 1441 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Inside each and every human being lies evilness, it is the one fatal flaw that no one can escape. Besides each human being also lies some sort of fear but unfortunately fear and evil never mix well. In the novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding shows the creation of evil is created through fear at night time. Fear of what lies in the dark is the driving point to the boys becoming savages and creating evil. Jack uses this evil to control the boys, using their fear against them. At the savages party they harm and kill Simon out of fear of the evilness of the beast, not knowing that the true evil on the island is themselves and above all Jack. Specifically in the novel , it shows the evilness when it says , “Simon was crying out something about...At once the crowd surged after it, poured down…

    • 454 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays