Lord of the Flies (Men are inherently evil)

“Man produces evil as a bee produces honey” was a remark that was made by William Golding after his experience serving in the second world war. Lord of the Flies is a symbolic novel of his experience and this quote was his way of showing that all men were evil; it was as natural for a human to be evil as it was for a bee to produce honey. However, despite being within a bee’s natural instinct to produce honey, it isn’t within a human’s natural instinct to be evil. It is shown in Golding’s novel that society influences one’s morality. Lord of the Flies also shows that humans are self-serving, looking out for themselves and that sometimes it is necessary to be corrupt to survive. We also see that it is within a humans’ instinct to follow a leader whether they are moral or immoral.

Lord of the Flies demonstrates that one’s morality is influenced by the society they are in. John Locke, an English philosopher, believed that humans were born clean and pure, but it was society that influenced the evil inside them. This is evident in Golding’s novel as even the most ‘evil’ character, Jack, has shown signs of being moral. In the second chapter, when he comes back from discovering that they were on an island, he states, “‘We've got to have rules and obey them.”’ The author uses irony to compare the difference of Jack’s behaviour from the start of the novel to the end. However, perhaps we see Jack as the most corrupt character because he was the first to realise that in order to survive, he would need to be more sadistic, more savage. It is obvious from then on that he tries not to show compassion, innocence or kindness. At times, he does not succeed. An example of this is on page fifty-five when Jack says, “You can feel…you’re not hunting, but- being hunted.” This quote shows Jack’s uncertainty, and he explains that you have to be animal-like to survive and live as long as you can in a society without rules and laws, something Locke thought was absolutely necessary