“Inside each individual there is the seed of both good and evil. It’s a constant struggle as to which one will win. And one cannot exist without the other.” This quote by Eric Burdon epitomizes the main idea of Lord of the flies by William Golding, that mankind possesses the quality of dualistic natures but these sides can have a good or negative impact on society. The book, Lord of The Flies, is about the pack of British school boys are stranded on a deserted island. At first, without any adults to supervise them, they have the freedom to do anything they want. But later on, their inner savagery overtakes them, causing massive chaos in the island. As in Lord of the Flies, Golding uses the characterization of Ralph and Adults, and the symbol of fire in order to show mankind possess good and evil quality, in which evil overtakes each individual, causing the destruction of society.
In Lord of the flies, through the characterization of Ralph, Golding creates a feeling of dual quality, that his dedication to the society and his inner savagery that causes destruction of mankind. When Ralph was building shelters for the boys, he gets disturb by jack. Jack was saying that we should have fun, but Ralph was stuck on his idea for the better society. He says “ And I work all day with nothing but Simon” (54). In this quote, Ralph is described as a dedicated to his work even though he doesn’t have lot of support from others. The phrase “ work all day” symbolizes the support for the better society and steadfastness of civilization, it shows the positive side of Ralph and that he is civilized. On the other hand, when Ralph was trying to join the evil dance, which resulted in Simon’s death, Golding says “They were glad to touch the brown backs of fence, that hemmed in the terror and made it governable”(152). Ralph was happy to join the brown backs of fence, which refers to the group of naked boys who were ready to start their cruel evil dance,