Man’s Evil Unleashed

The root of evil comes from man’s inner desire to dominate and completely control a situation. Those who do not know how to use power correctly often are found abusing and hurting others. Evil exists within every human, just some are capable of resisting the temptation to hurt weaker beings. Unlike the strong willed and internally good, those who give into their inner most desires lose control until all that is left is evil. Within William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, many different paths to man’s inner desire are taken and explored by the characters. Such characters as Ralph, Roger, and Simon all depict the ways in which evil can invest a person’s soul and how evil can be fought within someone truly good. Through the literary criticisms of Chris Schultz and Christopher Dentel, the relationship between man and his inner self is explored and psychologically analyzed to depict how evil manifests itself in many forms. Although one would believe that the root to moral decay and degeneracy is due to a lack of a formal central government in Lord of the Flies, the freedom only enabled the evil within man to reveal itself. Evil harbors itself within man deep inside for some, and on the surface for others. The desire to control and have power over creatures and things that are inferior to one come from within; not from the act of a few in government leading a group astray from the path of righteousness. According to Christopher Dentel, Roger is seen as a common and obvious evil within Golding’s novel; he is someone that takes “sadistic pleasure in the pain and torment of others.” Roger reveals his desire to exert authority over as many things as possible when he approaches the captives Sam and Eric with a fabricated and delirious power about him. Golding casts this young boy as the obvious evil and is symbolic of the most malicious end of the spectrum. Roger rarely acts upon anything with good intentions; only to be completely led astray from the path of good

Cited: Dentel, Christopher. "Literary Analysis: Symbolism in Lord of the Flies, by William Golding.” 30 April 2007. Web. 29 Apr. 2012 http://www.helium.com/items/827907-literary- analysis-symbolism-in-lord-of-the-flies-by-william-golding?page=2>. This source enabled me to sort out the different symbolic meanings of the characters within the novel and further explained the evil that exists within man. Schultz, Chris. "Literary Analysis: Symbolism in Lord of the Flies, by William Golding." 29 Jan. 2008. Web. 29 Apr. 2012. .This source enabled me to find symbolic criticism that list the sources of evil within Golding 's work and fully explains the reasoning behind using the symbols.