The Island of Human Nature
When Lord of the Flies was first released, William Golding described the novel's theme in a publicity questionnaire as "an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature." (Kennard) Since the island is a microcosm, Golding uses it to reflect our world and give comments on it and his view of human nature. In the novel a group of children are stranded on an island when their plane crashes. The freedom of having no parents while living in a society that does not enforce rules and laws are eliminated. In this novel William Golding uses the objects, characters, and setting show that what happened in the story is just not a story; they help prove the author’s belief that humankind is savage. Each character signifies an important idea or theme from our world, and the statement he makes about human nature is that mankind will turn savage for supremacy.
As the novel is an allegory, each character is symbolized clearly as someone in our society. “Piggy could think. He could go step by step inside that fat head of his, only Piggy was no chief. But Piggy, for all his ludicrous body, had brains (Golding, 71).” Piggy is the scientific and intellectual aspect of society. He is a thinker, philosopher and someone who always advises for good. Similarities to Albert Einstein can also be seen in Piggy, because people did not care that he thought the atomic bomb was a bad weapon just like no one cared about what Piggy said or did.
Another main character, Ralph, is like Franklin Roosevelt, who could not stop World War Two from breaking out. He signifies the confused that are always uncertain in the recognition between good and evil:
The failure of the island society comes about because of an innate tendency towards violence in the boys. Golding is, then, in opposition to the romantic notion of noble primitives knowing the distinction between good and evil. Human beings are not innately innocent, so human progress is unlikely. (Kennard)
When the kids on
As the novel is an allegory, each character is symbolized clearly as someone in our society. “Piggy could think. He could go step by step inside that fat head of his, only Piggy was no chief. But Piggy, for all his ludicrous body, had brains (Golding, 71).” Piggy is the scientific and intellectual aspect of society. He is a thinker, philosopher and someone who always advises for good. Similarities to Albert Einstein can also be seen in Piggy, because people did not care that he thought the atomic bomb was a bad weapon just like no one cared about what Piggy said or did.
Another main character, Ralph, is like Franklin Roosevelt, who could not stop World War Two from breaking out. He signifies the confused that are always uncertain in the recognition between good and evil:
The failure of the island society comes about because of an innate tendency towards violence in the boys. Golding is, then, in opposition to the romantic notion of noble primitives knowing the distinction between good and evil. Human beings are not innately innocent, so human progress is unlikely. (Kennard)
When the kids on