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What Is Golding's View Of Human Nature

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What Is Golding's View Of Human Nature
“Everyone may not be good, but there’s always something good in everyone. Never judge anyone shortly because every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.” (Oscar Wilde, 2012) Golding’s depiction of human nature suggests that “civilized behaviour is an acquired state rather than a quality that exists within all human beings.” Unfortunately, I have to object to his belief about the savage nature of humanity. This worldview has challenged me to view both myself and the world surrounding me to realise that every human being is unique, but we all have one thing in common, no matter how incredibly bad mannered we are, even if we’ve done things that are so injudicious, people are able to do beneficial things, regardless of what they have …show more content…
Throughout the novel, the major theme the book explores is that humans are downright evil. This is shown when the boys start making a society but it soon gets destroyed when the boys turn against each other and are ruled over by fear and violence. The author has a belief that this world is as bad as it could be and that evil will eventually rule over good. His pessimistic view of human nature is understandable yet biased as he wrote the novel after World War 2 where severe events have taken place. Obviously in a time of war our view on society changes to negative thoughts which gives us no hope to see the goodness in people. If one guy kills a man it doesn’t automatically mean we’re all bad. If one thing bad happens in the world does’nt make it …show more content…
The real truth of humanity is displayed through the popular T.V series, Lost. As Jack, who takes the leadership position, has the survivors remain as civilized people. Unlike in Lord of the flies, on the island, they all stick together and help one another. This comes to show that although they are fearing of never getting rescued, a human being no matter how corrupt they might be, there is always good in people. We aren’t savages. In fact, we are all wearing masks and when we are put in a certain situation, our true colours soon come out and our masks fall off. The thing is, our true colours aren’t evil and selflessness, yet we have righteousness as showed by multiple characters in the T.V show. For example, Sawyer. He comes out as an independent man with a bad attitude and a horrifying backstory, but as mentioned before, every saint has a past. On the Island he causes some trouble and frustration towards the others but as the story progresses, Sawyer rethought his ways and we get to see another side to him. We see him as courageous and caring as he has risked his life many times to help his friends and at times he puts the others before himself. Some see similarities between Sawyer and Jack from Lord of the flies, but honestly, Jack wouldn’t have done any of the heroic actions Sawyer displayed. Jack symbolizes evil and violence, the dark side of human nature. Only the dark side. Golding didn’t show the good side, I

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