Lord of the Flies: The Evil of Human Nature Essay

However Simon thought of the beast, there ruddiness before his inward sight the picture of a human beings at once heroic and sick(Golding 128). This name from William Goldings novel, Lord of the Flies, effectively suggests that human beings are evil which is also the main theme of the novel. In the novel, the major(ip) char practiseers at the ending reinforce Goldings negative judgment of human nature. Golding provides his view of human nature real early in the novel. The island on which the boys land is depict as a paradise with a pastiche of flora and fauna.Upon the boys landing, the tube carrying the boys causes a scar on the island. The intensity of the destruction caused by the scar is described All round him the long scar smashed into the jungle was a bath of heat(Golding 11). However, the destruction does non stop there. Later, the boys burn d bear a large part of the island as a result of their carelessness. Here, Golding shows that earthly concern cause destruction even if they did not mean to. He is almost suggesting that causing destruction is arcminute nature to us humans.At the end of the novel, the destruction comes full circle when fatheads tribe destroy down the entire island. The presence of the boys has completely changed the island from a beautiful paradise to a charred wreckage. Goldings pessimistic view of human nature is further expanded with the issue of hunting. As the novel progresses, Jacks level of compulsion with hunting continues to escalate until the very end of the novel. It is interesting to note that although the island has an abundance of fruits and the boys can easily magnetise fish and crabs at the beach, Jack insists on hunting to get meat.Later on, he enjoys hunting as if it were a sportHis mind was crowded with memories memories of the knowledge that had come to them when they had outwitted a biography thing, impose their will upon it, taken away its life like a satisfying drink(Golding 88). Jack hunts no t with the resole intention to get meat, but he particularly enjoy exercising powerfulness over living creatures while hunting. This shows how much Jack enjoys having power the power to control other beings.Throughout the novel, Jack does everything he can to gain the respect of the boys to gain support for power. Later when he most of the boys join his tribe, Jack takes angiotensin-converting enzyme last step to secure his position as chief of his tribe. He goes as out-of-the-way(prenominal) as to order his tribe to hunt and kill Ralph to eliminate the last threat to his position. Here, we can tally that Jack has moved from hunting pigs to hunting humans. Thus, this shows how savage and evil man can be as he hunts even his own kin. Besides, these examples also show that humans have an unquenchable thirst for power that if not controlled, will blind us and take over our soul.In the novel, Golding uses Jack and his tribe to bedeck the effects of complete freedom to man. After J acks tribe is formed, the members are no bimestrial referred to as boys but as savages with Jack as their Chief. This is a direct reference to the boys regression into a pristine state of being. Jacks tribe also performs several primitive practices that are usually attributed as savage. first-year of all, they paint their faces and bodies to conceal themselves while hunting pigs. Next, they perform brutal killing of pigsRoger found a housing point and began to push till he was leaning with his whole weight.The spear moved forward abut by inch and the terrifying squealing became a high-pitched scream. Then Jack found the pharynx and the hot blood spouted over his hands(Golding 168,169). Last of all, they give an offering, the pigs head, to the beast hoping it would not harm them. Thus, this shows that the boys do not understand the true nature of the beast. Their situation is similar to primitive man, who gave offerings to gods and idols to protect their own well-being from bo rn(p) disasters they did not understand. It is during the presentation of the offering that Jack said Sharpen a stick at both(prenominal) ends (Golding 169).Obediently, Roger sharpens a stick and Jack skewers the pigs head on one end of the stick and places the other into the ground. This controversy is repeated again at the end of the novel. When Ralph asks Samneric of what Jacks tribe plan to with him once he was captured one of them replied, Roger alter a stick at both ends(Golding234). Although Ralph would hardly understand what the phrase means, the terrible law becomes clear to the reader. Jacks tribe plans to behead Ralph and skewer his head on a stick sharpened at both ends as another offering to the beast. It is, by far, the most brutal display of human brutality.Without the eye of watchful adults, Jack and his tribe are uncontrollable and Jack as their leader, has absolute power. Golding has pen Lord of the Flies based on his experience in war. He realizes that war i s the greatest act of human evil, for it takes the lives of innocent people and causes nothing but destruction. Therefore, it is fitting for Golding to highlight the effects of war in the novel to reinforce his pessimistic view of human nature. At the end of the novel, Golding leaves the reader with an image of a war air, which is one of the many traces of war in the novel.If the reader examines the opening of the story, there are references to a war going on in the world, such as Piggys mention of the atomic bomb non them. Didnt you hear what the pilot said? About the atomic bomb? Theyre all short(Golding 20). The reader discovers that the boys are disjunct on the island because of the war. Besides that, another trace of the war is the dead parachutist. The boys mistake the dead parachutist for the beast. Ironically, the dead parachutist is the beast in the sense that he is connected to the war going on in the world outside and the beast is attributed to the evil in human natur e.Even the boys have their very own war on the island. Therefore, the island could represent a microcosm of the outside world. Now, we return to the image of the war ship. The arrival of the ship allows the boys to be rescued. However, the ship only serves to remind the reader that although the boys are rescued, they are taken back to a war-torn world. After experiencing one war, the boys are being taken to another. The circle of destruction continues. To sum everything up, Golding effectively uses the main characters, especially at the ending, to prove that humans are more evil than good.The last paginate of the novel has one last scene of Ralph which summarizes the main themes of the novel. From his experience on the island, he is no longer an innocent child as he has been exposed to the evil nature of human beings and human savageryAnd in the middle of them, with filthy body, matted hair, and unwiped nose, Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of mans heart, and the fall through the air of the true, keen-sighted friend called Piggy(Golding 248). Works citedGolding, William. Lord of the Flies. London Faber and Faber, 1996.