Humans are Inherently Bad: Represented by The Lord of the Flies

In countries all across the globe, you can see disputes between political powers, causing the health and general wellbeing of the rest of the population to be offset, or cause it to differentiate in some way. William Golding saw this when he marched into Nazi Germany. He saw an entire population allowing the mistreatment of a large group of people, which surely was being allowed by the government. This brought out the worst in people, making friendly neighborhoods weapons of mass destruction. He decided to create a book about what can happen to people when their government or political power approves of or ignores such actions as what were presented in World War Ⅱ. William Golding’s The Lord of the Flies is a beautifully written book with an allegory about the downfall of society due to the lack of overseeing power which caused the sadistic side of people come out.

The influence of others can easily persuade good-doers to commit acts of wrongdoing and atrocity which would make them cringe as they look back in the past. Ralph, in this case, participated in the killing of another boy, alongside the mob mentality that played alongside it. Ralph is a person that follows the crowd easily, he can be swayed towards good deeds or atrocious acts depending on whom he surrounds himself with. His chief-y good boy attitude held up until he realized that there was no one on that island that could tell him not to do this or that, and that the majority of the group had gone off with Jack to live exciting, new lives. This sort of peer pressure folds into anyone with a neutral morality, one that balances out the good and bad and is just a gray area who can be turned to either side of morality in this situation. Ralph begins to turn when Jack and his tribe take him to go hunting, and they find a boar, one that which Ralph tries to kill. As they share their stories, Ralph exclaims that he“hit him” with his spear and “wounded him.” Ralph went from a good Samaritan to a bloodthirsty savage who couldn’t even recognize himself after he committed the horrible acts he did to Simon.

Most of us have desperations and devilish desires we want to accomplish that the general population and government goes against. When those two things are taken away, we begin to realize there’s more opportunity, there're less restrictions against those awful acts. There’s a point of self questioning that asks, do I really want to do this? After that the stage is set for the disgusting and gruesome actions that take place. Jack made a breakthrough when he started hunting and killing and creating plays about the bloodbath that he produced. In the beginning of the book when they were exploring, Ralph, Jack, and Simon find a little piglet. Jack, the one with the knife, hesitated as he intended to kill it. He couldn’t bear “the knife descending and cutting living flesh” but he clearly changed knowing he now hunts. His attitude showed he knew he couldn’t walk back to camp covered in blood because that would mean he was a killer. Now it is more commonplace. They would go out on daily hunting trips and pretend to recreate their adventures using a “littlun” as their prey that they would carefully poke and prod at. Roger had also changed for the worse, similar to Jack, whereas in the beginning of the book he was throwing stones at Henry but Roger reserved himself for hitting him was “taboo of his old life”. Now, the responsibility of being a role model no longer alongside him as he chanted alongside his tribal members during the killings of others and murder of an innocent person. Roger and Jack both developed into sadistic individuals because of the lack of social confinements and restrictions which lead to the deaths of many others.

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The small percentage of people who have ethical boundaries can withstand the necessity to fit into the group or give in to peer pressure. One of these few folks is Simon, one of the few morally proper people in The Lord of the Flies. He gathered fruit for the younger kids who were unable to, he wasn’t afraid of the beast, and he tried his best to tell people the beast wasn’t real. He and others are the ones who do the honorable thing even when no one is watching and there is no reward. Simon and others are morally acquitted people who do what they feel is honest because they feel obligated to, without any reward or because they risk punishment.

The satisfaction of being able to be listened to make someone felt united with everybody else, the conch provided that feeling. It allowed one person to talk at a time, and it never refused a request from a member of the boys. Piggy, feeling lonesome and tired of being made fun of, loved the idea of the conch, he got his ideas spread without a care that someone will shut him down or yell fatty to his face. Any democracy that still stood in the boys would have been obliterated along with it when it was struck by the boulder. No form of free speech, democracy, or feeling of security within your group of people. Just violence and yelling. The conch represented unity, a sense of security in numbers, and a feeling of togetherness. Jack made a dictator-like leadership which made his followers exactly the way he wanted and killed off the ones that didn’t enjoy the bloodbath he was creating. The people he did not respect and killed were kind caring people that cared about animals and other humans. The conch served as a reminder of democracy or something that kept everyone sane. The moment it broke was when it was clear that this was life or death, that it was every man for themselves.

To increase the chance of being found, their only was the fire. Fire was the power that made their situation on the island a lot bearable, it meant to the tribe that they could see their parents again. Very quickly, they started to lose sight of that vision, realizing the island might be the last home they will ever have. Many of the boys on the island began skipping out on fire duty and doing things that seemed more important to them at the time, like hunting or gathering berries. Ralph stayed hopeful for the longest time, he knew his father would be looking for him, alongside dozens of other planes and ships. People decided to rebel against others wishes indirectly, causing disagreements and fights. The more fights that broke out on the island meant less “We’re in this together” attitude, making the island a very hard place to commute and talk to other people without feeling a little worried they might lash out at you. The fire was the boys’ only resort to get off that island, the fact that people didn’t care about it made people like Ralph and Piggy who desperately wanted to go home very anxious and scared that they would never get there.

Increased emotions and varied ethical states of mind made this an experience of a lifetime for the boys on the island. They learned their true capability and what their power entitles them to without a guardian present by disagreement and disputes over silly things that could have been resolved in a short matter of time. Anxiety and paranoia quickly set into the boys as they go throughout their daily routines with each other, quickly learning their skills and abilities. This was similar to when William Golding paraded into Nazi Germany and saw the excitement and utter lack of tolerance for people that caused welcoming crowds turn into fierce fighting machines. Both experiences, of the war and writing the book, made Golding realize humans could do remarkably much worse than they had anticipated they could. Everyone’s an enemy and enemies become friends with a push and a bit of friction, represented by William Golding.