Lord Of The Flies Argumentative Essay

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The Lord of the Flies Benchmark Essay “Fancy thinking the beast was something you could hunt and kill”(Golding 136). It is an age old question – are humans intrinsically good or evil? And if they are truly born evil, what keeps humanity from degeneration into a multitude of individuals who seek only to further their interests? William Golding’s Lord of the Flies is a novel about a group of young British school boys who are stranded on an island after a plane crash during World War II, where all the adults die. Soon the boys’ minor arguments turn into bloodthirsty conflicts and Jack’s tribe and its savage methods emerge as the clear victor and establish dominance over the civilized children. Golding uses the characters as an allegory for the…show more content…
He comes to the island shortly after Piggy’s death. Upon his arrival, the savage tribe becomes “A semicircle of little boys, their bodies streaked with colored clay, sharp sticks in their hands, were standing on the beach making no noise at all. ‘Fun and games,’ said the officer.” (Golding 288). Throughout the novel, Jack’s boys have become increasingly powerful. At the height of their power, the boys are preparing to kill Ralph and destroy all traces of civilization. He survives only because the officer arrives on the island and restores order in time. Golding uses this event to demonstrate the effect of the reappearance of society on the mind. In this case, the presence of adults represents society. In their absence, the mind corrodes from a state of civility to a blood-thirsty hell. In conclusion, multiple characters in Lord of the Flies by William Golding prove that the satanic forces that compel the shocking events on the island come from within the human psyche rather than from a supernatural realm in mythology. Golding employs a religious reference ,the Id, the instinct that governs the individual's sense of survival, is by nature evil in its selfish pursuit of its own goals. Golding uses the novel to demonstrate the progression of the mind towards savagery once the order of society is

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