Lord of the Flies &amp Essay Example

recognize the human nature of the real beast: that he himself has the capacity for evil as well as for good” (Tiger). Here Simon starts to understand that even though man has natural good in him, he must also have natural badness. He, as much as anyone else in the lot of children, is capable of committing evil and doing wrong. Nonetheless, it is not completely natural for man to always want to act on the impulse Freud called the id. Depending on the given conditions or circumstances, man will act differently. Based on the novel by Golding, Simon never acts on this desire from where evil arises. Golding makes it clear that Simon acts as he does from his superego, meaning he is logical and thinks about his actions.

However, it is not always the case that man acts morally good. In many cases in this novel, Jack represents the actions taken by indication from the id, where he acts just as he wants and without a care in the world. Jack is the embodiment of the psychic apparatus known as id.As previously mentioned, in Golding’s novel a group of young British school children are stranded alone on an island, where in the background of the novel there is a war going on. On the island there are absolutely no adults, and no real means of communication. The boys’ only hope to get off the island is by being rescued. The boys elect a chief, Ralph, who starts to establish rules. He orders a fire be made and kept so that they can use the smoke to be seen and thus rescued.

The island

has a very free and casual essence to it. At first the boys find joy in the fact that there are no adults or supervision and they are there alone on a beautiful scene. However because of the abandonment from society the group of faces, they start to get out of hand and lose sight of what is the morally or socially correct action to take. These actions include even the basics of civilization and evolution, such as excreting waste in the appropriate designated area. These are not the least of the problems the boys face though. The independence factor the island supplies benefits only those who act as they would normally in society. Unfortunately, most of the British boys do not act as they should, and it costs them greatly.While living on the island, the real evil within mankind appears within even the youngest boys.

They begin to lose their sense of what it means to be human, and what sets humankind apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. The children become animal or savage-like in many different ways.“There’s another thing. We chose those rocks right along beyond the bathing pool as a lavatory. That was sensible too. The tide cleans the place up. You littluns know about that.’ There were sniggers here and there and swift glances.

‘Now people seem to use anywhere. Even near the shelters and the platform’ ” (80).Here it is shown that the boys on the island are losing their sense of urgency. They are becoming careless because of the laid back atmosphere of the island. There are no adults here to put pressure on them to work

harder and not to give up. Ralph may be enforcing the rules, but to the other kids he is only another child. He is not a parent or really a guardian and therefore the children have limited respect for him. Because of this, nothing is getting done and nobody is paying attention to any of the rules Ralph has established.

Further on in the novel, Ralph himself starts to lose his sense of importance and understanding.“They got his arms and legs. Ralph, carried away by a sudden thick excitement, grabbed Eric’s spear and jabbed at Robert with it. Kill him! Kill him!” (114). Here Ralph loses control of himself and starts to actually attack another child with a hunting spear. At first the children were only joking; reenacting the hunt they had just been on. However because there are no adults and no one else the children will listen to when they are told no, they lose control of themselves and act however they would like. They forget how humankind is supposed to act and act as they would like, which is not in the correct or appropriate way.

This is where mankind’s inner evil comes out: in an environment where there are no rules to comply to. The lack of supervision allows freedom, which very well can be harmful.Toward the end of this novel, Roger is throwing stones “playfully” at Piggy and Ralph while they are trying to speak to Jack. Roger lets his inner evil out when he knowingly releases a large boulder, which kills Piggy. “High overhead, Roger, with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever” (180).

This shows that Roger does not care about the consequences that anyone will face because of his actions. He acts as he wishes because he can. He allows this malevolence to fill him up and take control of his entire body and mind.

This is due to the freedom of the island. Without rules or some kind of form of government, man stops caring about everything and does only what he wants. In certain circumstances as shown, man lets his evil and desires to dictate his thoughts, and thus his actions. Without rules or some kind of form of government, man stops caring about everything and does only what he wants. In certain circumstances as shown, man lets his evil and desires to dictate his thoughts, and thus his actions.Golding’s novel shows the evil of mankind correctly. Although, there are more circumstances than being left stranded on an island where mankind’s evil emerges. In Knowles’ novel, A Separate Peace, this is proven.

The novel takes place at a school in New Hampshire, called Devon. In the background of the novel, World War II is going on. Gene and Finny meet during the summer session of the school program. It is here, too, that the setting is very relaxed and not many adults enforce the rules. Finny is a generally a good person. He does not hate or ridicule anyone. He is very good at all kinds of sports, and is very modest and kind. He is also nearly always able to get away with anything he does because of the way he can interact with others.

If his teachers or other supervisors catch him breaking

the rules, he can easily talk his way out of anything he needs to. Gene is a scholar who is very serious about his schoolwork, and does not enjoy sports quite as much as Finny does. To sum up Gene’s personality, he is almost the opposite of Finny. Gene gets jealous easily and in Knowles’ novel allows himself to be taken by mankind’s inner evil. He feels envy towards Finny for being so great at everything, along with being paranoid about Finny “sabotaging” him. Most importantly though, is that Finny is noncompetitive whereas Gene very much is. This is the most contributing factor to Finny’s death.In this novel, Knowles shows how even in a typical high school environment the worst of the natural evil within man can escape.

Gene is too blinded by his own inner conflict to see that there is no enemy but himself. He hurts, and unintentionally kills his best friend because of the jealousy he fails to recognize as pointless and unreal.“I found it. I found a single sustaining thought. The thought was, You and Phineas are even already. You are even in enmity. You are both coldly driving ahead for yourselves alone. .

. . I felt better. Yes, I sensed it like the sweat of relief when nausea passes away; I felt better. We were even after all, even in enmity. The deadly rivalry was on both sides after all” (45).“Fighting a mental war which centers on his imagined battle with Finny, Gene strikes out by jouncing the limb, resulting in Finny's falling and breaking his leg which ultimately leads to the "trial hearing" months later. Unable to face

the evil in his best friend that becomes apparent during the "trial hearing," Finny runs out of the auditorium and falls down the steps.

He later dies when his leg is reset. Gene explains his action by stating that, because Finny and he were competing to be the best (Gene, the best student; Finny, the best athlete), Finny engaged Gene in such activities as the beach trip (that took Gene away from studying for a trigonometry test which he failed) and the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session meetings to keep Gene from his academics and, thus, from becoming the best student. To Gene, the competition to become the best was a war, and he had to eliminate the source that would prevent him from becoming his best” (Reed).“Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb. Finny, his balance gone, swung his head around to look at me for an instant with extreme interest, and then he tumbled sideways, broke through the little branches below and hit the bank with a sickening, unnatural thud…With unthinking sureness I moved out on the limb and jumped into the river, every trace of my fear of this forgotten” (52).Here, Gene does what he “must” to get rid of his “enemy”, Finny. His feels his best friend is sabotaging him because he is not letting him study for school. This of course is an illusion that Gene has created for himself through his inner evil.

He feels that he needs to do everything he can to protect himself from a nonexistent threat that is Phineas.

His own inner evil is what prompted Gene to jounce the limb of this tree. Gene injures his own best friend because of the immense power of his, and all of mankind’s, inner evil. Only after he realizes the effect of his foolishness does he understand how wrong he is about Finny trying to be his own enemy. In reality, Gene is his own worst enemy because he is putting up walls and barriers between himself and the only person who trusts and loves him as a true friend. He is also facing a huge inner conflict because he has no reason or right to have hurt his best friend in that way. No one would ever question that Gene had done it by accident, but when someone finally understood what would he say? He has no way of protecting himself.“Man is born to sin.

Set him free and he will be a sinner, not Rousseau’s ‘noble savage’” (Golding). Under certain circumstances, man will make the choice to surrender to his inner evil and do what is morally wrong. Whether it be freedom, jealousy, or carelessness, the inner evil will control and dictate our every thought and action. It is essential to each and every individual’s life that people try to do what is morally right in a time where that seems impossible. Man will find himself surrendering to his inner evil when put into situations that trigger the hatred and jealousy within each and every human being. The question is whether or not your actions will affect more than just one moment of everyday life.