Preview

Lord of the flies

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
626 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Lord of the flies
Lord of the flies’ essay

How does Golding explore the darkness of man’s heart in lord of the flies?

To “explore the darkness of man’s heart” is one of the key themes in William Golding’s novel Lord of the flies. As the boys on the island regress from well-behaved, well-mannered children aching for rescue to cruel, bloodthirsty hunters who have no desire to return to civilization, the boys naturally lose their sense of innocence that they possessed at the beginning of the novel. This novel is about young English boys Marooned on an uninhabited island, with no adult supervision, forcing them to create their own “civilization”. Three key ideas of darkness of mans heart are loss of innocence, characters and symbolism.
Golding also suggests that every person has the evil within them and often it takes a special event to these things to materialize

Paragraph 1- Loss of innocence

Golding highlights darkness of mans heart by showing the boy’s loss of innocence. One of the key quotes to describe “Darkness of mans heart” is “Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of a true, wise friend called Piggy”. This quote is at the end of the novel where the boys encounter the Naval officer, who appears out of nowhere to rescue them. When ralph sees the officer he realizes that he is now safe and will be returned to “actual civilization”. Ralph understands he has lost his innocence and learned about the evil that loiters within all human beings. In the Novel Golding does not expose this loss of innocence as something the children have done but he implies that the loss of innocence comes naturally. It is ironic how the boys become evil savage and cruel to each other creating a war just like the one they have fled from.

Agnolishes

Paragraph 2- Characters
Golding explores the darkness of mans heart by showing the good of young English boys then he shows how “how every person has a dark

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Jack is the boy that is power hungry and enjoys the ability to kill. Later on, multiple boys within the once united group accompany Jack in order to explore their evil instincts rather than listen to Ralph and obey his orders. Although Ralph and Piggy constantly have to remind the group that without the fire there will be no rescue, their ability to overcome their savage intuitions is demolished when Ralph understands that hunting is both thrilling and essential. Ralph’s incapability to move past the desire to become a hunter ultimately leads to the death of his two friends Simon and Piggy. Towards the end of the novel, all of the boys have abandoned the ideals of civilization and desire the ability to commit violence. This can be seen when the boy’s desire to kill almost leads to the murder of Ralph. Altogether, Golding’s illustrates the message that savagery is not confined to certain people and that it exists in…

    • 1673 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Golding’s’ wartime novel, human nature is put under the microscope by a Misanthropist, dead set on exposing Humanity for what it holds; Innate evil. Evil in what way you ask? In ambition. For in our world, Shakespeare’s, and Golding’s, Ambition truly is the source of all evil. In Macbeth, Shakespeare does well to disguise ambition as the true source of villainy, behind the façade that is Lady Macbeth and the witches. Without ambition, there would never be any action, no good, no evil, would Eve have picked the apple from the garden of Eden, without the ambition to gain further knowledge? The two traits of evil and ambition are well aligned in both pieces of literature, and too in real life, and this essay aims to explore the link they share.…

    • 978 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I know that after conducting research golding's idea about flawed human nature is correct, and I believe that if the right environment and freedom brings out the flaws in the nature of a human, then humans should become more aware of their flawed nature. If people are not aware of themselves…

    • 720 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The statement of the intrinsic evil of human nature has been established, but how that evil plays out in the novels has not. Golding and Conrad show evil in a variety of ways. Human nature’s evil is portrayed…

    • 1739 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Golding’s book was a battle of civilization vs. savagery. Jack and Ralph battled for power. Jack, being on the side of savagery, and Ralph, being on the side of civilization. The savaged boys were once frightened; now they transformed into the ones being feared of. The civilized boys on the island were helping each other, building shelters, trying to be rescued- working together. Ralph as complete leader and Jack leader of choir. The transitioned savages on the island killed a mother pig nursing piglets, they lost all sense of hygiene, they murdered their friends- they worked against…

    • 522 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lord of the Flies

    • 1155 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In the book Lord of the flies what can change a boy named Ralph from determined and disrespectful to loving and disbelieving? Can it be the pain of being stranded or maybe all the fighting between Ralph and Jack for leadership? Ralph is a bigun with “fair hair” (Golding 1). And Jack is the leader of the choir later becoming leader of the hunting group (Golding 20). At first when they crash land on the deserted island after being attacked (Golding 3). Ralph is determined to get off the island right away. However, he is not alone. With his friend named Piggy, he will accomplish his goal to leave the island. Although Piggy is always nice, Ralph always treated him in a disrespectful way in the beginning of the book. As chaos start happening on the island like with the monster that they think lives in the woods called the Beastie thing or Beast. However the beast wasn’t the main problem. As the fighting between the leaders continues, it forces the boys to separate into two separate tribes. Jack has his own tribe were they think Jack would be best as leader and Ralph with his tribe were they think Ralph should remain as leader. As Ralph starts out his own tribe, He uses all the support he can get from Piggy. Although the hard difficulties for Ralph to maintain an entire tribe on his own with a bunch of little kids or littuns and with very few biguns; Changes the way he treats people and becomes a loving person. On the other hand with so much stress Ralph begins to disbelieve. He starts to think being stuck on the island is permanent.…

    • 1155 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Lord of the Flies

    • 442 Words
    • 2 Pages

    2. At first, the kids act very civilized. But through-out the book, they begin to be more barbaric. You can tell this because of these reasons. First, Jack becomes obsessed with killing the pigs, and then becomes a bloodthirsty devil.…

    • 442 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lord of the Flies

    • 502 Words
    • 3 Pages

    William Golding, in his novel lord of the flies, implies that without the constraints of social order, people would descend into anarchy and chaos. Three examples in the text that demonstrate this idea are the conch, the character of jack, and the deaths of piggy and Simon.…

    • 502 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lord of the flies

    • 1004 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The setting in The Lord of the Flies is rather ironic isn't it? I mean, usually a deserted tropical island seems rather tranquil and attractive to people today. However, the abandonment of these children presented a reflection of the current day trouble of 1940s England. Due to World War II, children were being uprooted and put into new places often having the responsibility of learning to live with new circumstances entirely on their own. I think the tropical island suggests the nature of this very real experience for children in that day: at first the attraction of the new presents itself as fun, but as time goes on the real and present dangers of the circumstances surface and attack the children.…

    • 1004 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Lord of the flies

    • 290 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In the novel, Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, readers are transported to a lush island filled with mysterious truths waiting to be uncovered. In the midst of a World War, women and children are sent to safety by way of airplane, including a group of young school boys. While on their way to London, the children panic as a bomb separates the plane into two fragments. Treacherous storm waves wash one part of the aircraft out to sea, while the other portion impacts the island, leaving an evident scar in the land. As survivors of the attack come to terms with what they have just experienced, it becomes apparent that there are no adults on the island, only children left to fend for themselves.…

    • 290 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lord of the Flies

    • 744 Words
    • 3 Pages

    To go backwards in life means to regress; This is shown excessively throughout the novel Lord Of The Flies by William Golding. It is about young boys who strive to stay civilized but ultimately regress back into a savage phase, where their primal needs for food and shelter dominate. The breaking of the conch shell and the use of face paint and spears demonstrate the regression of the boys which is caused by a lack of law and order, and therefore ends in total destruction of the island.…

    • 744 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Lord of the Flies

    • 528 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The theme of human nature is the most important and the cause of the all of the chaos among the boys. Jack and his hunters are the evil ones who love to start conflicts between them. Ralph, Piggy, and Simon are the good ones who just want everyone to work together so they can get off the island faster. But for some reason, without either good or evil neither of them could survive. There are three major conflicts that the boys face while they are on the island.…

    • 528 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lord of the Flies

    • 543 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The government’s actions change the way people see current issues and act. Actions endorsed and those condemned are seen by the people who consciously or subconsciously use the government as a guide for their morals and life. In the novel The Lord of Flies William Golding suggest that human nature is corrupted by the government’s use of power and media.…

    • 543 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Golding’s idea of inner evil when structed society is vacant. Ralph is not hit by the sudden realization that life is a series of spontaneous action, grows aware of how brittle life can be, and how every decision made can alter life immensely. The dull view of existence is very troubled coming from a twelve-year-old boy, whose innocence is being challenged.…

    • 349 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    We were innocent before we started to begin feeling guilty and deep inside the nook of our minds and hearts we have found a hidden treasure that we once had and now seek. One of the most precious gifts one can obtain in life is the gift of innocence and once it has been taken away it can no longer be returned. The term innocence is interpreted as “the freedom from guilt or sin through being unacquainted with evil”. Once a child is exposed to blind ideas such as believing the world is a perfect place and then realizes the cruelty which inhabits within it, innocence is lost. William Golding’s Lord of the Flies outlines how civilization allows man to remain innocent and once the needs for survival become crucial, the primitive instincts of man must come to parity with the necessities one needs to survive. While loss of innocence is a predominant theme in the novel, the symbols of the beast, the painted faces, and the forest glade help to illustrate the importance of savagery created within the boys over their time on the island.…

    • 1672 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays