Golding's Lord Of The Flies: Character Analysis

Enlightenment philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau writes, "Nature never deceives us; it is we who deceive ourselves". Nature forms humans as blank slates, and it is only through life experiences that humans become corrupted. In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a group of English schoolboys crash land onto an unknown island, and they must learn to survive on their own. At first, the older boys, led by Ralph and Piggy, take control and keep the peace. Jack, another one of the older boys, desperate for leadership, becomes bloodthirsty. He and his group of hunters break from civilization, and they turn into violent savages. The civilization Ralph and Piggy create shatters when the boys' violent natures take over. In Lord of the Flies,
The characters in the novel carry symbolic meaning and as the story progresses they come to represent the evils of human nature. Ralph is the protagonist who keeps order on the island and represents the organizational powers of civilization. Nonetheless, his calm and calculated demeanor doesn't prevent him from turning into a savage when times get chaotic. When the boys reenact the hunting of a pig, he is overcome by their savagery and the bloodthirsty environment he finds himself in transforms him into a savage as well. "Ralph too was fighting to get near, to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh. The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering." (Golding 115). Ralph is known to be a smart and resourceful boy who cares about keeping peace on the island. He often disagrees with Jack when it comes to survival. Jack only cares about remaining in the current situation while Ralph concerns himself with getting rescued. However, when Ralph accompanies the hunters to pretend to hunt a pig, he jabs Robert with a spear, forgetting his
Even Jack and his choir group are quite obedient as they strive to signal passing ships. However, Jack's nature begins to turn maniacal when he quarrels with Ralph for leadership. The first real act of cruelty the boys commit is the bloody murder of Simon. The boys are dancing to a frenetic chant when Simon arrives. Forgetting their humanity, the boys beat, bite, and tear Simon up. "At once, the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt on to the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore. There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws," (Golding 153). The boys mistake Simon for the dreadful beast, and use their weapons and bodies to bring it down. When the boys first arrive, none shows such blatant hostility. This bloody murder is a result of time passing on the island and the boys growing malevolent toward one another due to the situation in which they find themselves. The environmental change is what causes the boys' anguish and cruelty and ultimately leads to Simon's death. This is further proven by the Stanford Prison Experiment in 1971. In the Stanford Prison Experiment, 24 mentally healthy males were given the roles of prisoners and guards. The prisoners were ordered to stay in their cells while the guards looked over them. As the days passed by, the guards grew more aggressive toward the prisoners. However, the experiment did not begin cleanly, as the setting's purpose