Good and Evil in Lord of the Flies and Animal Farm

Good and evil themes, in some form, exist in practically every piece of literature ever written. It is found in literature as old as the Bible to newer stories such as The Hunger Games. It is no surprise to find this same theme in Lord of the Flies by William Golding and Animal Farm by George Orwell. Golding and Orwell explore good and evil to show what effect morality, or the lack thereof, has on society. Both Golding and Orwell believe through their own past experiences that evil corrupts people. To portray this, Orwell and Golding use similar ideas with their characters and plot to show how fragile the idea of civilization is for us all. In Lord of the Flies and Animal Farm, the theme of evil is obvious throughout the development of the characters. In Lord of the Flies, the primary character, Jack, is truly evil. Jack is a brutal boy and he performs many violent acts during his quest for power. The best example of this is when Jack encourages his tribe to participate in the slaughtering of the angelic Simon (Golding, 140). While the tribe is having a wild, demonic ceremony, Simon crawls out of the woods disorientated after suffering a seizure. Mistaking Simon for the beast, the crazed tribe, including Ralph, brutally rips Simon apart with their bare hands and teeth. Simon falls off of the cliff and onto the beach below, where his body washes out to sea. In comparison, evil is also prominent in the story Animal Farm. The character Napoleon is the essence of evil in Animal Farm. He is the very manipulative and dictator-like leader of the farm. He performs many unspeakable acts against his fellow animals, such as taking the milk and apples for himself (Orwell, 24). After taking all of the milk and apples, Napoleon gets Squealer, a pig that he uses for propaganda purposes, to explain his “reason” for taking the milk and apples from them. Squealer states that Napoleon needs to take the milk and apples from the animals so that Napoleon has strong

Cited: Orwell, George. Animal Farm;. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1954. (11, 24, 32, 36, 69). Print. Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. New York: Coward-McCann, 1962. (50, 68, 140, 142). Print.