Rousseau Lord Of The Flies Analysis

William Golding, the author of “The Lord of the Flies” believes that everyone is born in which way they are able to do evil, as opposed to Jean-Jacques Rousseau who believes that people are influenced by their environment shapes us to be good or evil. I believe that Rousseau is correct, humans are influenced by their surroundings and are shaped to be good or evil depending on what they are and who they are around.
“Rousseau believed that all citizens should participate in government or the contract - and should be committed to the general good - even if it means acting against their private or personal interests.” People can be put in bad situations and want to do one thing that may not be the right thing, but end up doing the right thing because it is for the general good. You aren’t always going to do the bad thing, that is just what some may do because of how they were raised, which makes them who they are shaped into. Everyone has the ability to do good, based on how they let situations control them and what they let influence them. A lot of people like to “go with the flow” so it may be leading them to do something that isn’t the choice to
An example that may lead others to believe that Golding is correct, that all humans are able to do evil is Jack. Jack scares a lot of the kids on the island talking about the beast and using it as a scare tactic. In the book “The Lord of the Flies” it says “They knew very well why he hadn't: because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood.” This is Jack being afraid at first to kill the pig, but eventually he adopts the way of becoming a savage. He kills the pig, he starts a chant, and many other things that are evil, and he has no reason to be. These are the type of people who influence others to be bad, but not everybody is born the the ability to have to be