Sharon Cheng
English 10
6th October, 2011
Human Nature at it’s Core
The novel Lord of the Flies written by English author William Golding, takes us on a journey of human nature, through a story about a group of courteous young boys, brought together by a plane crash during World War Two. Golding uses the changing and development of the boys, and the incidents that happen on the isolated island trapped from any guidance or communication with the world outside, to signify human nature at it’s core. Through this story, Golding has been successful at demonstrating how a society will differ when it is civilized compared to when it is savage, the brutality of human nature, and how there is evil in all of us. Golding helps us to understand the underlying theme of humanity through many simple metaphors and allegorical symbols. He has used very descriptive and abstract diction to satirize the gratuitous violence of war, global political issues and the lack of governmental order in the world.
The author uses the theme of civilization and savagery as an allusion to criticize the situation of the real world. World War Two was a time of savagery, all governmental order was demolished. Through the novel, Golding used hidden allegory to indicate the futility of war when Ralph asks: “Which is better, law and rescue, or hunting and breaking things up?” ( ch. 11 ). This satirizes the war and how it is much more sensible to have governmental control rather than the killing and destruction of humanity.
Although civilization and savagery are complete opposites, they both naturally occur parallel to one another in a society. These two elements are driven by a human’s natural instincts for survival. In the beginning of the novel, the boys first arrive on the deserted island. As a result of the plane crash, all the adults have been killed, leaving the young and immature boys alone to face the dangers of the island. Due to their survival instincts, civilization is immediately...