Lord Of The Flies - Are People Essentially Good Or Bad

Lord Of The Flies - Are People Essentially Good or Bad BY taner16083 In Lord of the Flies, Simon states "Maybe there is a beast... maybe it''s only us. " An effective theme that Golding demonstrates throughout the book is whether people are essentially good or essentially bad. He creates this theme by involving the death of Simon, Ralph''s adrenaline rush to hunting the boar for the first time, and the war that Jack had started with his tribe in order to kill Ralph at the very end of the novel. Golding includes these incidences to show us that people are essentially bad over he fact that people are essentially good.

Simon was on his way back to the beach to tell the rest of the boys what the "beast" really was. Walking out of the forest the boys had noticed a dark figure that they had mistaken as the beast. They chanted "Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood! Do him in! " With that, they took the weaponry that they had in their power to dismantle the beast for once and for all. Simon is crying out that he isn''t the beast, but it never broke the war-cry scream that escaped the boys'' mouths. The next morning, they had realized they had committed a murder.

Even Ralph and Piggy, the wisest, most civilized out of the bunch, took part in the killing. They were in denial. They didn''t want to believe that they had taken part in the killing of Simon. Ralph and Piggy, for as civilized as they are, still took part. They still had the nerve to kill a living thing, beast or no beast. The worst was brought out in them; the evil side of the boys. Ralph, who has never taken part in Jack''s tribe''s hunt, finally decided to try it out. In the heat of the moment, Ralph threw his spear at the boar. Afterward, Ralph was uite excited about the episode.

He wonders excitedly toward Maurice "Didn''t you see me? " Ralph only hit the boar in the nose, and he was still excited about it. If he wouldVe actually killed it, imagine the way he would''ve felt. He was overjoyed by the fact that he was causing a living animal pain. Once again, the worst has been brought out in him; a side that we don''t typically see. And even after the boys returned to the beach, they had reenacted the whole episode, by using Robert as the boar. They had chanted and danced about him while stabbing him with spears.

There is only one possible thing that would possess people to do such a thing: evil. At the end of the book Ralph is left alone. Due to the fact that Piggy is now dead, and Jack has Samneric on his tribe forced to turn against Ralph. The fact that they were forced and threatened, gives a bad vibe. At this point, Jack and his tribe are in the process of trying to kill Ralph. In this process Jack is trying to kill him with a large boulder grunting "Heave! Heave! Heave! " Those words express Jack''s will power and desire to murder Ralph. He is obviously very serious about what he is trying to do.

They also emphasize the size of the boulder. If he is to the point of grunting and giving everything he has Just to move it, it is clearly quite large. Jack has the nerve to kill him Just out of spite, anger, and Just for the sake of killing somebody. The level of insanity at this point has grown to its maximum. The death of Simon, Ralph''s excitement toward the injured boar, and the attempted murder of Ralph all lead to Golding''s demonstration of whether people are essentially good or essentially is, Golding proves that there is some form of bad or evil that lurks within us.