“What I mean is… maybe it’s only us”(Golding 80). Simon, one of the young boys stranded on a strange island, is referring to the beast and attempts to contradict the rest of the boy 's fears that the beast is somewhere among them. He instead suggests that the evil has always been within them. However, could a group of young, innocent boys really be a manifestation of the cruelty and evil that inhabits human beings? William Golding’s book Lord of the Flies begins when a plane full of English schoolboys crash on an island. The boys are left to fend for themselves, without any adult supervision. Almost immediately there is an antagonist and a protagonist. The protagonist is an older boy, Ralph. He takes control of the group and is a fair leader.
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A lack of knowledge about how to handle adult situations, combined with the feud between Ralph and Jack is what lead to the cruelty that was seen as the novel progressed. The environmental aspects of the situation had a big impact on the way the boys acted. “Their obsession with hunting eventually leads them to bloodlust, frenzy, and murder” (Neighbors 1). In their lives before the island it was not necessary to hunt for survival. Jack most likely would not have killed a sow and found that he has a thirst to kill. While creating their microcosm, a mini society, the boys discover that they have a longing for things that would be seen as savage and immoral in a normal society. When the boys arrived on the island, they were not told that they had to hunt, yet, they knew it was a necessity. This basic need for survival could stem back to the very beginning of time, and the evil within the boys is connected with what they discover when they are away from their homes and the rest of society. “The island does not make the boys barbaric… the island only provides an environment, away from societal norms and values, for their true nature to manifest itself” (Neighbors 1). This human nature is present in all of us, but it only manifests in certain situations. The boys had no control over their fate after the plane crash. They
A lack of knowledge about how to handle adult situations, combined with the feud between Ralph and Jack is what lead to the cruelty that was seen as the novel progressed. The environmental aspects of the situation had a big impact on the way the boys acted. “Their obsession with hunting eventually leads them to bloodlust, frenzy, and murder” (Neighbors 1). In their lives before the island it was not necessary to hunt for survival. Jack most likely would not have killed a sow and found that he has a thirst to kill. While creating their microcosm, a mini society, the boys discover that they have a longing for things that would be seen as savage and immoral in a normal society. When the boys arrived on the island, they were not told that they had to hunt, yet, they knew it was a necessity. This basic need for survival could stem back to the very beginning of time, and the evil within the boys is connected with what they discover when they are away from their homes and the rest of society. “The island does not make the boys barbaric… the island only provides an environment, away from societal norms and values, for their true nature to manifest itself” (Neighbors 1). This human nature is present in all of us, but it only manifests in certain situations. The boys had no control over their fate after the plane crash. They