Inhumanity In Lord Of The Flies

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On August 6th, 1945, the United states of America dropped nuclear weapons on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. With the consent of the United Kingdom, the United States effectively murdered 200,000 people in Japan in order to bring the second world war to “a speedy end” as said by Harry S. Truman. The worth of human lives were compromised in an effort to complete an American agenda- a thought that proposes the idea that nothing can halt the inhumanity of humanity when reasoning is gone. A similar rhetoric exists in William Golding’s novel The Lord of the Flies in which young boys attempt to survive when they find themselves stranded on an uninhabited island. Golding suggests a pattern between ideas such as reasoning and intellect …show more content…
This correlation is also expressed in the non-fiction article through the lens of nuclear warfare, and how reasoning diminishes with the availability of power. Throughout the novel, Jack becomes increasingly more savage in nature and makes rash decisions as a result of it. His authoritative and tyrannical personality shines through as he influences other boys to be savage as well. Contextually, one of the main components of the island that the boys are on is the bright fire at the top of the mountain. Ralph, Simon, and Jack light this fire early in the book so that a ship could easily spot that the island is inhabited, and so that they would be rescued. Jack let the fire go out because he is too focused on hunting animals to fulfill his own masculinity complex, which shows that Jack put his own agenda over the well-being of the rest of the boys. Ralph and Piggy confront Jack about this monstrous mistake, and soon after Jack finds himself slapping Piggy. During this physical proof of dominance, “piggy’s glasses flew off and tinkled on the rock. [He] cried out in terror” and “he went crouching and feeling over the rocks, but Simon, who got there first, found them for him. Passions beat about Simon on the mountaintop with awful wings” (Golding 71). Piggy’s glasses, a symbol of knowledge and intelligence, are slapped off of his head by a …show more content…
In the novel, the young boys find themselves in a position in which they must begin their own adapted society. The bane of their new civilisation is Jack, who promotes savageness and chaos, and prioritizes himself over the other boys. As more and more of the boys become instinctively primitive, reasoning and intellect begins to drift away. This depletion of intelligence is symbolized by Piggy’s glasses and how the chaotic boys use them for their savage needs. In the non-fiction article, Hussein Tahiri discusses how modern and advanced the world has become, and how civilisation is choosing to become more and more instinctively primitive. This idea is conveyed through the concept of nuclear warfare, and how scientific advancements often lead to the death of many innocent people. Both authors are trying to convey a distinct message about society; intelligence and reasoning can easily be used for the wrong things. Also, they suggest that in order to maintain a functioning society, one must prevent their own intellect from being taken advantage of. In respect of the people that were taken too soon in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as all other unnecessary fanfares of war, let scientific reasoning and modern ways of thinking propel humankind forward, instead of being
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