Lord of the Flies: Human Savagery Essay example

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Lord of the Flies Essay

Nicholas Wong

ENG2D
Ms. Ghai
March 8, 2012
Task: Does William Golding present a realistic portrayal of how savage humankind can be? Or does he underestimate the goodness in people? Does Golding’s use of WWII as the backdrop have a significant impact on our understanding of human nature? In William Golding’s novel, “The Lord of the Flies”, he displays human nature in an animalistic viewpoint that is not seen in “normal” people. He describes the unknown savagery of human beings, without missing the good nature found within us, which allows us to work as a well-organized group. World War Two is also used effectively as a backdrop, since it shows that the violence is found in everyone. The theme of …show more content…
Although both events are not completely similar, Golding describes how humans will always have fights over power, therefore waging wars on each other. Lastly it is obvious that Golding shows that anything that is seen as bad started off as something good. For example, Jack is seen as an innocent child in the beginning of the book and eventually turns into the ‘Beast’ by caving into his animalistic behaviours and obsession with killing a pig. In World War Two, Germany became known as the evil party in the war after taking over surrounding countries and killing millions of Jewish people. The contradiction of Hitler’s ideals with other nations was one of the main reasons behind the start of the war.

‘The Lord of the Flies’ by William Golding does provide a realistic portrayal of the savagery of humankind because he provides accurate comparisons of the bad and good in human nature. He shows how humans are always inclined to take the ‘bad’ route in life due to our constant longing for power. World War Two is also used very effectively as the backdrop because it can be connected to events on the island and shows that the violence is happening between all nations at that time. Golding has shown that his novel is derived from the savagery of humans, but does not forget the good nature in all
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