American leader and activist, Martin Luther King Jr. once said, Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness. In other words, behind every man is the cruel decision whether to be selfish and value their own needs or put others needs before their own. Likewise, 17th century British philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, who is most noted for his work The Leviathan, had similar ideas on mankind. Hobbes believed that since human beings are social creatures they could not function without trust, cooperation, and companionship. In the State of Nature, a life without laws and rules, life would be chaotic and intolerable. Hobbes felt this way because everyone would be in competition…show more content… William Golding, a 20th Century British poet and novelist of Lord of The Flies, shared similar ideas to Thomas Hobbes. Golding thought that once stripped of civilization, humans would return to savagery. Golding's views went on to discuss that all men are evil and the condition of a man was to be a morally diseased creature. Hobbes and Golding shared many philosophical beliefs, among which the most important was limited altruism, which is evident in Golding s novel.
From the beginning of Lord of the Flies, the boys put their own needs in front of someone else s to benefit themselves. To try to help the children get rescued quickly, Ralph decides to make a signal fire on the mountain top. He assigns Jack and the hunters the task of watching the signal fire as it might attract the attention of rescuers. Jack and his hunters gradually become more obsessed with the exhilaration of hunting and go into the jungle to hunt instead of taming the fire. In the Jungle, the hunters brutally murder a pig and bring it back to the top of the mountain, shouting a chant as they hike up. Ralph realizes that Jack and his hunters left…show more content… The cruel leader puts his own needs of obtaining meat in before everyone else's, even during a chance of rescue. Hobbes and Golding's beliefs are evident through the selfish behavior of Jack because without the importance of rules, life would be intolerable and cruel. Additionally, limited altruism is emphasized in Golding s novel when Jack sets the island on fire, not thinking about the consequences. After several months on the island, the rivalry between Jack and Ralph builds up and starts to get violent. As the savage hunter s craving for power strengthens, he is determined to eliminate his competitor, Ralph. The red head savage and his new tribe line up across the island and begin the hunt, using methods like pushing boulders into the thicket, in an attempt to kill the democratic leader. As the hunt went on, Jack was determined to banish his enemy forever and decided to set fire on the thicket. Golding writes, They had smoked him out and set the island on fire (1977). This cruel choice of the power hungry ruler to set the island on fire without regard to the damage he can cause to the society on the island, demonstrates that Jack is only thinking about himself. By the savage leader
