Perceptiveness on civilization and savagery of human nature reflected from william golding's lord of the flies

Perceptiveness on Civilization and Savagery of Human's

Nature Reflected from William Golding's Lord of the Flies

Introduction

Lord of the Flies, one of William Golding's many novels, is a well written, well thought out writing that depicts the savagery of human nature. William Golding the man himself is qualified enough to write about such topics because he was involved heavily in W.W.II. This caused Golding's views on life to change to his current philosophy. The shape of society must depend on the ethical nature of individual and not on any political system, however, apparently logical or respectable. The framework of a Golding novel is simple and most often copied from an outside source, then reshape to fit his purpose. The Lord of the Flies is a sarcastic imitation of the popular 19th century adventure story Coral Island by R.M.Ballantyne. In Ballantyne's tale, a group of shipwrecked English boys reach a tropical island and soon organize themselves into a reasonable imitation of the pious Victorian English society. The novel intends to show that the English people had reached the highest point of evolution in the world, and they were a splendid example to all others because of their "nature" superiority.

The time gap between the two books is about 100 years, but the numerous disasters and crises the Western society had undergone made the story of Coral Island shallow and hypocritical, sensitive intellectuals were thrown into deep disillusionment, and Golding was one of them. So he deliberately rewrote this story and set an opposite ending for it.

The overriding theme of the novel is conflict between two competing impulses that exist within all human beings; the instinct to live by rules, act peacefully, follow moral commands, and value the good of the group on the one hand; and the instinct to...