Lord of the Flies "Is man inherently evil?"

Essay by yakov234High School, 10th gradeA+, April 2004

download word file, 6 pages 4.0 3 reviews

Is man inherently evil? Many people have different answers to this question some do not believe that there is such a thing as good or evil. What is good and evil? Is evil a part of every human being from the moment he is on this planet? I think that man himself chooses in which direction to go to and the environment influences his or her decisions. Many think that you are not inherently evil or good it is you and the environment that makes you evil or good. William Golding in his book is trying to prove and say through his book that people are evil by nature. If a person does not see, what he has done is wrong or evil than you cannot consider this evil or wrongdoing. Evil is when a person knows that what he is doing is wrong but he wants and does it anyway.

In Golding's book, this supports the idea that man is inherently evil "she was black and pink: and the great bladder of her belly was fringed with a row of piglets. They kill a mother saw for a feast to recruit new members into the tribe" (William Golding page 134). The boys killed the mother sow to recruit boys when they could have just eaten berries or at least a pig without babies. In the book lord of the flies William Golding showed how children no older than 12 years old and no younger than 6 years old acted when left alone for to long on an island. At first, the boys tried to have rules and regulations for all the boys to follow, but after a while, it became chaos on the Island. The boys started to kill each other and did whatever they wanted whenever they wanted.