Lord of the Flies Essay

In the novel Lord of the Flies, the author places a group of children in a situation where there are no grown ups to control them. On an island, faraway from civilisation, it is up to the schoolboys to establish a new society with new rules, so that they can live together. But their attempt at an ordered life soon falls apart and each of them is driven by an inner beast, which tempts them into evil. The novel suggests that even though man has evolved over the centuries, becoming civilized and leaving the cave for the city, the savage within him still remains. Disconnected from the restrictions of society, he slips back into a life where the strong dominate through fear, and there is no place for the weak other than as blind followers. It raises a very simple yet important question – do the strong always hurt the weak? Hunting is one clear theme from the text, which implies that the author’s answer to this question is ‘yes’. Since the beginning, the boys get classed according to their strength: Ralph is chosen as the chief, the littluns are left to themselves, Piggy and Simon are largely ignored and Jack becomes the leader of the hunters. Jack wants to be the one to provide ‘meat’ for the tribe. Yet, as time goes by, he seems to become more obsessed by the thrill of killing, feeling a â€Å"compulsion to track down and kill† that is â€Å"swallowing him up. † When the boys hunt the sow suckling its piglets, they choose the weakest and most innocent of preys. The killing is described almost as a sexual act indicating the amount of pleasure it gave them: â€Å"Then Jack found the throat and the hot blood spouted over his hands. The sow collapsed under them and they were heavy and fulfilled upon her†. In the island’s government, Jack also uses his power to hurt the weak to establish his authority. He shows off his hunting skills to convince the boys that he will be a better leader and give better protection against the feeble. When Roger kills Piggy, Jack screams, â€Å"See? See? That’s what you’ll get! † His set of laws is enforced through fear and punishment, and even when Ralph is alone and defenceless, he wants to hunt him down and kill him. Although Jack and Roger are the most obvious examples of strong hurting the weak, most of the other boys also have the same instinct. Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Kill the pig! Bash him in! † they chant as they act out their hunt around the bonfire and do a savage dance. The performance seems to carry them into a hypnotic trance, which leads to the vicious killing of Simon. By the end of the novel, even the littluns have gone wild. Carried away by fear and violence, they join the hunt for Ralph. It is easy to see that Lord of the Flies reflects a very pessimistic view of human nature. The author seems to judge that the desire to hurt the weak is an inherent instinct in man. The thesis definitely holds true in the world showed in the book. But to fully understand whether it is true or not, it is important to apply it to the real world as well. There are countless examples in everyday life and history that support the thesis question. In 1996, the sports accessories giant Nike was hauled to court for exploiting children under sixteen to work in their sweatshops in Indonesia (Harsono, 1996). Not only was the company breaking Child Labor Laws, it was making the children work like slaves in terrible working conditions. They were being paid the official minimum wage, which was less that $2. 17 per day allowing Nike to make exorbitant profits. Children form the weakest section of human society and therefore are often hurt and exploited. But they in turn, can also become the tormentor for others weaker than themselves. We have all seen kids throwing stones at helpless dogs or stamping on ants just for fun. Playgrounds are filled with bullies who torment the meek. As Golding would say, the instinct to hurt seems to be present in us from birth. In another sensational example of people using their power to abuse the weak, The Independent (Coonan, 2006) recently featured an article revealing the ‘casting couch’ in the Chinese film industry. A Chinese actress Zhang Yu had blown the whistle on a number of famous directors and producers who only agreed to give roles in exchange for sex. And this is not an uncommon scenario. Life seems to be full of people who use their power to get what they want from those in their control. A recent film, The Hostel, explores this desire to hurt in humans, exposing it as a sickness. It is about a different kind of prostitution, where the powerless victims are sold to buyers who get pleasure torturing them. The movie shows the ‘beast’ in human nature at its worst. And the most terrifying is that the writer claims that its storyline is based on reports of true incidents. Yet, despite such strong evidence of support, one can’t help but find Golding’s worldview to be slightly one-sided as there are plenty of examples, which contradict it as well. It is true that people exist who enjoy hurting the weak. But it is also true that people exist who devote their entire life to protecting them. To accept unconditionally that the strong always want to harm the helpless, is to forget the Mother Theresas and the Nelson Mandelas of this world. The thesis ignores the human rights workers, lawyers, medical aides who work tirelessly for the cause of the weak. In the Genesis (1: 1-25), God is said to create light and darkness, water and earth, bird and beast. And so, just as there is evil, there is also good. It is a duality that is inherent in life. Is the desire to hurt the weak instinctive in man? In the imaginary world of the Lord of the Flies the answer is ‘yes’. But in real life, the issue is too complex for so absolute an answer. We cannot arrive at the truth by simply ignoring the better side of human nature and considering only the worst or vice versa. Golding’s outlook is all-inclusive and too generalized. The novel itself gives the first seed of doubt in the form of Simon. He helps the littluns collect fruit to eat. For every Jack in this world, there exists at least one Simon. If it were a universal truth that deep down all humans feel a desire to hurt the weak, his presence would be hard to explain indeed. Reference http://www.albionmonitor.com/9606a/nikelabor.html