Evil Within Man
Evil is an instinct every human is born with. We know that evil can be associated with sin and wrongdoing, but what does it take to be considered evil? In William Golding's novel The Lord of the Flies, Golding represents evil as the “Beast”. The “Beast” is said to be within each one of the boys, and is shown many times with Jack, and the other hunters. The Enlightenment thinker, Thomas Hobbes, had the same philosophy. He thought that all man is born with evil and bad intent, and that government and law should be setup to keep man from acting violent and in self-interest. In this case, the adults are the government. Without the adults, there is no order, but anarchy. The nature of evil in The Lord of the Flies, come from the boys addiction to kill, Jack’s thirst for power, and the hunters addiction to the beast.
The reader first finds out about Jack’s addiction to hunting and killing when he refuses to go back to the camp unless he kills a pig. This grows into an obsession. The hunters have tribal dances about hunting the swine, with all of dancing in a circle, and chasing around Rober, and pretending to execute him.. Later on, he wants to murder because he wants to satisfy the beast with part of the kill. With the beast representing the evil within each boy, this represents the hunters kill to satisfy their needs. This comes back to Thomas Hobbes philosophy that man acts in self-interest, and man will do whatever they want to satisfy their needs. Paul Slayton does a very good job on explaining how even children are initially corrupt when born. Slayton explains how the children and the island represent the adult world, specifically at war, and how in the final fight, the reader forgets that Ralph and Jack are kids. Slayton explains this by saying, “The reader is so inclined to lose sight of the age of his characters that Golding must remind that these participants are pre-adolescents.”(Slayton 93) The killing never stops until the naval officer suddenly appears, saving Ralphs life.
Ever since the the first chapter of The Lord of the Flies Ralph and Jack have been enemies. The rivalry starts with the vote for who becomes leader, which Ralph wins. Ralph does let Jack keep control over his choir boys which ends up being his biggest mistake. When Jack and his choir boys go hunting and playing, this makes the other boys jealous. The other boys don’t want to work while the other boys get to play. This upsets the balance of power. All of a sudd...
