In 1929 America faced the largest economic crisis in its history, The Great Depression. Americans flooded into banks looking for money while the rest of the world shuddered from the ripples. After WWI Germany had already been in a hard economic position yet they had been receiving money from America. When America stopped sending money the already unstable German economy collapsed, according to the Cambridge university German unemployment reached 24% or over 6 million people in 1932. Germans needed a strong ruler and in their fear and panic turned toward a voice they believed would save them, Adolf Hitler. Hitler’s rise to power was quick and soon turned bloody, leading to the start of WWII. The war started in 1939, in 1940 William Golding …show more content…
After the war in 1954, William Golding released his first novel, Lord of the Flies where he demonstrates his beliefs on human nature. Golding misunderstands human nature when arguing humans are inherently evil. Golding misunderstands human nature when arguing humans are inherently evil as demonstrated by Cults and Followings. The concept of innate good and evil fails to take into account the base human instinct of survival. The idea that humans are innately evil has many examples but all of those cases can be traced back to a sense of perceived rightness or safety. In march of 1997 the leader and 38 members of the Heaven’s gate cult committed suicide. The correct time “as interpreted by their leader ‘Do,’' whose real name was Marshall Applewhite, “was the closest approach of the comet Hale-Bopp to Earth.” (The Madness Of Humanity 3) “Do” convinced his followers that their path to redemption lay in an “unidentified point of light trailing the comet.” (The Madness Of Humanity 3) The act of mass suicide whether or not you consider it to be evil, was brought on because the people who participated wanted to achieve “redemption”. Their motivation was the desire to feel safe. People will do a lot to remain safe, good or evil. In Lord …show more content…
As Jack led his group in a chant Simon emerged and the group chanted “Kill the beast Cut his throat! Spill his blood!”(Golding 152) The group was afraid of Simon because they thought he was the beast. Jack had convinced the group that the beast was dangerous. Jack had inadvertently started an almost cult-like fear of the beast so they sought to kill it for their own safety. The murder of Simon was an evil act committed not in the name of evil but the name of perceived safety. Golding attempts to use the scene to show the evil of human nature but all it shows is the effect of belief. The boys believed Simon was the beast so he was. They believed the beast was dangerous so to ensure their safety the beast had to die. So Simon died. Yet another example of this effect is the events of January 6, 2021. January 6th was the day the members of congress were certifying the results of the recent presidential election and more than 2,000 people stormed and entered the capital building. In his speech on the day former president Donald Trump said “And we fight. We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell,
One of the main factors was hyperinflation. This is when prices increase while value of money decrease. According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, hyperinflation caused a depression, which undermined, “the stability of the German economy.” Jobs were hard to find and didn’t pay enough even when you had one. This caused the people of Germany to be in desperate need of help from anyone who could offer it.
To elaborate on motif, there is a chant that keeps repeating among the group of little boys “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” (Golding 152). In this excerpt from the book the boys chant leads up to Simon a side characters death.
Simon’s death serves as a way to prove that people are more evil than good. Simon was in the forest, and learned how the beast was false and didn't exist. When he comes out of the forest at night, Jack and his group ritualistically murder him. Even though at first it seems like it's a mistake, a later quote
The beast was on its knees in the center, its arms folded over its face. It was crying out against the abominable noise something about a body on the hill. The beast struggled forward, broke the ring and fell over the steep edge of the rock to the sand by the water. At once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt on to the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore. There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws” (152) demonstrates that the fear of the beast controlled the boys, and influenced them to kill Simon.
What Simon is trying to say is that while they are fearing an imaginary beast, it is causing them to turn into monsters. Lastly, Fear causes them to kill Simon. They turn savage, and they go insane. They claim Simon is the beast, and they kill him because of it. You also must consider
In Lord of the Flies, Golding shows how human nature is more evil than good. This stance is an accurate reflection on human nature because of what events took place in Lord of the Flies, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Nazi Germany/Adolf Hitler. Golding presents that human nature is evil through various kids on the island. For example, one child that comes to mind is Roger.
The boys do not listen, they start to attack Simon, killing him. “The beast struggled forward, broke the ring and fell over the steep edge of the rock to the sand by the water. At once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt on to the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore. There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws” (153). Jack lead the tribe to killing Simon.
Similar to Lord of the Flies, people in the modern world are constantly in a fight between being a good and evil person. Golding takes the reader on a journey with the boys, and demonstrates a theme of good vs. evil. Lord of the Flies, by William Golding is a story about teenage boys trapped on an island that are separated from civilization. The two main characters in the book, Jack and Ralph struggle for power and drive the story forward. In this book, William Golding addresses the theme that men are good rather than evil and he must save himself from the corruption surrounding him.
This gets him nowhere among the boys, and he stays a follower. Since the boys are split up, Simon is the only one to believe there is no beast, and he dies attempting to preach there is no beast. Jack’s ruthless hunters attacked him when he was “crying out something about a dead man on a hill” (Golding 152). This shows Simon is a smart guy, but his lackadaisical attitude leads him to his demise, which ends up being his most significant failure, costing him his
This shows that the boys are only afraid of themselves, because they are their own worst enemy. He is the first to figure out that the beast is not an actual beast, and how it is only the boys becoming savage, and starting to be afraid of one another. As Simon began to explain this to the doubtful boys, he was the only one who died knowing the
As a consequence of the hunting group’s fear of the literal beast, Simon dies.
All humans are bound to do something bad or life changing, but whether it is permanent is a decision that all people make. One who can be perceived as good, can also desire to feel the thrill of a kill. Humans have a tendency to lean towards the decision or action that is most exciting. If those choices are on the wrong side of the scale, it is up to a person to make the right decision. One who is seemingly good, submits or chooses evil first by being tempted to act corrupt, then participating in nefarious activity with enjoyment, and finally, by knowingly taking part in an event that leaves one permanently labeled as evil.
The collective fear of the unknown leads to the untimely and accidental death of Simon. The distress present in the boys causes their impulsive action, of Simon’s horrific murder. Fear of “the beast” an imaginary creature causes the boys to act irrational, and provokes survival instincts as a result of life threatening terror. The fear of the boys in this moment is epitomized when they chant, “Kill the beast!, Cut his throat, Spill his blood!” (168).
During Simon’s encounter with the Lord of the Flies, Golding reveals the central issue concerning human nature. Simon reaches the realization that they fear the beast because it exists within each of them. The Lord of the Flies tells Simon that the beast is inside each boy and cannot be killed. The boys go from behaving like civilized young men to brutal savages. “What I mean is…maybe it’s only us.”
Evil is a simple word that we learn at a young age and that we understand is bad. However, our youth and innocence prevents us from knowing the weight the word holds. As our understanding of evil develops, we begin to see evil all around us. Although we hold common societal definitions of evil, each person is bound to view evil slightly different from others. Someone might consider alcoholism evil, while others consider it normal: someone might believe racism is evil, while others believe it is natural.