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The story Lord of the Flies by William Goldings is about a group of children who end up in a deserted island after their plane crashes. The kids began organizing themselves as a society. Goldings constant remarks about the way the children lost control and civilized manners show how little he things of human nature and their potential. Goldings expresses this lack of faith in the final result of the story.
Although Goldings suggests that humans have the option to be either good or evil their nature will always lead them towards evil. For example Goldings starts the story off by having the kids form a proper group with a leader who makes sure everything is in order. They even have rules and a conch that gives them the right to speak at the time they have it. The purpose of the order is to state the fact that human beings have been taught to stay organized and keep order for the good of everyone so the option for good is always there. Yes we shall have rules, after all we are civilized British, not savages. Ironically Jack said this at the beginning of the story when throughout the rest of the story hes the first one to take off no clothes and give into savageness. The kids have the option to stay civilized and wait for someone to rescue them, however Goldings suggests that it isnt very likely to happen. After having a series of bad things happening to them the kids start losing faith in Ralph- their leader. When Jack decided to leave the group and form a tribe he comes ever so of ten to the group to invite the rest of the kids to join his tribe and be part of the savageness. Once all the kids except for Ralph and Piggy join the tribe, they start doing things based on their instincts. For example they go out hunting and kill a sow without regrets. This shows that Goldings believes that killing is a basic instinct in human beings. Another thing is that there was a beast involved in their drastic change. Although it was just a man caught in a parachute the kids thought that it was a real beast. The kids were afraid of it and started coming up with measures to get rid of it, but only one of them realized that the only beast there were in the mountains were the ones contained within each person. When this character, Simon, was about to tell them, they killed him. Conclusion Goldings main point is that human beings went for the evil part of them instead of the good one. Human nature has the potential to pick between right and wrong, but it is more likely that they will go for the wrong thing because it is part of them. Just like the kids had the choice of staying civilized or being savages and going around doing wrong, they picked the second choice respectively. William Goldings definitely has a pessimistic view of human nature and their potential and ability to pick between wrong and right.
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