The Evil Within Essay, Research Paper

The Evil Within

In William Golding s novel, Lord of the Flies, Golding illustrates how much the human mind can endure insanity and loneliness before becoming an immoral being. Golding also shows that there is some hope through Simon and his ability to resist intimidation when faced by evils of unimaginable proportions.

An example of how much the mind can take the torture and torment of the darkness of man s heart is Ralph. Golding characterizes Ralph as a boy who has trouble reality and dreams. As Ralph drifts off into dreams, he could remember how nice life was before the plane crash. When he comes back to reality, he realizes how much he has changed in the way he handles things and his overall rationale. Eventually, Ralph would prove that he could not handle all the stresses, thus letting the animalism seep through him when he injures the pig. After this, he is swept up into the moment of death and blood and they all begin a play where Ralph gets too carried away and actually jabs Robert so hard that it hurts Robert.

Roger is the main character that Golding uses to show this savage evil. Roger never really does seem to be a nice person since he throws rocks at the younger children even when he senses a ring around the children that seems to have the authority of grown-ups and yet he still does not care. By the end of the story, Roger becomes so accustomed to being cruel and has become the authority figure where he becomes heartless and immoral. Even after he kills Piggy he only becomes more engulfed by the evil within; the destruction of the conch shows his resistance to authority.

Golding even has Piggy change from being a well-mannered, smart boy to a little stronger and willful kid. This occurs because of Jack s total disregard of anyone s feelings. Thus causing Piggy to build up anger inside of him and Piggy finally lets it all out before he dies. Piggy never really had a chance to lash out, but he was on the verge. Piggy also seemed to represent order in the tribe and because of Rogers problem with authority, Roger destroys Piggy and the Conch.

The whole message of the story is about the darkness of man s heart , which exists in everyone. To emphasize this side of human nature, the author had to make a situation where it was possible to display these characteristics. It would have been impossible for Golding to get his point across without these constraints, and even if it is thought that the story was written to make a point, and Golding has achieved that (Unknown 4). This paragraph describes that the whole story is about how the darkness of man s heart is brought out. Similarly, if the conflict between Jack and Ralph does not exist, then the story would not be interesting because survival would be too easy. With the lack of this conflict between Jack and Ralph, there would be almost no plot that could interest the reader, assuming that Golding would not have changed the plot to another conflict.

Again, Roger is an example of the darkness of man s heart during the newly formed tribe s first hunt. As they catch up to the sow, everyone is engulfed in that evil that will not die until its needs are met. Roger found a lodgment for his point and began to push till he was leaning with his whole weight. The spear moved forward inch by inch and the terrified squealing became a high-pitched scream. Roger began to withdraw his spear and boys noticed it for the first time (Golding 135). When Roger realizes what he has done, he begins to get into the chant, Right up her ass! (Golding 135). This dialog shows that Roger does not care what he has just done as long as his need for death is met.

Jack s transition from good to evil begins when he was hunting alone in the forest. When he got back he tried to convey the compulsion to track down and kill that was swallowing him up (Golding 51) to Ralph. The compulsion that is taking over Jack is his evil side that wants to kill anything that moves. The progression of this feeling is what eventually tears the boys apart. If Jack is able to fight this feeling, then the boys society would not have fallen apart.

As Simon tries to discover the true meaning of the beastie, he says, What I mean is… Maybe it s only us… Simon became inarticulate in his efforts to express mankind s essential illness (Golding 89). Golding shows Simon as the only boy who had the ability to try to find the truth about the beastie. However Simon thought of the beast, there rose before his inward site the picture of a human at once heroic and sick (Golding 103). Here Golding shows that Simon is finally seeing what the beast truly is. It shows that the beastie is the sick side of man. Jack displays this throughout the story. At the beginning of the story, Jack is the bravest and the leader of the Choir. This statement shows the heroic side of Jack, while the sick part is the evil within his heart that eventually overcomes him.

When Ralph gazed at the green and black mask before him, trying to remember what Jack looked like (Golding 178). Golding shows that the mask of colors symbolizes how the evil can completely cover the good of man s heart. Because of this complete transformation, a person can completely change his look and become unrecognizable to the people closest to him.

Without Jack s and Ralph s problems, life would have been easy, and the darkness of man s heart would not have been conveyed to the reader (Unknown 2). The author of this paper tells the importance of the personality clash between Jack and Ralph. If all parties get along without a problem, then the evil would not surface and their society may not have fallen apart. The passage above just goes to show how imperfect everyone s mind is and how much destruction two people can cause.

The darkness of man s heart is the main message that Golding is trying to convey to the readers. He shows how a nice, intelligent person can be transformed into a raging madman who is too caught up in his own bloodthirsty rage he forgets about all who care about that person and only want to kill. The spread of evil is always triggered by the defeat of good. Such occurs when Simon is killed, the cause was the tribes evil chant that kept them into the beating instead of realizing what was going on.

Works Cited

Golding, William Lord of the Flies. New York:

The Berkley Publishing Group, 1954.

Unknown Golding reduces the power of his message

Unknown. 6 December 2000.

www.freeessay.com/student/get_essay/book/009.shtml

Bibliography

Gerenser, Scott Analysis: An In- Depth Look

2 October 1998. 6 December 2000.

www.gerenser.com/lotf/analysis.html

Golding, William Lord of the Flies. New York:

The Berkley Publishing Group, 1954.

Moniaci, Jonathon J. Important Quotes

Ca. 1998. 5 December 2000

www.homework-online/lotf/quotes.asp

Unknown Golding reduces the power of his message

Unknown. 6 December 2000

www.freeessay.com/student/get_essay/book/009.shtml