Lord Of The Flies Good Vs Evil Quotes

LORD OF THE FLIES
Golding’s Thoughts on Good and Evil

Good and evil are often thought of as choices and humans think, “Which path will I choose?” In having these thoughts, they confuse themselves, for evil is an untamable force. The novel Lord of The Flies presents the idea that evil is instinctive and make humans weak in the wake of its power. The author of the book, William Golding, conveys these ideas to us through the actions of the characters he writes about. The majority of the characters are boys who are on a plane that crashes in an uncharted island where there are no adult survivors. They learn more about government structure, hierarchy, good and evil, and leadership. Keep in mind that there is also a war between nations in the book, so the boys don’t have much of a role model to look up to. There is a constant power struggle throughout the book between two boys, Ralph and Jack. Ralph’s main goal is to get

Jack, for instance was power-hungry and selfish from the very beginning. He was the only other boy to run against Ralph, and when he lost, he was quite upset. A quote to support this states, “‘Seems to me we ought to have a chief to decide things....’ ‘I ought to be chief,’ said Jack with simple arrogance… ‘Let’s have a vote….’ But there was a stillness about Ralph as he sat that marked him out…. ‘Him with the shell.’ ‘Ralph! Ralph!’ ‘Let him be chief with the trumpet thing!...’ Ralph [counted the votes]. ‘I’m chief then….’ Even the choir applauded; and the freckles on Jack’s face disappeared under a blush of mortification.” (Golding, 22-23). One could only be “mortified” after losing an election if he or she were to be the kind of person to be selfish and power-hungry---- an evil nature. So, before the island even had enough time to effect Jack, he was already considerably