Ellie Golding’s book, Lord Of The Flies provides a deep insight into primitive human behavior. This novel tells a fictional story about a group of English boys that get stranded on an island with no adult supervision after their plane is shot down during a nuclear war. Over time, the boys show many behaviors that are savage and inhuman like when they are put into a society that has no civilization or an authoritative figure to follow. Golding expresses that it is human nature for the mind to pull you towards savagery instead of common sense when taken away from rules. He believes that human beings are guided by physiological instinct, and are moved by the urges of brutality and superiority over others. Golding’s use of characterization, symbolism, and character development are a couple of literary devices that he uses in Lord Of The Flies to illustrate that humans are instinctively evil. …show more content…
Jack starts off as a character that is driven by power and is aggravated when Ralph is chosen chief over him in a vote by the boys. This one event seems to provoke Jack for the duration of the story, though he still maintains the life of a civilized boy. “We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we’re not savages” (Golding 42). Jack believes that order needs to be put in place and consequences should be put in action. As the novel progressed, Jack encounters a pig that he hoped to kill, however he has conflicting thoughts and is incapable of carrying out his task. Consequently, Jack’s personality slowly starts to shift as he becomes more savage like when insisting to execute the “beast” which leads to Simon’s death later on in the story. Golding’s build-up of Jack’s characterization shows us that people are influenced by events that happen around