Lord of the Flies: A Psychological Study of the Nature of Humans William Golding once said, “What a man does defiles him, not what is done by others.” The phrase is approached so easily with his novel, Lord of the Flies (September 17, 1954), to depict the darkness of the natural man. The twentieth-century British writer in his novel argues the savagery of true mankind through a prose involving a band of young British schoolboys who are stranded on an empty island after a plane crash. He generalizes the human race by first developing the boys as helpless as they try to create a form of democracy with Ralph being the leader (and protagonist), then by creating opposition to the governmental tradition through Jack and his followers who separate …show more content…
In Britain, the people there are in an exactly same state as the boys for they are in war with other nations. Golding uses young boys instead of young men to give a sense of innocence to the reader. However, are the boys really innocent? Even if not all man has participated in chaos so early in their lifetime, they are still subject to those around them who are falling into the hands of their natural self and it could start at any age because “All, even the youngest, have been socialized by the world beyond the island, a world that for all ts “civilization” and “rules” is in the midst of a nasty war. Thus, the subjects of Golding’s experiment have already been tainted by society. They are not true measures of raw human nature.” (Smolensky 3). So Golding doesn't just depict the inner ideals of humans but also the society that they allow others to be subject to. If it weren't for things like the war or other sets of corruption then some could potentially suppress their sins for the entirety of their life. Society sets others up for potential failure if they don't already do it themselves. Towards the end of the story, the fire ignited on the island attracts a naval officer to rescue the boys. “The officer’s naïveté reinforces the irony of the entire novel. The boys come out of a world at war. They land in an idyllic spot where their basic needs are met and where they can escape the carnage of the adult world. Since evil is within them, however, they, too, war on one another. They return, finally, to a world at war because escape from the island is not escape from evil. Evil is in the hearts of people” (Kelly 5). Even the adults face such human nature and succumb to the terror ignorantly as portrayed by the officer. It is ironic to bring one out of their own sin in order to be brought in another's sin and thus fulfills Golding's purpose to warn people of the