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In Lord of the Flies, author William Golding constantly has the reader questioning the true nature of humans. Write an essay arguing that humans are essentially good or that humans are essentially bad. Choose one side and convince your audience using two detailed examples from the text.

User Abbas Galiyakotwala
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Answer:

The Lord of the Flies

Throughout the novel the Lord of the Flies author William Golding constantly has the reader questioning the true nature of humans, specifically whether people are inherently good or bad. The basic premise of a group of young boys stranded on an island and forced to create their own mini society in order to survive creates a multitude of challenges. With the island being such an evil environment, it is hard to tell if people are essentially good or not because being around evil may affect a person’s actions. A person could be the nicest person to ever live, but if they are around negative energy, that may affect them. The main characters included With the surroundings of evil; the fire, the beast, Jack, and Roger, it makes it hard for Ralph and Piggy to remain good throughout the novel. The characters of Ralph and Piggy represent goodness which this is shown throughout the novel as they try to keep everything and everyone together as one society…...while Jack and Roger represent evil, which this is shown when they refuse to do good when time calls for goodness. As the story progresses, the reader comes to realize that the author’s message about humanity is that it is easy to watch society unravel than it is to stand together and do good.

Simon is genuinely a good person, representing serenity, pure goodness, nature, and sadly gets killed by evil. Simon being killed by evil questions the theory good always wins over evil. With the conch representing order/law, quietness and everyone coming together, there should've been more peace on the island than it was. Roger, a character representing pure evil, in fact one of the most dangerous kinds of evil, because they don’t say too much and are the least expected to do bad. In the novel, Jack’s wild and hunty

User Sophea
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