Inate Evil To Kill A Mocking Bird And Lord Of The Flies
Essay by 24 • March 12, 2011 • 884 Words (4 Pages) • 4,056 Views
The capacity for humans to do good and evil portrayed in the novels To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and Lord of the Flies by William Golding (title subject to change)
It is generally known that human beings have the power and the means to help and love one another as well as the complete opposite in hatred and destruction. These two novels deal with the theme of good vs. evil in their own respective ways. One concentrates on the affect of discrimination and negligence and naivety that allows people to respond in ways that can be interpreted as being evil. Whereas the other focuses on the affect that isolation and deprivation can take toll on the very fragile psyches of children who are unfortunate to live a life set with no boundaries, no knowing the differences between right and wrong.
It is felt that a person has the innate ability to do wrong and cause harm be known to them or not. It is the circumstances surrounding a person that can dictate their actions.
An important theme of To Kill a Mockingbird is the book's exploration of the moral nature of human beings, whether people are essentially good or essentially evil. The novel approaches this question by dramatizing Scout and Jem's change from childhood innocence, in which they assume that people are good because they have never seen evil, to a more adult perspective, in which they have confronted evil and must incorporate it into their understanding of the world. One of the book's other important theme involves the threat that hatred, prejudice, and ignorance pose to innocent: people such as Tom Robinson and Boo Radley who are not prepared for the evil that they encounter, and in that they have to pay the ultimate sacrifice. This can also be said of a character in Lord of the Flies, Piggy. Piggy essentially represents the resourceful innocent and rational side of human beings, but ultimately in the face of great adversity it is an almost impossible task to avoid succumbing under a vast tyrannical regime such as Jacks. The seemingly pure spirited Simon indeed shared the same fate. Many characters in Lord of the Flies exhibit free will, which offers hope. Humans naturally dominate other species to survive. There are many examples of characters in this book that resist controlling others and ask them to make choices on their own. For instance Ralph is frustrated by Jack's inability to help build the huts. Human nature develops because human beings have free will and get to choose whether their actions are good or evil. Sacrificial heroes are created as a result of people choosing good actions against the greater evil. Simon is a sacrificial hero when he sacrifices himself to the group to tell them that the Beast was only the dead parachutist. Another example of self - sacrifice for the greater good is seen when Simon gives Piggy his food, "Simon shoved his piece of meat over the rocks to Piggy, who grabbed it."
Lord of the Flies' portrayal of good vs. evil can distinctly be seen in the characters of Ralph and Jack. They share personal
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