Lord of the Flies by William Golding Essay

Some people believe that it is instinct to act peacefully and caring, but others think just the opposite. Often, there is a mislead of human nature and people act upon instinct. William Golding believes that human nature is lead towards evil and destruction. The boys in The Lord of the Flies acted on the first one to make a decision, in which this case was Jack. Golding’s fundamental belief about human nature is strongly lead towards evil actions. This reminds me of the Vancouver fans article that occurred about 3 months ago. There are many reasons to why Golding’s belief is what it is now. Many examples can be seen in Brian Hutchinson’s Vancouver article. Golding uses strong examples of his belief in Lord of the Flies including when people started seeing Jack act savage, they began to think it could be okay to act savagery also. As in the Vancouver article, as soon as a few people started rioting, destroying property, and going wild, everyone else realized that they should begin to do the same because it looked okay from their perspective. Golding’s belief can clearly be seen as human nature is evil in all cases. One important reason that Golding makes about human nature in the Lord of the Flies is that there was a lack of law enforcement which forced the boys to lose mortality and act on instinct. In the beginning, the boys made rules and followed them, but eventually, one person spoke out against the rules. As soon as one person acts differently from everyone else, emotions may change for them, forcing them to lose a sense of civilization and go into savagery. â€Å"But I shall! Next time! I’ve got to get a barb on this spear! We wounded a pig and the spear fell out. If we could only make barbs—† Jack’s interest of getting saved is no longer in his mind. He has now focused on hunting with his crew. The Vancouver article was no different. Obviously the people of Vancouver didn’t kill one another but, they did terribly hurt one another. When Vancouver had lost, people began to riot, and once one person does something different, everyone else begins to wonder that maybe it’s okay to act as they are. The people of Vancouver did not realize what they were doing until it was too late. A lack of law enforcement was beginning to be seen at the streets of Vancouver. People began to realize that they could get away with looting, robbery, and destruction of their own city! The police of Vancouver did not  realize how bad the rioting was about to come. They thought that people would slowly start to stop, but the exact opposite occurred. More and more people began to destroy police vehicles, rob stores, and break windows of buildings. There was no sense of civilization in Vancouver, people acted on instinct, in which this case was turned towards evil. Civilization did not only fade away because of the lack of law enforcement. It also began to fade away because of a desire for power and control. In the beginning, the boys voted for a leader, and they voted for Ralph because he knew how to make decisions and what things needed to be done first. Jack did not like the idea of having Ralph as leader, he felt he should’ve been leader, but he went along with it until he had the opportunity to take it. Jack knew that Ralph couldn’t survive without him because Ralph relied on Jack for food. Once everyone had gone to Jack’s group, Jack took the chance and gained control of everything eventually. He wanted what was rightfully his, being the leader. Jack had this obsession with being in control that he went to the extreme of killing his own friends. There is no excuse for murder. Once Jack had control, he felt powerful. He only went on with hunting, but took everything from Ralph until he had nothing. He did this because Ralph was the only thing stopping him of being evil. So without noticing, Jack took everything away from Ralph until it was just him, and when that occurred, he tried to kill him. Jack wanted power, so Jack did whatever he had to do to become leader. The people of Vancouver acted similarly to the boys. The Canucks fans wanted the power to do whatever they wanted. They did whatever was necessary to have that feeling of control over the city. They went as far as destroying their own city, burning vehicles, and even killing one another! Law enforcement needs to be much better when in a situation like this, but there also needs to be a certain degree of control in the city. The most important reason to why Golding’s belief is evil for human nature is because of the hunger for freedom from the constraints of civilization. The boys had been living there lives following rules by their elders. They felt it was time for change. Ralph was appointed leader but the boys felt that they’d had enough of rules and orders. The boys were completely by themselves. They were getting their own food, they were making shelters, and they appointed roles for everyone to keep up with. Jack was tired of following rules, and he especially didn’t want to follow rules from someone younger than him. Jack stepped up and made his group of hunters. Slowly, more people began to see Jack as the better leader, but Ralph had been appointed leader, so there was no change to that. They were all alone on an island; there hunger for freedom had grown the longer they stayed on the island. Jack felt that on the island, there were no rules to abide by. There needed to be freedom from laws. Jack showed them that it’s better to act wild than to act civilized, which is morally wrong but was a lot more fun. In Vancouver, the citizens felt that the riot was an excuse to act differently, to act wild. People were lighting cars on fire, destroying stores, and vandalizing not anymore because Vancouver lost, but now because it was the excuse to break rules. The people of Vancouver were following rules their entire lives. This was simply an excuse to break the constraints of society and feel freedom. In conclusion, law enforcement was needed to be done in order to keep the people from becoming worse, power and control was wanted from everyone in the city because of rules set to stop everyone from wreaking havoc. â€Å"Human nature refers to the distinguishing characteristics, including ways of thinking, feeling and acting, that humans tend to have naturally.† Vancouver used to be seen as one of the safest cities in the world. This goes to show that even the worst of places can become the worst of places.