hello friends in this class we are going to discuss william golding's novel lord of

the flies and how golding represents human nature and evil inherent therein
william golding was one of the most famous and prolific writers of the post-war
england
his long list of novels include lot of the flies the inheritors pincher martin free
fall the spire the pyramid the scorpion god darkness visible the paper men close
quarters fire down below and the double tongue which was published posthumously in
1995.
it is interesting to note that golding's first novel lot of the flies was published
in [Music] 1954 by favor and favor after being rejected by 21 publishers. the novel
recounts the story of a group of boys whose airplane crashes on an uninhabited
island during evacuation. set on this tropical island the novel presents to us the
story of this group of white european school boys and how they struggle to survive
and build a new civilization in the absence of adults the novel has often been read
as an intertextual inversion of robert balentine's famous novel the coral island. a
revolution revolution project of the 19th century story from the post-world war ii
perspective. in the coral island ralph jack and peterkin gray lived their happy
lives after being shepherded on an uninhabited sorry on an inhabited island through
their civilized christian moral force not only they live comfortably but also try
to reform cannibal indigenes of the island the novel appears to be alluding to
daniel davos robinson crusoe which is another ship deck narrator recounting the
story of a white man's encounter with savages
however a lot of the flies is distinct from both the novels in the sense that it
does not have any native population to reform and civilize
the challenge before this group of standard children is to create laws and order
for themselves in the midst of their struggle for survival. golding's main
characters are ralph and jack just like the coral island peter and simon perhaps
peter kin of the coral island has been split here into two characters however lot
of the flies is not merely a derivative fable representing the popular belief that
children may become savages in the absence of adult guidance
rather the children's world on the island is an excruciating microcosm of the
frelaties of the adult world and allegorically represents the mankind has brought
ruin upon themselves through atomic warfare it is not mere destruction of the eden-
like island by the children that golding is critiquing rather it is the end of
innocence i quote the darkness of man's heart in the civilized world that causes
agony and concern for goldie
of course the children are reskewed by the naval officer but who will rescue the
adults is the question that golding is debating throughout this novel lot of lies
is a subversive novel which needs a very careful and cautious reading its most
provocative imagery is that of the beast which demands a thorough re-evaluation of
the entire tradition of european thought devoted to study the relationship between
evil and man
golding is writing about the age-old question whether human beings are essentially
good and become evil as time passes or they progressively evolve from evil to
goodness since the novel is the story of an originally good natured children
transformed into perverted savages to pursue their diabolical idea of freedom which
is to destroy the possibility of any authentic happiness
it comes out as a christian allegory based on the theological dogma of original
sin. children on the island become diseased animals driven by their innate
instincts and will to power their fall from the civilized state to savagery is akin
to the first fall of adam

golding's allegorical representation of this fall through his children is his

endeavor to project the internal conflict within man between their unruly natural
desires and cultural constraints of morality
golding does not uphold the empiricist belief that human beings start as a moral
tabula rasa struggling between nature and reason his contention is that man is
essentially capable of evil which is kept at abian's through laws and morality
golding places his stranded children on an uninhabited island which succinctly
corresponds to hobbs's idea of nature
hobbs sorry hobbs in his philosophical meditations has tried to understand what
life would be in a state of nature that is an existential condition without culture
and society
in his opinion such a state would become a state of war even worse a war of all
against all wherein there will be no place for industry because the fruit thereof
is uncertain
there is a and consequently no culture of the earth no navigation nor use of the
commodities that may be imported by sea
no commodious building no instruments of moving and removing such things as require
much force no knowledge of the face of the earth no account of time no arts no
letters which is worst of all continual fear and the danger of violent death and
the life of man solitary poor nasty brutish and short unquote
in such natural condition of mankind without culture laws state to regulate the
human nature locke posits that human beings will continuously try for annhililating
each other in their ceaseless pursuit of authority this natural state would be a
state of anarchic chaos which can be organized only by forming a social contract
which could be defined in the following words and i quote men can be expected to
construct a social contract that will afford them a life other than that available
to them in the state of nature. this contract is constituted by two distinguishable
contracts first: they must agree to establish society by collectively and reciproc
reciprocally renouncing the rights they had against one another in the state of
nature
second they must imbue some one person or assembly of persons with the authority
and power to enforce the initial contract in other words to ensure they escape from
the state of nature they must both agree to live together under common laws and
create an enforcement mechanism for the social contract and the laws that
constitute it
in lord of the flies golden golding abandons his children to a similar return to
the state of nature golding's children are without culture on the island and the
responsibility is to evolve an altogether new civilization in the process of their
survival
initially the model they choose is a Hobbsian model of social contract in which
they constant consent to constitute a society of children and choose ralph as their
leader these two aforementioned acts denote the progression from pre-political
state of nature to a rational social order
they understand that only a collective socialized state could save them from an
imminent death
their decision of forming a society is a self-interested rational act for self-
preservation of their lives liberty and well-being. however the sovereign authority
of all is soon to be loosened due to his own weak nature and jack's fierce
resistance to his authority and the little commonwealth of small children is going
to dissolve or rather devolve into a degenerate state of nature
jack and his choir relapse and relax into mystery bestiality hunting pigs and
later hunting fellow children

golding's philosophical position regarding the state of nature seems to contradict

the major philosophical postulates of russeau by first throwing his children in the
near most state of nature and later showing that unimaginable savagery golding
appears to be disputing russo who in his famous work "discourse on the origins of
inequality" contended that the state of nature was a peaceful state utopian pre-
human ideal of innocence that human society must endeavor to establish in any
society setting by overwhelm hauling existing social structures
he famously postulated man was born free and he is everywhere in chains what russo
intended to suggest was that human nature is fundamentally good and is later
corrupted owing to socioeconomic inequalities in his hypothetical opinion man in
the state of nature was free from both bureaucratic control and culturally induced
artificial needs thus he contends that the mankind's civilizational progress
denotes subservience servitude loss of innocence and relapse into evil

russo's natural man though a philosophical abstraction offers a significant

critique of urbanized industrial man who has been the project rather an
enlightenment project as the paragon of civilization
russo has classified his natural man into two categories
ignorant natural man who inhabits the pre-social animal realm of instincts endowed
only with mechanical cognition and fulfilling his limited biological needs and
second
capable natural man who is strong rational but exempt from the illnesses of
civilization it seems that russo idolizes natural man who symbolizes pre-social
innocence in the state of nature
the projection of natural man is a philosophical critique of urban modernity and
its civilizational procedures which according to russo denature man to transform
him into a civilized man russo's natural man is good whole and free in contrast to
the civilized man who is evil fractured and limited

russo has said in his famous work and i quote the natural man man lives for himself
he is the unit the whole dependent only on himself and on his like that citizen is
but the numerator of a fraction whose value depends on its denominator
his value depends upon the whole that is on the community good social institutions
are those best fitted to make a man unnatural to exchange his independence from
dependence to merge the unit into the group so that he no longer regards himself as
one but as a part of the whole and is conscious of the common life
russo civilization civilized man is trapped in slavish prejudice and a coat and is
born and dies a slave imprisoned by the repressive slavish institutions
however golding's natural bodies in lot of the flies degenerate into depraved
savages in the state of nature. ralph on the recommendation of piggy intends to
create an ethical democracy of children on the island which might have ensured
liberty and individual autonomy to all the children
ralph's project equals the tenets of enlightenment project which promises every
individual self-actualization and self-fulfillment through reason however jack the
antagonist an agent of evil in the novel initially agrees to have an obey rules in
the society of children he says
and i quote i agree with ralph we have got to have rules and obey them after all
we are not savages we are english and the english are best at everything
however his later transformation is into a monstrous child dictator and return to
the animal nature is symptomatic of golding's critique of russo's natural natural
man
golding is suggesting that the possibility of savagery in natural man cannot be
denied like its presence in the civilized man is too obvious to be ignored
through his allegorical representation of the terrifying potential of violence in
the children to critique the brutality of the atomic war europe was recovering from
golding contends that evil lying latent and dormant in human heart has potential to
disturb and disrupt the veneer of human civilization at any moment unfortunately
golding is sorry undoubtedly golding is profoundly critical of the enlightenment
faith in the natural goodness of humanity his man is selfish self-seeking insecure
being whose biological and artificial desires could drive him or her any moment to
the path of self-destruction and savagery in golden's conception romantic desire
for return to nature was merely a philosophical abstraction an indication of the
possibility of regressive reversal from the profits of civilization
in several respects golding also stands in the tradition of kant and hegel

kant has famously theorized that human beings are characterized by a natural
predisposition to good and propensity to evil can't is suggesting that not
necessarily every human being is evil but propensity to evil is a basic feature of
all human beings
however social existence of individuals mediated by cultural contexts and relations
serves as the fertile source for the origin of radical evil

level writes and i quote now the ground of evil cannot be placed as is so commonly
done in man's sensuous nature and the natural inclinations arising there from for
not only are these not directly related to evil rather do they afford the occasion
for what the moral disposition its power can manifest namely virtue we must not
even be considered responsible for their existence we are accountable however for
the propensity to evil which as it affects the morality of the subject is to be
found in him as a free thing free acting being and for which it must be possible to
held him accountable as the offender
these two despite the fact that this propensity is so deeply rooted in the power of
choice that we are forced to say that it is to be found in human nature it must be
observed here that can't expounds the notion of individual responsibility and holds
man accountable for his sins or voices and transgression of moral laws despite
proposing the innateness of evil in man however khan demands a moral revolt from
humanity to overcome its innate propensity to evil which is which immoral
tendencies could be easily aggravated in propecious social dynamic

golding's jack initially the robust hunter instinctively pursues brute power and
overthrows ralph's democratic order in a fascist coup through jack and his nazi-
like gang golding is suggesting that radical evil of kant that human beings
consider to be outside is within the civilized man the world is characterized by
recurrent in humanity and evil is its ever present feature

beast the children fear on the island and want to kill is within them and this
ethical revolution is sown through the killing or crucifixion of simon the christ-
like figure in the novel

just before the moment when he discovers that beast was merely the dead parachutist
simon encounters the proper beast lord of the flies referring to belgium bilderberg
the chief of devils literally lord of the flies is a mutilated pig's head hung on a
stick which was a gift for the beast by the boys

figuratively it symbolizes the cruelty violence and moral depravity of the children
their regression into savages the sir real conversation between simon and a lot of
the flies in the novel is symbolical of that and i quote

the lord of the flies spoke in the voice of a school master this has gone quite far
enough my poor misguided child do you think you know better than i do there was a
pause i'm warning you i'm going to get waxy do you see you are not wanted
understand we are going to have fun on the island understand we are going to have
fun on this island so don't try it on my poor misguided boy or else simon found he
was looking into a vast mouth there was blackness within a blackness that spread or
else said a lot of the flies we shall do you

simon here approximately represents the natural goodness and innocence of man he
recognizes the evil his discovery has hope of the moral revolt from the children
offend possibility of their corrective redemption however his communal murder at
the hands of his friends in the midst of an orgy orchestrated as a ritualistic
slaughter of the beast has a sinister moral relation golding here equals what hegel
has aptly summed up about human nature many years before golding and i quote well
we all know the theological dogma that man's nature is evil tainted by what we call
original sin now while we accept the dogma we must give up the setting of incident
which represents original sin as consequent upon an act of the first man for the
very notion of spirit is enough to show that man is evil by nature it is an error
to imagine that he could ever be otherwise as it is evident from the passage that
hegel recognizes the possibility of an absolute moral world is feeble yet the
process of ethical development of mankind is possible only within the framework of
acculturation because mankind is not at present as it ought to be it becomes
essential that human beings overcome their slavish pursuit of natural instincts and
abide by rational principles of reason in hegel's opinion ethical conduct of
humanity is possible only through the cultural construction of the ideal of an
ethical conscience which can be realized only through reason and reflection hegel
rightly contends that it is a matter of human responsibility is human freedom
recognized it's being posited by humanity itself humanity has dignity only through
the acceptance of guilt in a lot of lies golding illustrates this overcoming the
fear of evil and it could be he says it could be actualized through isolated
self-reflection simon through his exemplary self-sacrifice offers a little hope
his death accompanied by another killing of piggy shows that the darkness of human
heart could be cured only through acceptance of guilt

i quote from the text ralph looked at him dumbly for a moment he had a fleeting
picture of the strange glamour that had once invested the beaches but the island
was caused up like dead wood simon was dead and jack had the tears began to flow
and sobs shook him and infected by that emotion the other little boys begin to
shake and stop too the final moment is a moment of recognition of their crimes for
ralph and other boys

it is a moment of subjective self reflection born out of an anguished experience of

guilt although the christian doctrine postulates that mankind is by nature evil and
it is loftier than the other which takes him to be by nature good golding suggests
that it is only through tears of guilt that mankind could redeem itself

and could free itself of evil thank you friends i will discuss other important
aspects of the text in my next audio lecture thank you