Are all humans capable of evil? In Willian Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Golding portrays human nature as evil through depicting how easily the boys lose their humanity on the island. This is an accurate depiction of human nature because humans tend to lose morality when they are put in a situation that requires it. When discussing the beast, Simon says, “What I mean is... maybe it’s only us (Golding, 89).” Simon is saying that the only beast on the island is the boys, implying that they are the evil ones. This conveys Golding’s view of how human nature is evil. Later in the book Lord of the Flies tells Simon, “Fancy thinking the beast was something you could hunt and kill... I’m part of you (Golding, 143).” The Lord of the Flies symbolizes …show more content…
After the Battle of the Cowshed when Boxer thinks that he killed a stableboy, Snowball tells him, “War is war. The only good human being is a dead one (Orwell, 22).” Boxer responds with, “I have no wish to take life, not even human life (Orwell, 22).” Boxer did not mean to kill the human, but was forced to under the circumstances he was in. This displays how it is human nature to be evil, even when people think they are good. At the end of the book Orwell writes, “The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but it was already impossible to say which was which (Orwell, 71)” This conveys Orwell’s comparison of humans to the pigs in Animal Farm. The comparison expresses how humans are equally as corrupt and evil as …show more content…
It shows how ordinary people can do horrific things. On April 6, 1994, an airplane carrying President Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down. It was blamed on the Tutsi people, causing a genocide. According to History.com, “The genocide spread throughout the country with shocking speed and brutality, as ordinary citizens were incited by local officials and the Hutu Power government to take up arms against their neighbors (History.com).” This highlights how the genocide was done mostly by normal citizens. They did evil things because of the circumstances they were under, such as being encouraged by the government and other people. This is like how Ralph, Piggy, Sam, and Eric helped kill Simon because of peer pressure from the other boys. Encyclopedia Brittanica summarizes that, “Radio broadcasts further fueled the genocide by encouraging Hutu civilians to kill their Tutsi neighbors, who were referred to as “cockroaches” who needed to be exterminated (Encyclopedia Brittanica)” This is an example of how propaganda and dehumanization can also cause people to do evil things. This is similar to how in Animal Farm Napoleon called Snowball names to convince the other animals he was bad. It is also similar to how in Lord of the Flies, the boys called Simon “The beast” to convince themselves that they had not murdered a human. This highlights how evil can be brought out in people by
They were killed if they were an adult or a child. We also see that women were brutally raped by Hutu guards and they further killed by them. This shows the sick viciousness of the genocide and the attitude towards all the Tutsis. Similarly Source A shows us how the Rwandan Tutsis that were trying to outrun the Hutu Extremists and survive the genocide had to keep moving during the day. It tells us that any little aspect that went wrong could be the end of your life.
Over the course of 3 months in 1994, around 1 million citizens, mostly Tutsis and moderate Hutus opposed to genocide, were brutally murdered by the more dominant Rwandan Tribe, The Hutus. There were two tribes in Rwanda: Hutus and
At first, the boys believe that the beast is an animal on the island after seeing a snake-like figure in the jungle. However, when Simon meets the “Lord of the Flies”, he realizes that the beast is, in fact, roaming the island but not in the form the boys imagine. Simon, a young boy in Ralph’s tribe, wanders off discovering a pig’s head on a stake and starts to hallucinate that the head is talking to him. “Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!” said the head. For a moment or two the forest and all the other dimly appreciated places echoed with the parody of laughter,” (143).
As all the boys start to develop into savage people the fear of the beast tends to increase. Simon is the only who doesn’t believe in the Beast but no one tries to understand his way of thinking. Beast is the reason why one of the boys gets killed. The Beast represents evil and darkness on the island. The Lord of the Flies is the Pig’s head Jack cuts which is
The boys believe the Beast is a large animal or a ghost. When a dead parachuter falls on the island, they assume that the parachuter is the beast. In contrast, Simon realizes the beast is only in their minds. He tells the boys, “what I mean is… maybe it’s only us”(89). As a result of believing in the Beast, the boys became more savage.
No, the shooting down of President Habyarimana’s plane did not initiate the genocide but rather, the genocide was affected by the deep rooted tensions between two groups who inhabited Rwanda, the Hutu’s and the Tutsi’s. These two groups had gone through a long period of power struggles which will be explored throughout this essay. Showing that the genocide did not occur as a result of one assassination. “It is buried too deep in grudges, under an accumulation of misunderstandings...’ . Although it is argued that the plane crash did indeed initiate the genocide and that the genocide was merely a reaction to the plane crash.
When the “beast” is first introduced, it is nothing more than the children's fear manifested. In chapter 2 of “The Lord of the Flies” (Doc. A) a boy “About six years old, and (with) one side of his face blotted out by a mulberry-colored birthmark” imagines a “beast” in the form of a snake-like figure. Their elected leader, Ralph, desperately tries to dissuade this
Simon begins to hallucinate a conversation with the beast in which the beast says, “Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!!... You knew, didn’t you? I’m a part of you” (135). Upon Simon confronting the sow’s head, the “Lord of the Flies” tells him that he is not real
This is shown when the “Lord of the Flies” identifies himself as a beast, and speaks to Simon saying, “You knew didn’t you?’ I’, part of you.” Just before this conversation, Jack and his
The Rwandan genocide was a mass murder of thousands of Tutsi people by the Hutu people, they were viciously killed and scared out of their country, partly due to the rumor that a Tutsi man ordered the death of the Rwandan President. To begin, from April to July 1994, members of the Hutu ethnic group in the East-Central African nation murdered 800,000 men, women, and children from the Tutsi ethnic group. During this period Hutu civilians were forced by military soldier and police officers to kill their neighbors, friends, and family (“10 facts About the Rwandan Genocide-Borgen”). Radio stations encouraged ordinary civilians to take part in the killings (“10 facts About the Rwandan Genocide-Borgen”).
The lord of the flies commanding Simon to “get back” to the children who later murder him, the Christlike figure, demonstrates the Devil’s strong control over all people(143). Being comparable to the Devil, the lord of the flies is very deceiving and convinces Simon to march to his death, like Jesus did to his crucifixion. Corruption is among the boys as even the Christlike figure falls to temptation and is murdered amidst the violence of the island. The boys fearfully leaving the pig head for “the beast” as they try to appease a creature of the Devil’s works, reveals just how much power people give to monsters(137). Because the boys are trying to appease the beast, they are worshiping an evil entity like humans are naturally drawn to.
The quote “‘Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!’ said the head.” (Golding 164) expresses that the Lord of the Flies is divulging to Simon that the evil is not something that can be hunted or killed but is within the boys. Simon also learns that the beast of evilness was in the boys all along. The theme Inherent Evil of Man is displayed through Simon learning that evil is within the boys and that this was the beast. This shows how the evil action appears as a beast and the understanding of evilness by
The name “Lord of the Flies” is a reference to the name of the Biblical devil Beelzebub, which symbolizes the evil that potentially exists in the heart of every human. The beast was first introduced in the novel by a boy, described as “shrimp of a boy, about six years old, and one side of his face was blotted out by a mulberry-colored birthmark.” (Golding, 27). In reality, the beast is not real, it actually represents the children 's fears about themselves. The boys end up letting out the beast, which is the savagery hiding within them.
This made large divides between the two cultures and later many civil conflicts between the groups. In 1994 when the president 's plane was shot down the government and Hutu militants blamed the Tutsis, radio broadcasts across the country encourages Hutus to take revenge and kill the Tutsis, in the end an estimated 800000 to 1 million people died. The globalization of Belgians colony and the scramble for africa through that part of the world into a blood conflict of cultures and terrorist/militant groups that still rages on
In 1994 in Rwanda, a one-hundred-day genocide took place killing almost 800,000 Tutsis, an ethnic group in Rwanda, who were hunted down and brutally murdered by the Hutus, a separate ethnic group from Rwanda (site). The Tutsis were oppressed by the Hutu people. After all, they were considered a threat to the Hutus because they were favoured by the colonists, the Belgians. This mass genocide causes many Tutsis to flee the country, going to neighbouring countries and even America. The cause of the genocide was the shooting of the leader of the Hutus because the Tutsis were feeling oppressed.