On the inborn human nature - Lord of the flies

One of the themes of the novel, ‘Lord of the flies’ is that human’s inherent nature is savage and cruel. Therefore, Golding appears to say that our civilized society is highly prone to break into conflicts or wars, and that these conflicts or war do not result from a defect in the system but from inherent flaws in man.

In China, there have been two opposite view points on the fundamental human nature. The one is that human’s nature is inherently good, which is due to Mengja. The other is due to Soonja who believed that human’s inherent nature is bad. Both philosophers lived around BC 200. On the other hand, Hindu view point in India around BC 2000 is that the distinction of good and bad is not universal, but is arbitrary and relative. Suppose that there lives a bacterium in our stomach, but that a new bacterium ‘invades’ into the stomach and killed the first bacterium to monopolize the 'food' in our stomach. Should we feel sorry or sympathetic to the first killed bacterium in our stomach?

I feel that Mengja’s view is naïve and not quite correct. It is likely that Soonja’s (or Golding’s) or even Hindu view points are closer to the truth. Although I am not completely sure, Golding might have some of Hindu view points too, when he says that the dead bodies of Simon and Piggy are cleaned away by the enormous natural power of the sea, as I mentioned in my another blog.

Memorable setting of Lord of the flies

The boys fall in an unmanned, tropical, coral island whose description by Golding is very detailed. The shore where boys stay and sleep is described to have a lot of palm trees making shadow on the ground and behind those trees is dark jungle and space formed by scar. The shore is white because of the coral reef and surf while the sea is dark blue. There are a high platform of pink granite soil and coarse grass on top of it. One of the other significant places would be the top of the mountain. When the three boys arrive at the top they discover a circular hollow filled with overflowing blue flowers. The flowers are strewn over all places on the top of the mountain.

The island is described as a very beautiful and peaceful place like the setting of The Coral Island, a classic boys’romantic adventure story whose plot is exactly opposite to Lord of the Flies. While reading the first few chapters of Lord of the Flies, it is likely that a reader expects a happy ending. However, it is shocking that murder takes place in such a peaceful island forming a sharp contrast between the setting and the conflict.

Enormous natural power cleans up vicious things human have done, restoring the peaceful and beautiful setting. The crashed plane has been dragged out by the storm. The dead bodies of Simon and Piggy also have been removed by waves into sea. Humans destroy and nature cleans up, and this sequence continues, even at this moment. Would this alternating sequence lasts forever?

Significant passages from Lord of the flies

I like the two passages in chapters 9 and 11. The children thought that Simon was the beast and beat him. Eventually he was killed and ‘its blood was staining the sand’. Then ‘the great wave of the tide moved farther along the island and the water lifted. Softly, surrounded by a fringe of inquisitive bright creatures, itself a silver shape beneath the steadfast constellations, Simon’s dead body moved out toward the open sea’. This is the end of chapter 9. Another similar passage appears in chapter 11 after Piggy’s death - ‘the sea breaths again in a long, slow sigh, the water boils white and pink over the rock; and when it goes sucking back again, the body of Piggy is gone’.

Virtue symbolized by Simon and Piggy is destroyed by vice embodied by the savage. Of course, this unfortunate disturbs us awfully because we believe that it is not right for vice to win against virtue. The above passages, however, say that the results of intense conflicts between virtue and vice do not have much meaning because they disappear immediately by supernatural power as if nothing has happened. Perhaps, there are no such things like virtue or vice to begin with. Or the universe might not care much about the difference of virtue and vice on the tiny Earth, although it is an important matter of life and death to us.

These two passages also remind me of my favorite poem, ‘On the seashore’ written by Rabindranath Tagore.

Mood of Lord of the flies

Compared with other dystopian novels I have read, Lord of the Flies is not excessively gloomy. Most of time, I felt rather relaxed, while reading the novel. Unlike to our usual expectation after a plane crash, majority of the boys find things to eat by themselves and have fun not being stressed that they are caught in an island. They are rather enjoying living in the island because there aren’t any adults. This attitude of many boys makes the situation doesn’t look serious.

As time progresses, along with the fear about beasts, they start to worry if they end up staying in the island for the rest of their life. From that point the mood changes to hopelessness. As the boys’ cruelness starts to appear, I am shocked because I couldn’t expect those terrible things to happen. I am surprised not only by what the boys have done, but also by the progressing, and sometimes rhythmical, change of the mood. The mood becomes extremely horror at the end of the novel. I feel that the relaxed atmosphere at the beginning makes the boys appear more ruthless.

I like this change of mood better then the end-to-end gloomy mood such as in 1984 written by George Orwell. I remember that 1984 made me feel oppressive and mentally weary while reading 1984. I was more relaxed while reading Lord of the Flies. Furthermore, the intense and horror mood that lasts just for a short time at the end appears to be more effective.

I found the mood, setting and plot of the classic film (1979), 'Apocalypse Now' is a lot similar to those of Lord of the Flies.