Prompt 1
"The theme is an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature. The moral is that the shape of society must depend on the ethical nature of the individual and not on any political system however apparently logical or respectable."
-William Golding (Lordofthefliesquotes.com, 2015)
"The theme is an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature. The moral is that the shape of society must depend on the ethical nature of the individual and not on any political system however apparently logical or respectable."
-William Golding (Lordofthefliesquotes.com, 2015)
In order for a utopia to exist on earth, humans needs to be perfect. Unfortunately, it is universally known and accepted that we do not possess such a talent. Though we are able to love, show compassion and express empathy, we are also capable of selfishness, killing and surviving. To be perfect, we will have to lose our means to survive. To be perfect, we need to stop our harm-inflicting desires. To be perfect, we must stop being humans. There has been countless resolutions, systems and laws to bide us together but there is always a hamartia. By looking at different types of political systems, we will see that it is ultimately our fault for not living up to the standards of perfection, which ultimately leads to our downfall. This is not an essay about how to make a perfect government, this is an essay about why perfect governments will fail because we are humans.
Every governing system starts with an ideal. When the boys were stranded on the remote island without any form of authority, they mirrored the society they once knew, the only link to civilisation they have left; that was experiencing its own downfall due to war. Piggy in the Lord of the Flies represents the glorious idea behind a political system called democracy that upholds the rights of the majority, equality, freedom of speech and election. “We can use this to call the others. Have a meeting,” he says about the conch (Golding 16). When the newly elected leader, Ralph, put the system to use, he gave authority to the conch and whoever possesses it can speak and the others would listen without interruption. This represents the freedom of speech, if one were lucky enough to see, in a democratic government. It is the general understanding that Ralph possesses the quality of being the ideal leader. He established order by assigning tasks to the boys to ensure their basic needs for survival was taken care of, all the while maintaining a fair and equal microcosm for the everyone to live in. Sounds perfect? Then how did he went from building shelters, holding meetings and tending the fire to being chased through the jungle by armed boys in his peers, trying to burn him alive? Was there a flaw in the political system that he built? There wasn’t. Democracy, by theory is a glorious ideal to make everyone equal; it gave voices to everyone. And in this case, the conch literally did just that. Golding thinks that the problem does not lies within the system, it lies within those in the system. Democracy is great but it is not made for the right type of specie. Ralph might have lived up to the standards of a perfect human being that Golding tried to portray but his comrades, the others, did not uphold their end of the bargain, their social contract. The system failed because the boys abused the freedom that came with democracy and neglected their duties. They left Simon and Ralph to build the shelters while they play. “They’re hopeless. The older ones aren’t much better. D’you see? All day I’ve been working with Simon. No one else. They’re off bathing, or eating, or playing.” Ralph said to Jack (Golding, 50). Golding thought the boys are innately evil because they crush sandcastles, throw rocks at each other and go off bathing instead of tending the fire; that the problem with the boys was they neglect the social contract and do not want to perform their role in the society. If a society is full of perfect people who would do their jobs, the society won’t have a downfall.
Jack represents the fall of anarchy as power shifts to him and the start of totalitarianism. He came into power by not submitting to authority and through manipulation and propaganda filled with the entertainment of hunting and and luxurious feast that Ralph couldn’t provide. After winning the favours from the boys, he eventually overpowered Ralph in terms of supporters. That began his reign of fear over the boys of the island. He made himself into a God, ordered his inferiors like slaves and tortured and punish those who oppose him, not leaving room for anyone to question his authority. It is not because absolutism is bad. If Jack had been a perfect being, if he hadn’t been human, he might have ruled the boys with justice, make decisions that will benefit everyone because only he can see a higher up goal that no other boys can see. But because Jack is just a human, with all these power and so many outlets, he needs to be honest with himself and do what he wants. Golding believed humans are innately evil through Jack and the other characters. They all end up killing each other not because they are boys, and thats what boys do. They end up killing each other because that is what their basic animal instinct tells them. When you are stripped off your sense of civilisation, you will turn to your savage self. You cannot blame Jack for being human. Golding portrayed him as the perfect specimen to represent the true nature of mankind with or without order and government.
However, the world is not so hopeless and black and white as Golding had imagined. It is not so much as the defects of human nature, it is just the need to survive. Man kind is ultimately about whether one is strong enough to survive and set their own rules. If you are a survivor, you do all the things that are necessary to survive, including the things that the society deemed, “evil”. And to make a society good, they must cast any means of evil but that would make the society, the maintenance of evil. It is an ongoing cycle. However, there is no clear indication or line between our savage self and our civilised self. Just like there is not separation of good and evil. And so, disappointing the critically acclaimed writer, William Golding, humans are neither good or evil. They do things to survive.
That being said, the only way governments would work is if people are weak and needed to be together to be stronger. Since our driving force is the need to survive, bonding together with others also help ensure the survival rate because if you work as a group, you are stronger. Similarly, when Ralph blew the conch to gathered the rest of the boys, he was unconsciously securing their survival by bringing everyone together. Consequently, under a single government, everyone have to have the same type of moral code to coexist, forcing ourselves to abide by one singular morality that might or might not go against our own. Then how can a society function with so many clashing ideas of what is right and wrong? We have so many cultures, people and a short life span to understand how those things fit together like a jigsaw piece; well unless you make everyone a robot. All the differences cramped together in one small space like this is enough to destroy a system no matter if we’re innately good or evil.
That being the case, when they’re strong enough on their own without a government, there won’t be any reason to stay below in submission when they can rise up and spread their own views, set your own rules. To illustrate, in chapter 8, “A gift for the darkness”, when Jack broke away from Ralph’s tribe, he was openly rebelling and upholding his own point of views that went against Ralph’s rules, which Golding viewed as immoral. To Jack, he justified his own action to be perfectly moral because he was strong enough to do so, because he differed from the other boys in strength, abilities, ideas and morals. While Golding viewed Jack’s as the typical human behaviour when stripped off of civilisation, it does not change the fact that Jack does not represent the whole entire human race. No one else shared his view in the book, not even the people who blindly followed him. This is just Jack and his personality and so, humans are not innately evil creatures programmed to destroy civilisations, merely desperate creatures trying to survive and surpass.
In conclusion, perfect governments fail because we are human but not because we are innately evil but because humans differ in strength, ability, ideas and morals and as soon as our survival is secured, our views and morality would surfaces. The strong would try to rise up over the weak to make sure their ideas are heard and made clear and they will reject the current morality and substitute it with their own. Through Jack and Ralph, we can see two different governing systems that slipped into chaos right after they secured their survival, all because they are humans.
Every governing system starts with an ideal. When the boys were stranded on the remote island without any form of authority, they mirrored the society they once knew, the only link to civilisation they have left; that was experiencing its own downfall due to war. Piggy in the Lord of the Flies represents the glorious idea behind a political system called democracy that upholds the rights of the majority, equality, freedom of speech and election. “We can use this to call the others. Have a meeting,” he says about the conch (Golding 16). When the newly elected leader, Ralph, put the system to use, he gave authority to the conch and whoever possesses it can speak and the others would listen without interruption. This represents the freedom of speech, if one were lucky enough to see, in a democratic government. It is the general understanding that Ralph possesses the quality of being the ideal leader. He established order by assigning tasks to the boys to ensure their basic needs for survival was taken care of, all the while maintaining a fair and equal microcosm for the everyone to live in. Sounds perfect? Then how did he went from building shelters, holding meetings and tending the fire to being chased through the jungle by armed boys in his peers, trying to burn him alive? Was there a flaw in the political system that he built? There wasn’t. Democracy, by theory is a glorious ideal to make everyone equal; it gave voices to everyone. And in this case, the conch literally did just that. Golding thinks that the problem does not lies within the system, it lies within those in the system. Democracy is great but it is not made for the right type of specie. Ralph might have lived up to the standards of a perfect human being that Golding tried to portray but his comrades, the others, did not uphold their end of the bargain, their social contract. The system failed because the boys abused the freedom that came with democracy and neglected their duties. They left Simon and Ralph to build the shelters while they play. “They’re hopeless. The older ones aren’t much better. D’you see? All day I’ve been working with Simon. No one else. They’re off bathing, or eating, or playing.” Ralph said to Jack (Golding, 50). Golding thought the boys are innately evil because they crush sandcastles, throw rocks at each other and go off bathing instead of tending the fire; that the problem with the boys was they neglect the social contract and do not want to perform their role in the society. If a society is full of perfect people who would do their jobs, the society won’t have a downfall.
Jack represents the fall of anarchy as power shifts to him and the start of totalitarianism. He came into power by not submitting to authority and through manipulation and propaganda filled with the entertainment of hunting and and luxurious feast that Ralph couldn’t provide. After winning the favours from the boys, he eventually overpowered Ralph in terms of supporters. That began his reign of fear over the boys of the island. He made himself into a God, ordered his inferiors like slaves and tortured and punish those who oppose him, not leaving room for anyone to question his authority. It is not because absolutism is bad. If Jack had been a perfect being, if he hadn’t been human, he might have ruled the boys with justice, make decisions that will benefit everyone because only he can see a higher up goal that no other boys can see. But because Jack is just a human, with all these power and so many outlets, he needs to be honest with himself and do what he wants. Golding believed humans are innately evil through Jack and the other characters. They all end up killing each other not because they are boys, and thats what boys do. They end up killing each other because that is what their basic animal instinct tells them. When you are stripped off your sense of civilisation, you will turn to your savage self. You cannot blame Jack for being human. Golding portrayed him as the perfect specimen to represent the true nature of mankind with or without order and government.
However, the world is not so hopeless and black and white as Golding had imagined. It is not so much as the defects of human nature, it is just the need to survive. Man kind is ultimately about whether one is strong enough to survive and set their own rules. If you are a survivor, you do all the things that are necessary to survive, including the things that the society deemed, “evil”. And to make a society good, they must cast any means of evil but that would make the society, the maintenance of evil. It is an ongoing cycle. However, there is no clear indication or line between our savage self and our civilised self. Just like there is not separation of good and evil. And so, disappointing the critically acclaimed writer, William Golding, humans are neither good or evil. They do things to survive.
That being said, the only way governments would work is if people are weak and needed to be together to be stronger. Since our driving force is the need to survive, bonding together with others also help ensure the survival rate because if you work as a group, you are stronger. Similarly, when Ralph blew the conch to gathered the rest of the boys, he was unconsciously securing their survival by bringing everyone together. Consequently, under a single government, everyone have to have the same type of moral code to coexist, forcing ourselves to abide by one singular morality that might or might not go against our own. Then how can a society function with so many clashing ideas of what is right and wrong? We have so many cultures, people and a short life span to understand how those things fit together like a jigsaw piece; well unless you make everyone a robot. All the differences cramped together in one small space like this is enough to destroy a system no matter if we’re innately good or evil.
That being the case, when they’re strong enough on their own without a government, there won’t be any reason to stay below in submission when they can rise up and spread their own views, set your own rules. To illustrate, in chapter 8, “A gift for the darkness”, when Jack broke away from Ralph’s tribe, he was openly rebelling and upholding his own point of views that went against Ralph’s rules, which Golding viewed as immoral. To Jack, he justified his own action to be perfectly moral because he was strong enough to do so, because he differed from the other boys in strength, abilities, ideas and morals. While Golding viewed Jack’s as the typical human behaviour when stripped off of civilisation, it does not change the fact that Jack does not represent the whole entire human race. No one else shared his view in the book, not even the people who blindly followed him. This is just Jack and his personality and so, humans are not innately evil creatures programmed to destroy civilisations, merely desperate creatures trying to survive and surpass.
In conclusion, perfect governments fail because we are human but not because we are innately evil but because humans differ in strength, ability, ideas and morals and as soon as our survival is secured, our views and morality would surfaces. The strong would try to rise up over the weak to make sure their ideas are heard and made clear and they will reject the current morality and substitute it with their own. Through Jack and Ralph, we can see two different governing systems that slipped into chaos right after they secured their survival, all because they are humans.