Amy Nair

Period 4
Ms. Mitchell
English 10 Honors

Thoughts on Golding's Perspective on the Civility of Man

Good was born into a proper family, having Knowledge and Reason as his

parents. Sense and Civility were his best friends; they had grown up together and went to
school together. Later on, Good graduated high school and went to a college away from
his hometown. When he went to college, there were some bad influences on his campus.
Soon, Good stopped talking to his old friends and lost contact with his parents and made
friends with the rowdy students on the campus, Evil and his good friends, Uncivil and
Chaos. Evil and his companions managed to turn Good into part of their group, and Good
slowly lost his kindness and individuality. After a few years, Good left college and went
elsewhere for a job, but he still kept in touch with his rowdy pals from college and never
contacted his family and friends in his hometown ever again.
In the novel, Lord of the Flies, William Golding attempts to answer whether man
is inherently uncivil or civil, and Golding answers by saying that man are naturally evil
and uncivil. In novel, a group of young British schoolboys are stranded on a remote
island and they struggle to be rescued and they fight to survive and to be the most
dominant out of group. At the beginning of the novel, most of the schoolboys were well
mannered expect a few outliers, the boys had decided upon a leader quickly and had
started to hunt and do other things need for them to survive. Meetings were called often
and if a decision needed to be made, then the boys would come to a solution via
democratic processes such as voting. As time went on, more and more boys became
exposed to the rowdy outliers and they started to become unruly and uncivil. When this
occurred, the boy that held power started to slowly lose his influence upon the boys and
the democratic government they had set up started slowly crumbling down. From this

novel and other sources such as articles and videos, the conclusion that I have made is
that man is not innately uncivil or evil, as man values self-preservation and social bonds.
Furthermore, incivility and evilness is grown into man when man is surrounded and/or
influenced by some "bad apples", who are outliers from society, and lacking proper
guidance when growing up, and when scared or in a dire situation.
Firstly, humans are not innately uncivil as they value social bonds and selfpreservation. In Lord of the Flies, the schoolboys have just regrouped and have started to
think about what to do next. They soon elect Ralph as chief, and afterwards Ralph says,
"Listen, everybody. () If this isn't an island we might be rescued straight away. So
we've got to decide if this is an island. Everybody must stay round here and wait and not
go away." (Golding 23). After saying this, a boy, Simon, volunteers to come along with
Ralph and Jack to see if the land is an island, and the rest of the boys did some small jobs
of sorts. This quote and the events that come after it shows that the boys on the island are
eager to listen to Ralph and help each other out, even after being stranded on the island
with no adults around to monitor them or show them how to act in such a situation. This
shows that the boys value self-preservation as they are trying to find if there is any help
around, and for that they need to cooperate with each other. Also, the boys listen to
Ralph's suggestions and does not do anything that is detrimental to the group and their
efforts as the boys know the importance of maintaining good social bonds and being on
good terms with each other as working together will mean that more is being done and
that there are more innovative ideas coming from a number of people, which leads to
everyone possibly being rescued and living longer. In the next quote, Jack has just
returned from hunting in the forest, and Ralph tells him about what he and Simon have

been doing, "() D'you see? All day I've been working with Simon. No one else. They're
off bathing, or eating, or playing" (Golding 50). In the previous quote, Ralph tells Jack
how Simon has been helping him all day with building the shelters for the group. The
other boys are off playing, or doing some leisure activity in the meantime. This quote
effectively exhibits how Simon helps, even though he is not forced by anyone to do so.
Simon helps perhaps out of the goodness of his heart, and also because he aware of the
value of a shelter. Simon might be aware that a shelter can stand between whether he
lives or he dies, when out in the wilderness. Also Simon might also be helping Ralph to
keep a positive relationship with Ralph and to be seen as a valuable member of the group,
which will gain him respect and love from the boys. Some might argue that the children
are only acting justly and civilly because they were taught to be civil, but out in the
island, there are no adults. So, if the children who were acting civilly and nicely wanted
to act evil and be uncivil, they had all the freedom to do so. From these two examples, is
clearly portrayed how humans are not innately uncivil as they value social bonds and they
very much value the preservation of self.
Secondly, evilness/incivility is implanted into man when they are surrounded
and/or influenced by a few bad characters, which are usually outliers in society, or by the
lack of guiding figures when growing up. In the article, "Why Boys Become Vicious", the
author William Golding talks about how some children in Britain have gone astray. He
says, "We are told that in some parts of Britain today there are new gangs of children offspring of an underclass that seems to reject conventional parenting. Without the
support of mothers and fathers such children have nothing but the fruits of what they can
beg and steal" (Golding Lines 38-41). In this quote, Golding talks about how some

children in Britain who do not have enough parental attention or care join gangs for
attention or survival. This quote adequately displays how children, without the proper
amount of attention and guidance when growing, might end up being uncivil, maybe even
evil. This is because the children crave the attention they failed to receive from their
parents, so they most likely will join bad company and end up being in a gang. Because
of the lack of care from their parents, these children might end up doing criminal acts to
gain the attention they did not receive. Being in a gang might give these attention-starved
children a sense of belonging and a feeling of being in a family, but they might end up
going down the wrong path. In this second quote from the Lord of the Flies, Piggy and
Jack are having an argument as Jack broke Piggy's glasses. Jack goes on and starts to
tease Piggy, "Jack mimicked the whine and scramble [of Piggy] () Piggy and the
parody were so funny that the hunters began to laugh. Jack felt encouraged. He went on
scrambling and the laughter rose to a gale of hysteria. Unwillingly Ralph felt his lips
twitch; he was angry with himself of giving way" (Golding 72). In this quote, Ralph
makes fun of the way Piggy talks and they way he talks in an almost complaining tone
most of the time, tormenting Piggy quite ruthlessly. The other boys, who did not really
make fun of Piggy, started laugh along with Jack and even Ralph, who had lightly made
fun of Piggy on previous occasions, gave the slightest hint of wanting to laugh. This
quote illustrates how people, such as the boys in the choir group and Ralph, laugh along
to Jack's ruthless tormenting of Piggy, even they would not have laughed along to if it
were someone else teasing Piggy or even if they would not have tormented Piggy
themselves. This is because the boys in the choir (who were quite submissive to Jack) and
Ralph were influenced by the evilness of Jack when he was tormenting and they almost

derived joy from the pain and humiliation of Piggy, even though they would not have if
they were to tease Piggy themselves. Jack is the outlier in the group of schoolboys, as he
is evil and uncivil, trying to derail the democratic government in place at first notice.
Some of the readers might say that the children, even if they were raised properly and not
influenced by and bad characters, would act bad because it is innate. I refute this
argument as the children do not have to be influenced by physical people themselves,
they can also be influenced by media, such as television, books, movies, audios, and so
on. Also, the children who do turn bad might have heard or seen adults at school, in
public places, or in parks acting unjust and uncivil, so they might think that it okay to act
evil or uncivil. This shows how man is not innately uncivil or evil, but can become
uncivil or evil if they are not raised with proper guiding figures and they are
surround/influenced by "bad apples".
Thirdly, man can become evil or uncivil because they are scared or because they
are in a dire situation. In the article, "A Society Without Rules", Gary Horne talks about
how modern society has become "anti-rule" is a sense. He says in his article, " [the people
or the citizens of a country] may come to the frightening realization that the rules which
once protected them are no longer there" (Horne lines 19-20). Horne talked previously
about how people who are anti-rule or people who do not care much for the rules do what
they want, but it usually civil things that they do, but later on they realize that there are no
rules protecting them. When they do realize that there are no rules protecting them, they
become scared. As I have stated before, humans become uncivil or act evil when they are
scared, the people who used to live normal lives, living civilly and all, they become
uncivil and evil all of the sudden. In Lord of the Flies, all of the boys have gone off to try

and start a fire, so that it can be a smoke signal to signal ships that are passing by. The
schoolboys are looking around and trying to find a way light the fire. Suddenly, Jack
notice that Piggy has glasses. The scene plays out as so, "Jack pointed suddenly. "His
specs- use them as burning glasses!" Piggy was surrounded before he could back away.
"Here-let me go!" His voice rose to a shriek of terror as Jack snatched the glasses off his
face." (Golding 40). From this quote, we can see that the boys have overpowered Piggy
and violently snatched the glasses off of Piggy's face. This effectively shows that the
boys, who were scared about not being able to make a fire the signal passerby ships,
overpowered Piggy and stole his spectacles. The fear that was instilled in the boys caused
the boys, who were civil and nice a few minutes ago, to turn uncivil and become
borderline evil. Some skeptics might say that the children, if there were not innately evil
or uncivil, how did they become evil or uncivil when they were facing danger? Well,
when these children were facing danger, all social cues and rules were through out of the
window, as the strong instinct of preserving oneself and their group came about. This
does not mean that they are innately uncivil, as they are not at a baseline state of being
scared or terribly frightened. This adequately shows that man can become uncivil or evil
when they are scared or in a dire situations.
In this essay, we discussed the thoughts Golding had on the unanswered question
of whether humans are innately uncivil or innately evil. I came to the conclusion that
man is not innately uncivil or evil because humans valued the ideas of self-preservation
and value social bonds. Also, humans are implanted with incivility and evilness when
they are influence and/or surrounded by bad character, when they lack guidance from
parental figures, and when they are scared or faced with a dire situation. Golding had

come to his own conclusion saying that humans are innately evil and uncivil, and
provided evidence for it, I have placed my conclusion out on the table and provide
evidence for it as well, but now readers, it is your turn to decide and settle the perhaps the
question of the century, "Is man innately uncivil/evil"?

Work Cited
1. Golding, William, and Edmund L. Epstein. Lord of the Flies: A Novel. New York:
Perigee, 1954.
2. Horne,Gary."Articles:ASocietyWithoutRules."Articles:ASocietyWithout
Rules.6Oct.2012.Web.23May2016.
3. Golding,William.""WhyBoysBecomeVicious""TheExaminer[SanFrancisco]
28Feb.1993.Web.21May2016.