Debate over man being inherent
Debate over man being inherentThe debate over man being inherently good or evil is a debate which has raged since the beginning of time. Rousseau and William Golding do not shy away from taking a stance on the subject. But while Rousseau believes "nothing can be more gentle than man in his primitive state," Golding's believes quite the opposite. In his novel, The Lord of the Flies, Golding attempts to prove his hypothesis by showing the behavior of a group of boys stranded on an island.
Golding's characters allow their true human nature to show through while being stranded on the island. After some time of isolation, the boys lose the remnants of the rules they carried from their old way of life. They are reduced to the primitive state Rousseau claims is so gentle. But for the boys, that primitive state is not gentle at all. When the primitive, unguarded aspect of man comes out, Golding says that this is what happens. "The beast struggled forward, broke the ring and fell over the steep edge of the rock to the sand by the water. At...
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