William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, challenges the ideas concerning human nature offered by Jean Jaques Rousseau in his “Dissertation on the Origin and Foundation of the Inequality of Mankind”. The novel begins with a plane crash. His characters, innocent schoolboys, are left stranded on a remote desert island. The crash is a clever way to return the boys to the state of nature described by Rousseau. Rousseau views people as originally pure, but ultimately corrupted by society. On the other hand, Golding sees man as naturally evil. People, therefore, corrupt society. Golding uses his characters to prove his point. The schoolboys who are left to form their own society fall rapidly into chaos and violence when adults and the rules of civilized society no longer are in charge of their behavior. Lord of the Flies suggests Golding’s negative view of human nature, that people of all ages have a natural capacity for evil, and that chaos is never far beneath the surface of civilized society.
Rousseau and Golding have different opinions concerning the true nature of man. Rousseau describes savage man as physically robust and mentally untroubled, living solitary lives dedicated to self-preservation, “self preservation being his chief and almost sole concern”(Rousseau 7). He is corrupted only when he is brought into society with others and begins to desire things beyond what is necessary to meet his immediate needs. Rousseau writes, “let us conclude that, being self-sufficient and subject to so few passions, he could have no feelings or knowledge but such as befitted his situation” (Rousseau 19). Golding’s characters are placed in perfect state of nature with abundant fruit to eat and fresh water for drinking and bathing in. Yet they do not follow the solitary, peaceful life of Rousseau’s savage man but instead immediately begin to assemble and argue. Jack and Ralph argue over leadership and the conflict between them grows. At first, Jack accepts Ralph as the elected leader. However, later, he becomes jealous of Ralph’s power and wants to seize it for himself. Jack says, “He’s not a hunter. He’d have never got us meat. He isn’t a prefect and we don’t know anything about him. He just gives orders and expects people to obey for nothing… Who thinks Ralph oughtn’t to be chief” (Golding 115)? When the boys refuse to remove Ralph from leadership Jack storms away and starts his own tribe. Later, Jack’s tribe raids Ralph’s camp stealing their fire and Piggy’s glasses. For Golding, man is social, not solitary, and the social nature leads to conflict as struggles for power occur.
Rousseau claims that reason is responsible for most of the mental and physical ills of mankind, while Golding views reason as the only thing keeping order and stopping the destructive natural instincts of all men. Reason allows man to move away from the rules of nature and therefore indulge in excesses resulting in exhaustion, pain and anxieties. Rousseau concludes that “man frequently deviates from such rules to his own prejudice… Hence it is that dissolute men run into excesses that bring on fevers and death: because the mind depraves the senses and the will continues to speak when nature is silent” (Rousseau 7). Golding views reason differently. Reason is the foundation of civilized society and the rules and order that Piggy and Ralph try to enforce on the group. Piggy tries to organize the boys and to keep them from behaving without first thinking of what the consequences of their actions might be. After they rush off to start an enormous wild fire, he yells at them saying “How can you expect to be rescued if you don’t put first things first and act proper” (Golding 42)? Ralph, realizing that it is their only hope for rescue, is concerned mainly with starting and maintaining a signal fire on top of the mountain. For Golding, reason promotes order and therefore is mans best hope of rescue. Natural impulses are more likely to be destructive.
Rousseau and Golding also disagree with respect to man’s ability to have compassion for others. Rousseau believes that natural man possesses an inborn compassion which prevents him from harming other creatures beyond that which is absolutely necessary for his own self preservation, “a natural repugnance at seeing a fellow creature suffer” (Rousseau 15). That Golding opposes this view is clear by looking at the character of Jack. Jack, at the beginning of the novel, hesitates to kill a pig the boys find in the forest. Golding writes “they knew very well why he hadn’t; because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood” (Golding 29). Golding does not view savage man as being compassionate; instead, it is the civilized Jack who cannot stand the thought of harming the pig. Later on, after Jack has drifted farther into savagery, he finds pleasure in brutally killing the pigs. The games reenacting the hunt become more and more violent, until finally Simon is killed. Even Ralph participates in the murder of Simon, suggesting that everyone has an ability to be evil under the right conditions. This central theme of the book is clearly illustrated by Simon’s conversation with the Lord of the Flies when it says “Fancy thinking that the Beast was something you could hunt and kill… You knew didn’t you? I’m part of you. Close, Close, Close! I’m the reason why it’s a no go? Why things are what they are” (Golding 130)? Clearly Golding disagrees with Rousseau’s idea of the natural compassion of savage man. Instead he sees man’s ability for cruelty increase when man is uncontrolled by society.
The Lord of the Flies reflects Golding’s beliefs about the faults of human nature, and the possible consequences for society. Man is not, as Rousseau would suggest pure and compassionate but instead is often brutal and in conflict. Golding’s idea of the dark side of human nature, while frightening, appears accurate. Every day reports of man’s violence against others are seen, both individual acts and nations at war. Lord of the Flies delivers an important message to all readers; man’s only hope is to recognize the beast within and attempt to control it through the civilizing effects of government and religion.
