The Nature of Evil Essay Example for Free

The Nature of Evil Essay 1: That which is morally bad or wrong, or that which causes harm, pain, or misery. 2: A force that is believed to cause wicked or bad things to happen. 3 A very unpleasant or harmful situation or activity. The existence of evil has been puzzling philosophers and leaders of all major religions for hundreds of years. The problem of evil is particularly challenging because Christianity was committed to the existence of a God that controls everything but at the same time acknowledged the real existence of evil. Some religions have tried to deal with the problem of evil by saying that it doesnt exist. In Hindu teaching evil is said to have no real existence instead being dismissed as phenomena. William Golding wrote The Lord of the Flies just after the Second World War, having witnessed the evil of this war he lost the belief that humans have an innocent nature; even children he learned are essentially evil. The Lord of the Flies challenges readers to attempt to develop their own views about the existence of evil in the human race. I found this quite challenging and after much deliberation it is my opinion that evil is within every human being because we all have the potential to be evil and that it is only laws and the threat of punishment that keeps people from behaving in an evil manner. This I why Roger in The Lord of the Flies acts the way he does. My theory that evil is within every human is also expressed in The Lord of the Flies through symbolism. I think that The Beast symbolises the evil that resides within man. I think that the children on the island were all aware that there is a beast on the island, but they thought that it was an actual living thing and didnt realise that it lies within them and that it is in their soul and mind leading them to chaos because of a society with no adults. Only Simon understands what the beast really is, but he is killed when he tries to tell the boys about the beast. Many people believe that Simon from The Lord of the Flies was mad and it is very hard to determine the difference between madness and evil. I dont think that Simon is mad at all; in fact he seems to me the most sane and logical of all the boys on the island. He is the one who tries to show the boys that there is no beast on the island and that the beast is actually the boys themselves. The theme of madness is explored in William Poes novel The Tell Tale Heart. The Tell Tale Heart is a story of domestic violence and it is hard to understand why it ends in the killing of a man. I think that it may have been caused by the narrators fear of the old mans eye; the narrator describes this eye as being pale blue with a film over it, and resembling that of a vulture. Because it is a short story we do not know why the narrator is so scared of the eye, but it is my belief that he is not actually fearful of the eye, and that he has pretended that he is frightened of it to justify the killing. I think this because the syntax suggests that the narrator has only just thought of the eye as a justification for the killing of the old man. for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his evil eye I think that the killing of the old man was evil but the narrator himself is not evil. I dont think that the narrator is evil because although to me and many people it is implausible that a man would kill another man just because of the way his eye looks but to other people this may seem quite plausible. What may drive one person to kill is very different to what will drive another person to kill. I think that Roger from The Lord of the Flies is a sadist who enjoys in hurting and causing pain. This is obvious from very early on in the novel where he knocks over the littluns sand castles and throws stones at them. Even before this I was quite weary of Roger after Goldings description of him. a slight, furtive boy whom no one knew, who kept to himself with an inner intensity of avoidance and secrecy the shock of black hair, down his nape and low on his forehead, seemed to suit his gloomy face and made what had seemed at first an unsociable remoteness into something forbidding. In the end it is Roger who pushes the boulder that kills Piggy. He joins Jacks anarchist group and becomes Jacks right-hand man. In The Lord of the Flies I believe that Jack is the leader of anarchy on the island. From the start of the novel he does not like abiding by rules of any kind. He simply wants to hunt and have a good time. Not seeming to care about being rescued, Jack and his tribe are examples of how without order and discipline we would all turn into savages. However Jacks form of anarchism is at odds with how anarchism is defined in the dictionary where it is said to be the political theory that is opposed to all forms of government. Anarchists believe that the highest attainment of humanity is the freedom of individuals to express themselves, unhindered by any form of repression or control from without. They hold that the perfection of humanity will not be attained until all government is abolished and each individual is left absolutely free. Jack is an anarchist in the sense that he tries to abolish Ralphs form of government, but he then tries to control how other people think and behave by setting up his own tribe. In many ways Jacks tribe is a lot like Adolf Hitlers fascist government in Germany. The way Jack persuaded the boys on the island to join him are very similar to the way that Hitler got people to join the Nazi Party. Like Hitler, Jack was an alternative to democratic policy (Ralphs government) and promised the boys a fun time. Also one of the main appeals of the Nazi Party was their organised appearance with their marches and uniforms. I think that this was also one of Jacks appeals, for example, when Jack and his tribe applied war paint the other boys were in awe of them and wanted to join them. By making these comparisons I think that William Golding was showing how extreme political views such as fascism may work in the short term and may be fun but that it is democracy that achieves the greatest results. In the beginning of the novel Jack, still conditioned by the previous society he had been a part of; could not bear to kill a pig. As the plot progresses he becomes less and less attached to what goes on in the civilised world and he subsequently becomes more extreme. Near the end, he feels no shame about the deaths of Simon and Piggy, or his attempt to kill Ralph and he gets his wish as his anarchy defeats Ralphs order. I think that the novel shows the reader how easy it is to revert back to the evil nature that is within every man when not living in a civilised environment with rules and discipline.