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摘 要

《蝇王》是英国著名作家威廉·戈尔丁的的长篇小说，也是其代表作，于1983年获得诺贝尔文学奖。故事发生在虚构的的一场核战争中，聚焦一群被困在荒岛上的英国男孩们，他们最初尚可和睦相处，后来由于恶的本性的不断膨胀，互相残杀并导致了悲剧的发生。自《蝇王》问世以来，国内外的学者们便肯定了该作品对文学发展所做的贡献，并从多个角度对其进行了分析研究。《蝇王》中的人性恶主题更是研究的重中之重，虽然近几年的研究已经慢慢脱离这一角度，但只要人类社会依然存在，该主题的研究依然有其价值。本研究将通过分析人性的善恶两面来探讨《蝇王》蕴含的寓意；将从性格、行为和结局几方面对作品中划分为善恶阵营的四位人物进行分析，来显示作品所要表达的深刻内涵：人性有善恶，人性恶的一面占主流，但并不意味着人性善的湮灭，人们通过自我救赎可以将善的一面带回主流，而这意味着理性与文明终会战胜邪恶和野蛮；另外，本研究希望有助于人们在愿意承认自己“恶”的同时与人为善。

关键词：《蝇王》；人性；善与恶

Introduction

1.1 Research background

William Golding (1911-1993) was a famous British novelist and poet. Lord of the flies was his first and best known novel, which won him the Nobel Prize for literature in 1983. His novels are rich in allegorical meaning, and are widely integrated with classical literature, mythology and symbolism. His novels are mainly concerned with darkness and evil, but also express a dim optimism.

Golding is known as the "fable writer". He used the realistic narrative method to write fables and myths, inherited the tradition of western ethics, and focused on the theme of "the darkness of the heart", showing the author's concern for the future of human beings. He is good at blending realistic scenes, plots and fantasy situations, and presenting the living social reality by the reflection of the fantastic world. Golding's novels are fables, not seeking rich and colorful images of social life, but seeking profound implications.

William Golding's literary creation was greatly influenced by his personal experience. Golding lived through two world wars and personally fought in the second world war, which killed an estimated 40 million people. In world war II, he experienced the cruelty and bloodlust of war, witnessed the outrage of fascism, and deeply realized the horror of war. All this made Golding confused with whether human nature was good or evil, then the tragedy of war and the human itself that caused the war made Golding admit the animal nature of human nature. In his opinion, human beings cannot control the evil hidden in their nature if they cannot realize it. Therefore, writers should make people understand and face up to their own nature through their works.

Golding's years of teaching helped him write the Lord of the flies. Teaching experience made him understand the psychology of children, and also made he understood that without education and constraints, children's evil nature will be exposed more directly than adults. Golding then constructed an uninhabited island to expose the evil nature of children.

Lord of the Flies (1954) accentuated a constant theme in Golding’s novel: the natural struggle of barbarism against civilization. The theme of this novel is to reveal the evil of human nature and emphasize its inevitability. However, just like the purpose of his novel, the description of evil is to let people understand and face up to human nature and require a good return. The return to the good looks more like Golding's judgment or expectation of the future of humanity. Once published, Lord of the flies was praised by critics for its rich symbolic meaning. It has been made into film twice in 1963 and 1990. In 2005, it was named as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005 by Time magazine.

1.2 Literature review

In 1983, William Golding won the Nobel Prize for Literature for this work, and Lord of the Flies was paid more and more attention in the world. In 1981, Chen Kun published an article in“DuShu”magazine to open the prelude to the study of this classic literature in China. To date, this work has been published for more than 60 years, and has been studied in China for 38 years. The study involves many angles, such as religion, moral ethics, human nature, feminism, narrative structure, mythological archetypes, symbolism and so on.

Some do research from the perspective of evil nature. Chen Kun(1981) points out that Lord of the Flies explores the existence of the evil side of human nature. On the one hand, Golding acknowledged that the civilization played an active role in the process of overcoming the animal nature. On the other hand, he also believed that the role of civilization in comparison with the evil in human nature was extremely weak, so long as conditions changed, animal nature would break through the barriers of civilization and become uncontrollable. Zhang Helong (2002) analyzed the reason why the theme of evil nature was widely accepted in Chinese academic circles. He argued that this is closely related to the character of the present-day Chinese, the traditional culture of“Born with good benefits”and the thought of humanitarianism reviving after the reform and opening-up.

Some researchers have analyzed the explicit deletion and implicit regression of female consciousness. Chen Fengyan(2005) studied the causes of female dominant deficiency in Lord of the Flies from the perspective of Phallus central cultural view. She pointed out that Golding was writing the novel at a time that women were becoming more dominant but men were losing their dominance, so Golding tried to strengthen the dominance of men through the creation of literary work. In order to restrain women's self-awakening and self-liberation, male authority was highlighted by depicting a world in which women were completely absent. At the same time, some scholars began to study the creative intention of female explicit absence of Golding. It is considered that Golding was negating the existence of women on the surface, and the recessive return of women to emphasize the importance of women's presence. Wang Weixin (2006) pointed out that as Lord of the Flies constructed the text against the background of female absence, its main purpose was not to maintain the Phallus culture. On the contrary, the collapse of the Phyllis culture proved the importance of the existence of women and profoundly revealed the irreversible fact that the Phyllis culture characterized by the oppression and exclusion of women was bound to collapse.

In recent years, some people have analyzed the Lord of the Flies from a new perspective of ecological criticism. Luo Jiaohui discussed three imbalances on the island: the imbalance of natural ecology, social ecology and spiritual ecology. She pointed out that the deterioration of the relationship between human and nature means the imbalance of natural ecology, which eventually led to the imbalance of social ecology. At the same time, the imbalance between natural environment and social ecology would inevitably lead to the alienation of human spirit, namely the imbalance of human spiritual ecology. Only by returning to nature, integrating with nature and respecting nature, can human beings avoid the imbalance of individual spiritual ecology and the emergence of human social disaster.

1.3 Need of the study

The good and evil of human nature is always an unavoidable problem with the history of human development. With the rapid development of high technology and the continuous improvement on living standards, human beings are constantly pursuing the satisfaction from material desires, which will exactly lead to the growth of evil. Therefore, even today, the re-study of human nature in Lord of the Flies is still of profound practical significance.

The study of the theme of human evil in Golding's novel has always been the focus on critical attention, because of that the analysis of the theme of good and evil in this novel is conducive to a better understanding of the gist of Golding's novel, and can provide readers with a better perspective to interpret the connotation of the novel. Moreover, there is a rational understanding and thinking of the good and evil in the novel, so as to retrain the good side of human nature which is neglected by human beings.

2. Analysis of Main Characters: Ralph amp; Jack

In this novel, Ralph and Jack are in opposition, that is, the opposition to good and evil. In other words, Ralph is the novel's absolute leading man (the good one) but jack is the book's biggest villain (the evil one). Of course this does not mean that either of them is altogether good or evil, as will be mentioned in the following analysis.

2.1 Ralph: character, behavior and ending

According to the development of the story, this section discusses Ralph's good and evil by analyzing his character and behavior, then discusses his ending to explore the profound connotation of the work.

2.1.1 Ralph’s character and behavior

Ralph, a blond boy from a middle class family, lived a happy and peaceful life since childhood. He was kind, independent, confident and bold.

Ralph expressed his great joy when he was sure they had landed on an island without adults. He felt that he had realized his dream and stood on his head. After the plane was destroyed, a group of children landed on the desert island, Ralph showed a great positive attitude. He thought that the pilot that had died had flown away and would come back. These not only showed Ralph's boldness, but also his firm belief that he would be saved. He regarded this deserted island without adults as a temporary paradise where he could have wanton fun.

The first confrontation between Ralph and Jack occurred during the leadership selection. Ralph was voted leader because of the shell that summoned the crowd and his calm demeanor and attractive figure. Regardless of the implications (this stage of civilization triumphed barbarism), the result is obvious. As the son of a navy officer, Ralph must be superior to jack in temperament and vision and suitable for leadership. Ralph put the choir in Jack's charge, then he gained Jack's favor. Judging from this, he did have some leadership ability.

Piggy was the first partner Ralph met, however he was not friendly to piggy and turned a blind eye to him. He felt that if the current situation were compared to a daydream, piggy should not be the figure in his daydream. Though piggy made it clear that he did not like others to call him the nickname “piggy”, he still shouted in front of the crowd, making piggy laughed by the crowd. Later, when challenged by piggy, Ralph realized his offence, but hesitated to apologize. He said that “piggy” was better than “fatty” (called by Jack), finally he apologized in the end to the manner of a leader. Ralph's attitude to piggy was understandable. They were only strangers and from different classes, actually piggy was not a pleasant boy in either appearance or temperament. It can be seen from this that Ralph's ego and his willfulness as a child.

After exploring the island for the first time, Ralph held his first meeting on the island. The conference laid down some preliminary rules, including determining the authority of the shell (only a person holding a shell can speak at a conference). It is worth mentioning that he was really sure that there were no adults on the island, but Ralph still naively thought that they would be rescued soon, so their task was mainly to have fun, building a fire was just to help the adults find them. Compared with piggy's pessimism, Ralph's naivety at this time is not ridiculous, It gives hope to these teenagers. He believed his father, a naval officer, would come and save them. Therefore he told everyone to play it safe, which gave the children a sense of security. He was a 12-year-old boy, a little childish and have a fun-oriented mind, but the rules he made showed that he was an independent and bold child with his own ideas.

As time went by, playing was no longer Ralph's pleasure that he began to think about salvation and survival. In order to be saved, Ralph assigned someone to look after the fire. In order to survive better, Ralph built shacks. In the process, Ralph became dissatisfied with the little ones (children around 6 years old) and the choir, who only played and did not work. His dissatisfaction boiled over into anger when he found a boat passing by but the fire had died down, leaving him to watch the boat go away. He was angry with Jack and the choir for not watching the fire, only hunting for fun. He was angry that no one realized the importance of the fire, but more desperate to lose the chance to be saved. For this, he berated Jack and others severely. However, his reprimand was in sharp contrast to Jack's generous apology. As a result, his leadership was threatened for the first time that people gradually disobeyed Ralph's management. Most of the children could not understand Ralph's anger. To them, pork was far more important than a ship that had disappeared without being seen.

Ralph tried to maintain and consolidate his position, then he found that he did not have piggy's wisdom and did not know how to convince everyone. At the meeting, he looked at the dirty people and the increasingly dirty environment, trying to restore the civilized order, found that he could not do it. Because he could not even maintain the order for the conference. From time to time he began to miss his old life and the civilized society with adults. So much so that he missed the civilized world, he became so excited after his spear attack of the wild boar that he even began to recognize hunting. He was excited that he found that hunting earned him the admiration of the people. The admiration from others caused Ralph’s desire for evil to dominate his mind. The excitement lasted only a short time: Ralph himself felt uneasy about it. However, he was still assimilated by Jack. Without Jack, his opposite, Ralph would never have realized his problem and even become more ambitious. At this time, his evil was in the incubation period and was soon under control. No one is perfect, no good is perfect. Ralph made a mistake for a while, he is still good, no matter for what reason the good exists, it exists. On the way to find the beast with Jack, Ralph reveals his fear of the beast that actually he always thought the beast did not exist. His fear and cowardice made Jack unwilling to obey his leadership and separate from his community. This was the beginning of the break in Ralph and Jack. Ralph's leadership position can be maintained only for that Jack has not brought visible benefits to everyone and the shell existed. Then Jack hunted the wild boar and feasted everyone. Ralph couldn't resist the temptation of pork and even join in the carnival which killed Simon and deprived Ralph’s position as the leader. Ralph once lost himself in this carnival. He thought that everyone had murdered Simon. Actually he dared not to admit that he was one of them for the reason that he was afraid to face his craziness at this carnival. Ralph joined the carnival partly due to that he was infected by the public and he did not actually kill Simon, yet he still could not be forgiven.

Simon's death made Ralph frightened by Jack's barbarism and made Ralph more and more understand the dissipation of civilization. No matter how depressed he was, Ralph insisted on lighting the fire and waiting for the rescue. After Piggy’s glasses (ignition device) was taken away by Jack, Ralph went to confront with Jack. This confrontation made Ralph completely lose the shell, the symbol of authority and Piggy, his best partner. Jack and others caused Piggy's death, but Ralph did not realize clearly the barbarity and evil of these people which were also one of the leading causes of Piggy's death.

2.1.2 Ralph’s ending

After Piggy died, Ralph began his escape. During the escape, Ralph realized the evil and barbarism of Jack and others which he did not want to believe and expected that they would be good at the daytime. Ralph was reluctant to believe that it was actually his desire for life. In the continuous escape, Ralph was finally forced to the beach by Jack and others. If the naval officers had not arrived on the island by this time, Ralph's fate was obvious that he would die, just like Piggy and Simon. His own salvation did not please Ralph. He cried, for the first time since he came to the island, he wept for the end of childlike innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the tragic death of Piggy. Ralph’s ending is the ending of the novel. He survived, though he lost something. Ralph, a symbol of civilization and reason, had his dark heart, he did not choose to sink to the darkness but fought bravely with Jack. Then the author kept him alive and even made him become a leader again. He is saved and will eventually return to civilized society, which shows that the goodness of human nature has not disappeared which can even overcome barbarism and evil again.

2.2 Jack: character, behavior and ending

According to the development of the story, this section discusses Jack's evil and good by analyzing his character and behavior, then discusses his ending to explore the profound connotation of the work.

2.2.1 Jack’s character and behavior

Jack is a tall, thin redhead that leads the church choir but is also a symbol of brutality and evil in this novel.

The choir came out for the first time that they all dressed in uniform, lined up side by side and marched in unison toward the crowd. Jack was the leader of such a team, which gave him the unquestionable authority. After knowing that there were no adults on the island, he offered to be the leader. The dream is good, the reality is really cruel. Jack was furious that Ralph's presence cost him the election. Actually when Ralph still asked him to manage the choir, he was no longer embarrassed and had a slight liking for Ralph. Then he explored the island with Ralph, he even had the feeling that they were good friends. At this time, he and Ralph were not in opposition, they had a certain favorable impression of each other. At this time, Jack was a normal 12-year-old boy. It is understandable that he wanted to be a leader. Just like a monitor of a class, he would choose to stand out when there is no teacher. Jack is just a bit of a proud but not too bad choir leader.

Jack met a wild boar on his first expedition to the island. First he was afraid, then he was ashamed that he dared not to kill the pig. By this time he was not strong enough to kill living things, nor could he bore the gushing blood. He always remembered the shame on his timidity, and the thought of proving himself by hunting. After that, no matter for the reason for proving his ability or to show his status, Jack cut in Ralph's speech, took the initiative to light the fire with piggy's glasses, and also took the initiative to take charge of the fire. Jack still obeyed Ralph's rules at that time. "we're not barbarians," he said. "we're English, we have to do everything decently.'' At this stage, Jack was more inclined to show his strength rather than challenging Ralph's authority, due to the reason that he recognized Ralph's ability and valued the rules proposed by Ralph. It is worth mentioning that Jack has done much more than piggy and others. It is not shameful to want to show one's ability, which is worth advocating. However, the way Jack behaved is impolite and disrespectful to others. Actually it doesn't prove that human nature is evil, it only shows Jack's shortcomings. It can be said that Jack is defiant, also one has to admit he is also willing to listen to the strong, obey the strong. If Ralph had remained beyond Jack's ability to control the crowd, Jack might not have become as savage as the story goes.

As mentioned above, Jack wanted to prove himself by hunting. In order to hunt the wild boar, Jack overcame his cowardice. Though failed again and again, he didn't retreat and became more brave. During this time, Jack and Ralph's first argument broke out. For the reason that Jack had never hunted a boar, and there were other things to be done at the moment, Ralph decided that building a shelter was more important than hunting boars. These two people have their own views on things that there is no need to distinguish right or wrong, so there is no need to evaluate two people is good or bad. However, Jack is worthy of praise for his determination and courage in the face of setbacks. It can be said that few people in this book have his perseverance, including Ralph.

Gradually, Jack lost himself that all he wanted to do was to hunt. He began to paint his face, which completely made him forget shame and self-awareness, then Jack hunted the boar finally. As a matter of fact, the boar made everyone missed the chance to be saved, but everyone except Ralph and three others had no regrets about this. The reason why Jack and others didn't have excessive regret or despair is that they haven't really seen the ship after all. Lost something which can save their lives, they won't feel too bad in that they haven't got it. After Jack caught the wild boar, he suddenly began to enjoy the process of hunting. He began to enjoy the dying struggle of the boar. He found himself free to decide the fate of the wild boar, which gave him an unprecedented sense of accomplishment. At the time Jack finally proved himself that everyone began to respect him, Jack was completely abnormal. Jack changed too quickly that there is no transition between enjoying hunting to enjoying killing. This rapid change can only be attributed to the fact that Jack has always been an ambitious man that never had the opportunity to test his ambition or wildness before. In a civilized society, a leader of the choir, he must be strictly regulated by rules. He probably didn't even know he was dying to kill, to unleash his inner wildness.

Jack became savage. He spoke at the meeting without holding the shell and began to challenge Ralph's authority. Faced with the little ones' fear of the beast and the twins mistaking the pilot for the beast, Jack chooses to find the beast. He was actually afraid of the beast at first, then his defiance of Ralph's authority overcame his weak fear. At the time he found Ralph's cowardice and incompetence to the beast, he was even more contemptuous of Ralph, the man who always gave orders. Immediately after returning, he blew the shell and held a meeting to recall Ralph's leadership. He failed, in a fit of pique, led the choir away from Ralph's leadership. There's a line in the book that says, "they used to sing the songs of angels." Seeing such a sentence, we don't know we should feel regretful or sarcastic.

After the formal separation from Ralph, Jack became more unscrupulous in hunting. He led the choir to hunt and seize the fire (piggy's glasses), not forgetting his fear of wild animals, began to sacrifice boar's head to the beast. They did these naked except for the paint on their faces and the leather straps on their body. They have completely shaken off their sense of shame and self-consciousness and become monsters, full of barbarity. After attracting the little guys and Ralph with meat, he successfully destroyed the significance of shell as a symbol of authority and Ralph's leadership and became a real leader. The arrival of his power was accompanied by Simon's death and the complete madness of the crowd. This Jack is no longer a child, even not a human, he is a monster, completely lost his reason, blindly release his evil nature.

2.2.2 Jack’s ending

Jack shrugged off Simon's death. In the following, he caused the death of Piggy, shattered the shell, and began to hunt down his last enemy Ralph. In the end, if it had not been for the arrival of the navy, Ralph would have been persecuted to death like Piggy. By the time the officer asked who was in charge of this group, Jack tried to come forward. Ralph said in advance, then he did not refute Ralph. This is the end of Jack. With the arrival of the officers, Jack's madness suddenly ended which meant the return of his sanity.

Some people would say that the ending that the author arranges for Jack is very lucky. On the island, he had been crazy and killed several children. Yet, he could return to the civilized society, and even did not have to pay for his sins. In fact, when he returned to civilization and became a choir leader again, even if he didn't repent for what he did, he would pay for it. He would suffer from his own barbarism, which may be caused by his repentance, or by his inability to repent and thus found himself at odds with the civilized society. He didn't have to die for what he did, but he was destined to suffer from the rest of his life.

If Jack had not come to the desert island, or if there were adults on the island, Jack would not have become a wild animal. He would still be an ordinary child, a selfish and willful child with little advantages. However, the story has happened. On the island, the evil faction was so dominant that it completely destroyed its enemies. However, in the end, this group was destroyed instantly by the intervention of high civilization. Civilization and reason will triumph over barbarism and barbarity.

3. Analysis of Secondary Characters: Piggy amp; Roger

In this novel, Piggy and Roger belong to the camp of Ralph and Jack respectively. The appearance of Piggy in the text is only next to Ralph and Jack. Unlike piggy, Roger is a character of little presence, but, he played a great role in promoting the development of the story.

3.1 Piggy: character, behavior and ending

According to the development of the story, this section discusses Piggy's character and behavior, then discusses his ending to explore the profound connotation of the work.

3.1.1 Piggy’s character and behavior

Piggy was a precocious teenager, fat and weak, with asthma and low social status, which led to his sensitivity and inferiority. He wore a pair of glasses, which would be an important tool for making fire in the future, but, this did not make Piggy respected by the people. He was always laughed at and mocked by the people.

Piggy followed Ralph at the beginning of the novel. He offered many suggestions for Ralph which Ralph practiced them. However, he didn't get the respect he deserved because Ralph didn't treat him as a friend. He did not realize Ralph's indifference to him. He thought they had become friends and even voluntarily told his nickname "piggy". Later, Ralph called him by his nickname in public, but, he only dared to complain afterwards. He trusted Ralph so much and subconsciously obeyed him. In fact, it was more out of his inferiority that he did not dare to rebel against Ralph, who was better than him and came from the middle class.

From the beginning, Piggy was afraid of Jack, the leader of the choir. Piggy was afraid of Jack at the first sight. He feared the authority the choir represented that Jack was the leader of the choir. This fear made him think that Jack would win the election and become the leader of the island. He actually wanted to vote for Jack at the very beginning, but found that more people chose Ralph, so he changed his vote temporarily. Whether for the reason that Ralph became the leader or because of his fear of Jack, Piggy became more dependent on Ralph and even thought he could become the second leader. Dream is beautiful, reality is cruel. Piggy was not recognized by anyone, especially Ralph, who did not take Piggy to explore the island. Piggy was a tragic figure whose good qualities were entirely overshadowed by his bad ones. His obesity, weakness and inferiority made it impossible for anyone to recognize any of his merits. He was not a bad boy, yet he's not a pleasant one either. He must be a good student and son in a civilized society in that he is extremely obedient to authority.

He was the absolute champion of Ralph and the most solid protector of the shell. He continued to offer valuable advice to Ralph, such as a clear description of the current situation and the proposal of building shacks. He was the first person to speak with a shell, and the only one to ever hold it tightly outside a meeting. However, he didn't do any manual work. He didn't look for matches, didn't help build shelters, and grumbled about taking care of the little ones. He was so depressed that no one paid attention to him. The clever boy failed to realize that he had brought this on himself. His asthma was not an excuse for doing nothing. In fact, it was not a heavy physical task for picking up matches. He had some determination to explore the deserted island with Ralph, but, he could not even pick up matches. It's understandable why he was isolated from his peers. From Piggy's point of view, he probably didn't know why he was considered an outsider. A sickly boy, he would not be required to do physical work, even his family would limit his activities. He ignored the fact that his peers would not care about that whether he was ill or not. All they saw was his inaction and cowardice.

As the ship that could save them left, he cried and accused Jack. It turned out that he was beaten by Jack. Because of this, Jack, who didn't like him, was even more critical of him. At the time Jack first caught a wild boar, he was the only person that wasn't allowed to eat meat. The reason why he dared to accuse Jack was not because of his courage, but in that he agreed with Ralph's authority, which, in his opinion, would always support him. When the status of Jack and Ralph changed, he still thought that Ralph could always be the leader because of the shell. He wasn't so stupid as to think Ralph would always be the leader of the group. He firmly believed in the authority of the shell, and he believed that people would obey the owner of the shell, which was the main reason why he always held the shell. It's not that he wanted to be a leader, he knew he could not be a leader, he just needed the shell to bring him attention, give him a sense of security. Then the premise that he could hold the shell was that the owner of the shell was not Jack, a person to make him fear. Therefore, when Ralph and Jack were separated, he naturally followed Ralph.

At the first time that the beast was mentioned, he took a strong stand. He said one should believe in science, there was no such thing as ghosts or monsters. However, he would not take the initiative to find out the truth. He mocked Simon, a prophet that was willing to take the initiative to find out the problem and tell the truth. The night Simon died, he was partying with everyone, but afterwards, he only dared to take Simon's death as an accident. Simon's death did not make him realize the fact Jack had become a beast. Piggy was an armchair strategist, with a mind that could not recognize reality.

3.1.2 Piggy’s ending

After carnival night, Piggy and Ralph continue to watch the fire, waiting to be rescued. From time to time he thought about modern civilization and longed for adult help. However, Jack savagely snatched Piggy's glasses which were their last hope of salvation. Like I said, he didn't recognize reality. He wanted to hold a meeting with a shell, where he could talk to Jack equally and get his glasses back. The reality was his naivety led directly to his own death. It should be noted that when he was crushed to death by the boulder, he still held the shell tightly.

In my opinion, Piggy is the most vivid character of the whole book. His merits are obvious, so are his demerits. He looked down on everyone except Ralph and Jack, two authorities. Anyway he did not do any harm to others, even if he was despised and accepted as an outsider. He was the only person that followed Ralph from beginning to end. In other words, he believed in civilization and rationality till death. Although he did not recognize the reality, he stuck to his belief, for this people can not say that he was pedantic or stupid. He was a boy that believed that civilization had always triumphed over savagery.

In this book, three people died, they are the pilot, Simon and Piggy. One thing they have in common was that their body were taken away by sea. They didn't leave the desert island when they were alive, they got their wish after they died.

3.2 Roger: character, behavior and ending

According to the development of the story, this section discusses Roger's character and behavior, then discusses his ending to explore the profound connotation of the work.

3.2.1 Roger’s character and behavior

In this novel, Golding does not write much about Roger. In these few depictions, it's all about Roger's bad side. He is like a shadow of evil, never noticed but always around people. More than Jack, he is the symbol of human evil.“There was a slight, furtive boy whom no one knew, who kept to himself with an inner intensity of avoidance and secrecy. He muttered that his name was Roger and was silent again.” Golding's description made us think subconsciously that this would not be a kind child, and that it turned out to be true. At the first meeting, when the children were discussing the situation, he was the only one that said with absolute certainty that they could never be saved. The only meaningful thing he did was suggesting voting for a leader. Judging by his attitude to the impossibility of rescue, he made the proposal more to know who would be his leader. When Ralph was the authority on the group, Roger only dared to bully the little ones furtively. The little ones were never taken seriously by the older kids, and some of them bullied them, but Roger was the only one who wasn't guilty. However, when he bullied his peers secretly, he was afraid of being found out. He was not afraid of being bullied back, but, it was that he was now bound by rules, and by the influence of civilization that was still with him.

As Jack's authority grew, Roger became a follower. Together they killed the boar, together they searched for the beast, together they grabbed piggy's glasses. And on that night, he was the first one to act like a boar and tease everyone. Because of his play, everyone became more crazy: he needed to be responsible for Simon's death. He was actually the enabler of Jack's behavior, and it was his behavior that made Jack more savage and cruel. The most vivid example was that he pushed the boulder to kill Ralph and Piggy. Ralph escaped, but Piggy died innocently. Jack didn't want to kill Piggy or Ralph, or more specifically, he didn't think about it until Roger did. When Piggy died, it was him who attacked Ralph first. He was the embodiment of evil.

3.2.2 Roger’s ending

Being rescued from this deserted island is Roger' ending. However，his ending in civilized society can be guessed. It is easy to guess that his future would be doomed to be tragic. Because he was born evil, even in a civilized society, he was still a wicked man that will pay for his behavior. It has been said that living conditions on the island and the lack of civilized social standards made Roger gradually become a barbarian. Yet, these reasons are the external causes of Roger's change. Roger's own liberation from his evil nature was actually the main reason. There is no denying that even in civilized society there are people like Roger who is bad for no reason. Fortunately, these people are a minority of civilized society. Their existence makes people know clearly the evil of human nature and take it as a warning. One may wonder how and why they went bad. That is because their evil can be understood as hatred. They hate people, when people are so kind. They hate people who first realized their dream, they hate their superior life. They also hate their own cowardice, they hate their own lack of luck and talent. They give people all the hatred they have for themselves. One may think this is crazy, because he is not so evil. What needs to be known, however, is that evil people existed.

Conclusion

This paper mainly discusses the good and evil of human nature by discussing the characters, behaviors and endings of the four figures. Ralph and Jack set up the opposition in this book, Piggy and Roger are respectively attached to them. Piggy died, but Ralph lived to the end and became the leader of the group again. Piggy's death was inevitable during the period of barbarism, but his belief that civilization would eventually prevail over barbarism was finally realized. Neither Jack nor Roger seem to pay any price for their barbarity and madness at the end of the story. They would return to civilization which means they will be restrained by civilization and rules again. In a civilized society, if they would realize their mistakes, they will repent for the rest of their lives. If not, they will be out of step with society and will pay the price for being barbaric again. This story tells people that there are good and evil in human nature, the evil side dominates, but, the good side of human nature are not devoid of. Through self-redemption, human beings will eventually overcome the barbarism and evil with kindness and civilization.

It is hoped that this research will bring some inspirations to people in the real world. As Golding said, it is necessary for the author to tell people the existence of evil in human nature and make people clear about themselves. This is not to say that one is evil and savage. It simply means that people have bad sides, like Piggy, who looked down on people other than authority; like Ralph, he joined Jack's carnival. In the real world, people probably don't have a lot of bad intentions toward other people. Most people are like Piggy: they are common, they would look down on those who are not as good as themselves. If other people better than themselves, they begin to feel inferiors and cowardice, but in their heart they still do not identify themselves with these people or even hate these people. They have their own ideas and may not be that mature, but they won’t take the initiative to do things that hurt other people.

This paper is to show that people are all malicious to others, not strong, but still exist. Don't be afraid to admit that you have bad thoughts. Don't think you are an evil person if you have a bad idea. The difference between you and a truly evil person is that you don't put them into practice. People need to acknowledge their evils and recognize themselves. Identifying themselves is not about practicing bad thoughts; it's about putting an end to them. Only by recognizing themselves and being kind to others can people become a better version of themselves.

References

[1]Liwei Sun. (2017). Civilization and Savagery on Isolated Islands:Comparison of Robinson Crusoe and Lord of the Flies. Proceedings of Northeast Asia International Symposium on Linguistics, Literature and Teaching(1).

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