There are so many articles focusing on the origination of the darkness of human nature so far from the angle of philosophy, psychology and something like that. But, until now, the reason for the appearance of darkness in human nature still is no exact result. This paper aims to find out the darkness of human nature described in “Lord of the Flies” and reach on the reasons why characters in the literary works turn to be evil.

In the novel, almost all characters are naive children so that finding out the causes of children’s changing can provide experience for parents to cultivate their children. Meanwhile, the conclusion of the paper can assist individuals to know in what kind of conditions they should control themselves in order to curb the trend of turning to be evil and it can provide a reference for further study of the topic.

From ancient time to now, from the west to the east, so many scholars are intent to search the origin of the darkness existing in human nature, the hot topic throughout human history, and their conclusions are various. In ancient China, the theory that human beings are moral by nature was in dominant status. Mencius, one of the most important representatives of the Confucian school, also is a representative of the theory. He contended that human beings were kind at the beginning of their lives, which distinguishes human beings and animals. While Xunzi, another representative of Confucius school , is the first scholar claiming that men are evil by nature in human history. Coincidentally, western people, influenced by Bible, had the similar thought with Xunzi. They believed that people had sin at the moment when they were born. Beside the two theories, Gaozi came up with a theory that men were either evil or kind, which is similar to the theory of tabula rasa, the distinguished theory put forward by Cloke, an English philosopher in experimentalism. The theory of tabula rasa is that all knowledge and recognition, including evil nature and kindness, learned by human beings comes from their experience. Even thought these theories have been put forward, they have not been demonstrated by a certain example, especially those theories like that of tabula rasa and those scholars did not further expound the causes of darkness using an example.

2. 研究的基本内容与方案

1. Part one：author’s motivation to write Lord of the Flies, a novel revealing the darkness of human nature.

   The World War Two brought about great traumas to individuals no matter in physical or mental aspects. It did not only damage countries’ economy, but also destroy people’s moral and ethical standards. Soldiers of one country did not treat the other countries’ citizens as human beings but toys and killed them cruelly and bloodily. William Golding, the author of Lord of the Flies, as a soldier taking part in the World War Two, noticed and experienced the cruel and blooded things happened in the war, which was not match with author’s original cognition.Once Golding said “I do not say that everyone is evil by nature, but when I was young, I indeed had unrealistic picture of people before the war. Afterwards, I took part in the war, which changed the thought of me and my peers. The World War Two demonstrates that human beings are not what I thought before. ” In the war, he realized the darkness of human nature and in the following of his life, he engaged himself in writing and revealing it.

2. Part two: the appearance of darkness among children and the conditions triggering off the appearance of darkness.

   In Lord of the Flies, Jack has been regarded as the representative of darkness since the novel was published. After Ruffle was elected as a leader of children, Jack, who also wanted to be the leader, was unwilling to obey Ruffle’s order and sought chances to overturn the civil system established by Ruffle. And afterwards, he chased a chance and became the leader of children. The desire for power forces Jack to use all of ways to beat Ruffle and triggers off the dark side. It is to be admitted that the longing for power is a cause of darkness in human beings, which is suitable for everyone in every country. For instance, officialdom novels, a type of novel very popular among China rightly reflect the desire for power and render individuals to lose social-order consciousness and do something beneficial to themselves at the expense of others.

   Even though Ruffle, in the novel, is an acknowledged kind person, the darkness of human nature still can be seen from him. When “Piggy” expressed his aversion to the nickname, Ruffle did not only call him “Piggy” , but also laughed at him. Is it a reflection on darkness of human nature, isn’t it? The source of Ruffle’s happiness is the suffering of “Piggy”. Why did Ruffle laugh at “Piggy” . Because he is arrogant and looks down upon “Piggy”. This kind of darkness caused by superior family condition and family education.

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