Course Project under course ENG458 - Literature and the Individual
The conflict between good and evil has been thematized by writers since earliest times understood ofcourse in a religious context. There are several variations on this conflict, one being the battle between individuals or ideologies, with one side good, the other evil. Another variation is the inner struggle in characters (and by extension, humans in reality) between good and evil. What we regard as good is a peaceful order with the idea of a “rule of law”. Culture strives to establish a boundary between itself and savagery. The manifestations of savegery are called “crimes” which we consider evil. And thus there exists this conflict between two competing impulses within all human beings: the instinct to live by rules, act peacefully, follow moral commands, and value the good of the group against the instinct to gratify one’s immediate desires, act violently to obtain supremacy over others, and enforce one’s will. Through my study of the 1954 Novel by Nobel prize winning English author William Goulding’s Lord of the Flies I intend to explore the qualities of human nature and the conflicting state within each character. The book grapples with the underlying theme or order vs chaos and loss of innocence when a small group of schoolboys find themselves stranded on an island after a planecrash. Through their story of existence in a community without boundaries, we can get a better understanding of the need of a social, political and moral construct within us and our society.