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Evil lies in Humanity itself - Referat
Evil lies in Humanity itself
When we visit the playground or the local park, we are often bystanders of a situation where we see or hear children cry. Most of the time children cry, because their older sibling or another child takes away their toy. The drama of this situation is not easy to withstand, as the older sibling or the other child does not necessarily want to give the toy back to the younger child, but rather does not care if it hurts someone’s feelings. Humanity is therefore, as presented in the youngest already, filled with evil. This is also portrayed in William Golding’s book “The Lord of the Flies”, where boys on an island are shown as “...boys...being boys and not little saints as they usually are in children’s books…” (page vii).
The evil trait of our kind might lie deep down in our soul, but takes over our thoughts and actions in many different ways throughout our lives. This often originates from our beliefs.
We believe that we are superior. This means that, for example, an adult will, when thinking of a solution for a problem, think that they are correct. What now, if a child has the correct answer? The adult will most likely tell the child that it is incorrect and that the problem is too difficult for the child. As quoted from the afterword of “The Lord of the Flies”: “The adults save the children… but who will save the adults?”. Golding herewith portrays that the adults cannot be saved, as they would not let themselves be saved by children and strictly believe that they are superior.
People also often believe that others are less worthy, because they look different, they might have a different skin colour or gender. For example, many men say that women cannot drive or make fun of women, because of their driving. They do not take into thought that they might hurt someone’s feelings. In “The Lord of the Flies”, Golding shows how some of the characters make fun of one of the boys, because he is “...very fat…” and wears “...thick spectacles…” (page 1 and 2). They do not realise, that even if that boy does not look like them, he is very intelligent and kind.
We experience happiness, when someone else fails or gets hurt. This means that one laughs at someone else’s expense. For example, if a friend of yours falls down the stairs or stumbles, we first laugh it off and then go to help them up. Or if someone that we do not really like forgets to do their homework and gets into trouble with the teacher, we snicker and gossip about this person. We do not think about why they might have forgotten to do their homework, or if we do we assume that they have spent their time playing video games or taking a nap. We do not ask the person that forgot to do their homework, if they might need help with the exercises and if they completely understand the work. In the progression of the book “Lord of the Flies”, Golding describes the event of the savage character Jack smashing the intellectual Piggy’s glasses. Jack mimics Piggy’s whines and “...the hunters began to laugh...” (page 76). The hunters are making fun of another boy’s problems.
Humans show their evil trait, when they assume, that no one is watching or that they will not be punished for their actions or thoughts. This is one of the themes generally described in Golding’s book. The boys “turn” evil, because there are no adults there to punish them and they have not thought of a punishment for their own rules. In reality this also takes place, for example, cyberbullying is a big problem in today’s society, because of the anonymity that one has. One has the feeling that one is safe behind the cellphone and does not mind hurting others with foul words or body shaming others in comments under their uploaded pictures. Another example would be, that people who harass or sexually abuse others, are often not caught and punished. This is because they have blackmailed or sworn the victims to secrecy and quiet. The victims are often too afraid to speak up and therefore many criminals do not end up imprisoned. This can also be viewed in animal violence, as the criminals do not have to fear that the animal will leash out to tell the police about the cruelty that they have experienced.
In conclusion one can say that if the opportunity arises, humanity does not shy away from cruelty and evil. We do not shy away from hurting others mentally and physically, if it is for our own feeling of worth. In my opinion, humanity suffers from respect and love. We humans mostly hurt others to make ourselves feel superior and more worthy. We are upset about ourselves or our lives and take that out on other living creatures. We are especially evil, if we know that we are not necessarily punished for our actions, like Golding says: The beast is “...only us…” (page 96).
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