Kayla Gilbert

Mr. Bain

EAE 3U

22 December 2009

Evil Surrounds Us

Evil causes harm to everyone surrounding us, including ourselves. Jealousy lies and crimes are all led by evil domination of the human spirit. In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the plot consists of young boys stranded on an island. The boys deal with temptations, such as; hunger, thirst, hunting and killing. The group is quickly split in two when Jack decides he wants his own tribe (the Savages). The boys loose all their civilized knowledge. They follow only their personal needs and their common sense. This novel resembles the classical play by Shakespeare, Macbeth. Macbeth visits three witches who tell him his future; becoming king of Scotland. He puts his faith in the words and the prophecies of the witches, after their first prophecy comes true. With the help of his wife, Lady Macbeth, he plots many murders to assure that the prophecies will come true and to keep everything secret. Both stories deal with the progression of evil. Both children and adults are drawn to the evil side. They will do anything to get what they want, even if it means becoming murderers. Evil can escalade in transforming humans into savages.                 

Every human being is drawn to the evil side, young or old. Evil is a common theme expressed in both Lord of the Flies and Macbeth. A person can be influenced due to his exposure to a type of environment. In the first novel by William Golding, Ralph is driven to stay in control of himself. The antagonist, Jack, is opposed to Ralph’s self control. From the beginning, Jack has a feeling of disobedience among the group. He believes they should all live like animals; always acting upon their instinct. Unfortunately, the majority of the boys agree with him. He uses manipulation to speculate that they will have fun and be safe from an imaginary beast. ‘‘Who’ll join my tribe and have fun?’’. ‘‘I gave you food’’, said Jack, ‘‘and my hunters will protect you from the beast, who will join my tribe?’’ (166) Jack is able to convince the others to join his tribe. Children are so innocent that they can be considered naive. By joining the tribe, they are entering the evil side. In Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth is revealed as a very consuming character. His wife, Lady Macbeth draws him to believing that he must become King. He murders King Duncan, thus entering himself in a world of evil. During the play, Macbeth feels the need for an assistant. He tries to convince his friend Banquo, ‘‘Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve/ We would spend it in some words upon that business/ If you would grant the time.’’(Macbeth, 2.1.) Contrary to Jack, Macbeth was not able to convince Banquo to help him. Banquo agrees to serve him only if: ‘‘So I lose none/ In seeking to augment it, but still keep/ My bosom franchised and allegiance clear/ I shall be counseled.’’ Pursuing this further, both children and adults have differences and similarities. Children are young and they have not been alive long enough to clearly know the difference between good and evil. Adults, on the other hand, can relate their judgment to their past experiences. They are still drawn to the evil side this can progress to forgetting what is their true identity, in result to achieve their goal.

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Humans with evil ambitions can forget their own common sense. Murdering is a sin, as written in the Bible. The evil amongst us causes humans to do heinous acts. For example, Jack is a hunter and he believes the boys needs meat to survive. His hunts quickly involve into murders. The pigs they hunt are killed more gruesomely. Consequently, they end up killing some of the boys on the island, not realizing their own evil ambitions. In one incident, Jack is proven to have lost all his common sense. ‘‘The beast struggled forward, broke the ring and fell over the ...

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