The Degeneration of Humanity and the Powerlessness of Salvation in Lord of the Flies

1、论蝇王中人性的泯灭和救赎的无力the degeneration of humanity and the powerlessness of salvation in lord of the flies目 录abstract.ii摘要ii1. introduction12. the degeneration of humanity22.1 functions of fire22.1.1 the cause and keeping of the firea method for rescue22.1.2 the abuse of the firea method for killing32.2 th

2、e authority on the islandfrom democracy to autocracy32.2.1 the decrease of democracy32.2.2 the increase of autocracy42.3 the hunting on the island42.3.1 the hunting of animals52.3.2 the killing of piggy and the hunting for ralph53. the powerlessness of salvation63.1 the failure of religious salvatio

3、n63.1.1 simons powerless position among the boys63.1.2 the death of simon63.2 the failure of social salvationthe environment of world war63.3 the ways of salvation73.3.1 the balance of society73.3.2 the function of education74. conclusion8works cited108the degeneration of humanity and the powerlessn

4、ess of salvation in lord of the fliesabstract: this paper first explores the degeneration of humanity in lord of the flies. fire, authority and hunting are three main symbols of the degeneration of humanity. then it elaborates the other theme of this novelsalvation, which turns out to be powerless,

5、because both of the salvation from religion and society failed to rescue the human beings. it finally discusses the possible ways of salvation indicated in the novel and suggests that realizing the defects of human beings could help people to make a better self.key words: degeneration; humanity; sal

6、vation论蝇王中人性的泯灭和救赎的无力摘要：本文首先探讨蝇王中人性的泯灭这一主题，火、制度和狩猎是人性泯灭的三大象征；然后阐述了小说的第二个主题救赎，救赎的力量是微弱的，因为宗教救赎和社会救赎的结果都是失败的；最后探讨了小说中暗示的可能实现的救赎途径，并提出了认识到人性的缺陷可以帮助人们塑造一个更加完善的自我。关键词：泯灭；人性；救赎 the degeneration of humanity and the powerlessness of salvation in lord of the flies1. introductionwilliam golding, the nobel pri

7、ze winner of 1983, was one of the most accomplished novelists in britain during the 1950s. when world war broke out, he joined the royal navy. europe suffered a lot during the war and it took her a long time to recover from the severe pains materially and spiritually. and it was then golding observe

8、d the darkness of the twentieth country in western countries. the war taught him different and many others like him and he “saw a hell of a lot in the war that cant be accounted for except on the basis of original evil” (qtd. in reilly 141). after the war, golding began teaching and writing and beca

9、me an “angry youth” (wang changrong 15-16).goldings first novel, lord of the flies, was published during the first decade of the cold war. it had gained its popularity in england, america and then in translation around the world. later it became one of the most widely-read and studied novels of the

10、century. the story placed a group of young english boys on a desert island where they must develop their own society. at first, everything seemed to go well, with ralph the leader and the conch a symbol of the rules. the boys made shelters and fire as well as hunting and playing happily. but gradual

11、ly the desire for order and rescue was replaced by the lust for blood and killing. eventually, democracy was destroyed by autocracy whose representative was jack, and the whole group nearly got killed by a big fire set by themselves if the “rescue” of the adults did not arrive in time.lord of the fl

12、ies is not a simple adventure story of boys on a desert island. in fact, it implicates the defects of human nature. golding had summed up the theme of lord of the flies as follows: the theme is an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature. the moral is that the shap

13、e of a society must depend on the ethical nature of the individual and not on any political system however apparently logical or respectable. the whole book is symbolic in nature except the rescue in the end where adult life appears. (qtd. in epstein 204) and since the lost children are the inherito

14、rs of their fathers who had the same defects of nature, the tragedy on the island is doomed to repeat in the adult world. the crowds unconscious behavior could do a lot of damages. as gustave le bon had said, “history tells us, that from the moment when the moral forces on which a civilization reste

15、d have lost their strength, its final dissolution is brought about by those unconscious and brutal crowds known, justifiably enough, as barbarians” (19). there are several ways of salvation in lord of the flies. as one of the religious symbols, simon was a prophet-martyr for the other boys. he was a

16、 loner who often experienced fainting spells and was sacrificially killed by the boys (zhang boxiang 560), so does it mean the religious salvation could succeed by such kind of sacrifice? maybe the death of simon added a layer of silver to the dark defects of human nature, and once simon made himsel

17、f free, he could bring freedom to all the other people (guan jianming 123).besides the religious salvation, in the environment of world war, could social salvation turn out to be a good way? if both of them failed, how can the human beings rescue themselves? to answer those questions, let us first h

18、ave a better understanding of the first theme of lord of the flies: the degeneration of humanity.2. the degeneration of humanitythe degeneration of humanity has three key symbolsfire, authority and hunting. fire represented the moral influence of the civilized society; the authority on the island st

19、ood for the power in the adult world; and hunting was the activity most of the boys had participated throughout the story. the abuse of the fire, the changing of authority from democracy to autocracy, and the hunting of animals and people showed us the progress of degeneration.2.1 functions of firef

20、rom the making and keeping of the fire to the abuse of it, the functions of fire on the island changed as time went on. fire, a symbol of humanity, was the origin of civilization. it was made to brighten the civilized world but abused as a method for killing, falling on the island like a fierce fire

21、 from the hell.2.1.1 the cause and keeping of the firea method for rescueon a desert island, fire proved to be the only thing that symbolized the boys last hope of being rescued. fortunately, a fire was lighted by piggys thick glasses which symbolized “the voice of reason and logic among the boys” (

22、zhang boxiang 562), and smoke was made then as a signal for rescue. but the keeping of the fire did not last long. the lust for meat drove the hunters unaware of their duty, leaving the fire and letting it out, which took away their first chance of being rescued by a ship passing by. to some extent,

23、 keeping a fire should not be a responsibility for the boys, but a strong desire to go back to the civilized society. but to our disappointment, those boys on duty neglected their “duty” to behave as a civilized human being and rushed to enjoy the “freedom” and “entertainment” on the desert island.t

24、hey were clever enough to make a fire themselves, and they could even be described as civilized people when they caught this idea. but the keeping of the fire proved to be a failure. can they be excused by their age, or their defects in nature which was too powerful to be conquered?2.1.2 the abuse o

25、f the firea method for killingfire was made by human beings, and it could not choose its maker to be a good person or an evil one. it can be used to produce heat, light, a feeling of safe, joy and so on. but in evil hands, fire could be an evil tool to make a disaster which might swallow the evils t

26、oo.the abuse of the fire was a most obvious character of the degeneration of humanity, starting at the moment jack and his followers stole the glasses from piggy instead of asking for them, making piggy “blind”. with the stolen glasses, jack and his followers roasted pigs, made a big fire and danced

27、 fiercely around it until it went out, never thinking of making smoke at all. all they wanted was joy. and later the little fire did not satisfy the boys needs, so they looked for fun in killing ralph by setting the whole island on fire, making the island a hell and themselves demons. the fire broug

28、ht a feast for them, not a holy one but a feast to say goodbye to the civilized society and make them step into the deep black mouth of the hell.had the boys who set the island on fire thought of the results? i am afraid not. if one of them realized that the island would be “scorched up like dead wo

29、od” (golding, lord of the flies 202), would they still keep the idea of setting the whole island to hunt ralph? it was very ridiculous if they did, but i do believe that the silly action would also be done without consideration. how can a fierce mind that had the determination of killing an innocent

30、 life be reasonable enough to take care of themselves? they only knew that fire was the tool of hunting, and they would never realize that while they were hunting ralph, they themselves were being hunted by the evil spirit too.2.2 the authority on the islandfrom democracy to autocracyauthority, anot

31、her symbol of humanity, was created to be the maintenance of a civilized world. there were four kinds of powers on the islanddemocratic power, authoritarian power, spiritual power and brute force (zhang boxiang 556). the first two powers were the centre of them. many critics regard ralph as the repr

32、esentative of democracy and jack the one of autocracy. in fact, this kind of division is not proper, because both of them had good and bad sides of human nature. the changing from democracy to autocracy developed gradually among all the boys, not just between the two of them. 2.2.1 the decrease of d

33、emocracydemocracy was established soon after the boys assembled, with ralph the leader and the conch a symbol of the rules. as the leader of the group, ralph, who compromised both the id and the superego (zhang boxiang 558), was not a perfect human being. he had tried his best to behave like a real

34、leader of the whole group, but he could not solve all the problems while facing the evil jack, turning to piggy for help at times. besides, he had teased piggy with others and neglected his wise advices several times. it was when jack threatened his leadership that he realized what an intelligent bo

35、y piggy was. but it was too late. he failed to keep the order of the island in a proper way and lost his authority at last. after piggys death, ralph even thought jack and his followers were “not as bad as that. it was an accident.” (golding, lord of the flies 184) he found it impossible to do next

36、until he knew that it was himself who would be the next “pig”. the superego of the human personality made ralph a respectable leader, but the id side made him a loser.as a rule on the island, conch was fragile because it was only a symbol instead of a spirit that should be deeply rooted in the boys

37、mind. though it was made a rule that the person who held the conch had the right to say, piggy who was the most brilliant boy turned out to have no right of speaking freely and effectively even when he was holding the conch. on the other hand, jack was always breaking the rules of the conch to sprea

38、d his opinions and power upon others, with a conch or not. seeing this, ralph, the leader of the boys, could not take any effective actions at all. as time went on, conch lost its meaning and was broken into pieces by the savages.2.2.2 the increase of autocracysimilar to democracy, the autocracy on

39、the island had its representative and rules too.before the establishment of democracy on the island, autocracy had been rooted in jacks mind and got prosperous day by day. jack was determined to be a master of the boys from the very beginning. he thought he should be voted as a leader as he was at s

40、chool, but failed at first. however, hunting made him a real leader then. the lust for blood and killing aroused the boys id side of personality. they did not want to behave as a civilized person as they were told by the adults before. eventually those unconscious crowds dissolved the civilization b

41、y breaking its system and rules.but was there a symbol like the conch to be the rules of autocracy? if there were, it must be the jacks orders which proved to be cruel and sadistic. whether they liked it or not, the other boys had to obey jacks commands. and whether they knew the commands were right

42、 or wrong, they did as they were ordered. the unconscious crowds were bullied by jack, afraid of him or even admired him. and this kind of terror or admiration was deeply rooted in their mind, which created a terrible and unconquerable power that led the island to a disaster. 2.3 the hunting on the

43、islandsince hunting was promoted by jack, it had become popular among the boys, catering for their desire physically and mentally. throughout the story, hunting was a way to strengthen jacks power and corrupt the rules of a civilized society.2.3.1 the hunting of animalsthe hunting of animals began a

44、t the very beginning of the story, first with the purpose of getting some meat to eat, then a way to maintain the autocracy of jack. by the lure of meat, most of the boys joined jacks group willingly. indeed, days without meat seemed terrible for the boys. how could they live all their life on fruit

45、 and nuts? even ralph, piggy and simon were tempted by the meat at times, “gnawing it like a wolf” (golding, lord of the flies 73). but the difference between them was that eating the meat make some fell ashamed while the others happy, because boys like ralph did believe that there should be things

46、more important than hunting.after several successful hunting experiences, it was apparent that there was another purpose of huntingto enjoy blood and killing. the hunters loved to dance to the song“kill the pig. cut her throat. dash her in.” (golding, lord of the flies 75) and later they behaved mor

47、e like savages. they wore masks while hunting and sent a gift to the “beast” to worship it. then the “beast” would be a kind of power to protect them from being harmed on the island? absolutely not! there was no real beast on the island, and the imaginary one came from their own mind. they themselve

48、s were the beasts they were afraid of, and even jack himself felt “as if you are not hunting, butbeing hunted” (golding, lord of the flies 53). 2.3.2 the killing of piggy and the hunting for ralphjacks feeling proved to be right. they themselves were the beasts, being hunted or hunting others. so ki

49、lling simon by accident and permitting piggy to be killed by his followers seemed proper, and hunting for ralph would be the last thing to strengthen his authority on the island. part of the joy of autocracy lay in killing more “pigs”. since piggy represented the superego (zhang boxiang 559) who stu

50、ck to the law and order of the adult world, he was doomed to be killed as a “pig” who stood in jacks way. so jack and his followers stole piggys glasses to let the fire of civilization go out, which led to the mental collapse of piggy (zhang boxiang 560), and killed him easily since he was “blind” a

51、nd weak without the glasses. then savage boys would not be annoyed by a person to remind them of the rules of an adult world, living without shame but joy.after the death of piggy, ralph turned out to be the last “pig”, because jack would never let any hope of democracy survive on the island. no mat

52、ter how weak ralph was at that moment, he was still a threat to autocracy. firstly ralph was the only boy who was close in physical stature to jack. secondly he was once a respectable leader who treated most of the boys kindly and equally, and there were still some of his friends in the hunters. and

53、 most important of all, ralph was the only one who still believed democracy and never gave up the hope of being rescued. since he could not be part of the hunters, ralph should be killed.3. the powerlessness of salvationthere are several ways of salvation in lord of the flies. religious salvation an

54、d social salvation are most obvious, but both of them failed to rescue the human beings. though the author himself believed that “if left alone, human nature will naturally be pulled to the id side of ones personality” (qtd. in zhang boxiang 558), golding still indicted that there were ways to save

55、the human beings.3.1 the failure of religious salvationas one of the religious symbols, simon was a prophet-martyr for the other boys. he was a loner who often experienced fainting spells and was sacrificially killed by the boys (zhang boxiang 560), but it did not mean the religious salvation could

56、succeed by such kind of sacrifice. 3.1.1 simons powerless position among the boysthough golding portrayed simon as kind of a holy person, this saint did have a weakness that led to his deathfeebleness. he was feeble in physical stature and feeble in action, which made him in a powerless position amo

57、ng the boys.simon was poor in health, experiencing fainting spells all the time. he fainted soon after he arrived at the island and fainted more than once while talking to the beast. that was no doubt why he was a small, skinny boy with a chin pointed. however bright he was, he did not arouse the at

58、tention of the older boys since he was not old and strong enough.but the most important reason why simon was powerless lay in his feeble actions. he was the only boy who always kept a clear mind. but he never expressed his ideas to the other boys or gave any effective suggestion in assembly. he “fel

59、t a perilous necessity to speak; but to speak in assembly was a terrible thing to him” (golding, lord of the flies 88-89). he was not afraid while facing danger, but he was afraid while telling the truth.3.1.2 the death of simon the death of simon showed that truth was the last thing an unconscious crowd wanted to know. the brave simon had “talked” with the