evil Flashcards
“You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you?”
The Lord of the Flies identifies itself as the beast and acknowledges to Simon that it exists within all human beings: ‘you knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you?’ Here, the second-person direct address implicates both Simon and the reader, forcing an uncomfortable recognition of shared culpability. The interrogative form also adds an unsettling intimacy, as if evil is whispering a truth we refuse to admit. Furthermore, the creature’s grotesque language and bizarre appropriation of the boys’ slang (‘I’m the reason why it’s a no go’) makes it appear even more hideous and devilish, for he taunts Simon with the same familiar, colloquial language the boys use themselves. This therefore emphasises the novel’s central idea: the ‘beast’ is not an external creature, but an internal human instinct.
“I’m frightened of us”
In Ralph’s confession (‘I’m frightened of us’), the first person pronoun marks a rare moment of introspective clarity- he no longer fears the external beast, but the internal savagery of the group. This simplicity intensifies the impact; the vague pronoun ‘us’ implicates everyone, even the reader. It marks the shift from externalised fear to an understanding of ‘mankind’s’ moral corruption, perhaps even serving as a thesis for Golding’s allegory: the real danger is not some ‘beast’, but the ‘darkness’ within human nature.
“Simon became inarticulate in his effort to express mankind’s essential illness”
Golding highlights the difficulty of confronting evil when ‘Simon became inarticulate in his effort to express mankind’s essential illness’. The abstract phrase ‘essential illness’ conveys the novels central theme that there is innate moral corruption within all humans, with the adjective ‘essential’ perhaps even emphasising the fact that ‘mankind’ cannot be without it. Moreover, Simon cannot find words for it (‘inarticulate’) reflecting that the truth is so disturbing or profound that language itself fails to contain it. This could suggest that fear distorts reality, while truth is difficult to confront.
“Laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling”
Golding uses animalistic transformation to show the boys’ decent. The verb ‘became’ implies an irreversible shift- ‘laughter’, once innocent, is now violent. The adjective ‘bloodthirsty’ suggests a primal hunger for violence, while ‘snarling’ evokes a wild beast, stripping the boys of their humanity. This shit is rapid and almost subconscious, perhaps representing how thin the façade of civilisation truly is.
“Roger, with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever.”
Golding symbolically represents the culmination of violence and the loss of moral control when ‘Roger, with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever’. The phrase ‘delirious abandonment’ reveals how intoxicating and liberating violence can become when societal rules are removed. Roger, who had once hesitated to throw stones near a littlun (‘threw it to miss’), now enacts murder with calculated force. The use of mechanical imagery, ‘lever’, reduces this act to something industrial and impersonal- suggesting that in war or tyranny, the individual themselves become the tools of destruction.
“At once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt on to the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore”
The series of violent, dynamic verbs (‘screamed, struck, bit, tore’) builds a chaotic crescendo, reflecting the uncontrollable frenzy that leads to Simon’s death. In particular, the list of savage and animalistic acts and lack of individual identification highlights the terrifying power of groupthink. This is displayed by the pronoun ‘it’, which implies inhumanity, and the verb ‘poured’ suggesting they are moving as one fluid creature. This dehumanisation mirrors the ‘beast’ the boys fear, ironically showing that they themselves have become the very thing they dread as ‘teeth and claws’ was only a description previously used about the beast. Golding also describes this in a matter of fact way and not from the point of view of one of the boys, as if he is a dispassionate observer of this savagery.
“Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy”
When Ralph sees the officer, a moment of deus ex machina, he ‘wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy’. The tricolon structure underscores the emotional weight of this epiphany- moving from a loss of childhood ‘innocence’ to an abstract recognition of intrinsic evil, and finally to a deeply personal grief. It is clear that the rescue is not a moment of unequivocal joy as one might expect. The poetic phrasing of ‘fall through the air’ softens Piggy’s brutal death, mirroring society’s tendency to mask violence behind euphemism. Moreover, the abstract noun ‘darkness’ connotes to something hidden, mysterious and corrupt, while ‘heart’ (often associated with emotion and humanity) becomes a site of corruption- not just on the surface, but innately within them.
“The mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness”
Golding presents the mask not just as face paint, but as a metaphorical shield from civilisation. It becomes ‘a thing on its own’, as if it has agency, separating Jack from accountability. The verb ‘hid’ implies cowardice or secrecy, but the phrase ‘liberated from shame’ reveals the seductive power of anonymity- Jack is freed from the constraints of morality. This suggests that savagery is not only natural, but pleasurable when unrecognisable.
“Taboo of the old life”
The phrase ‘taboo of the old life’ refers to the invisible yet powerful rules that once governed the boys’ behaviour. The noun ‘taboo’ evokes a cultural or religious prohibition, suggesting how deeply these norms are embedded. Yet the fact that it is linked to the ‘old life’ implies its erosion- it was once feared, but now it is irrelevant. This could suggest that the rules only work when they are upheld by society, and without structure, even the most sacred of laws can decay.
