Construction of Evil and depravity in William Golding’s Lord of the flies

With the derailment of the wheel of civilisation in the post war era, there appeared a host of novelists to set right the disjointedness through the group of works. Among them, William Golding, an outstanding novelist, occupies a prominent place. In order to project the disillusionment and the inevitable doom that modern man has created for himself. Golding resorts to the concept and theme of evil. He explores the dark side of humanity and the savagery that surfaces when social structure is broken down, and rules, ideals, and values are lost. He sees the evil as lying deep in the hearts of modern man accounting the process of regression. Golding finds forces of darkness and savagery working incessantly within man to undermine the beautiful and glittering edifice of modern civilisation. Although Golding in his treatment of evil is influenced by the Christian account of fall, Lord of the Flies is by no means a retelling of the story of fall. He traces the defects of society and man’s brutality back to the human nature. Man’s egoism is the source of evil. Egoism which is mostly manifested in Jack, leads the society of the boys to moral bankruptcy, chaos, and self-destruction. Golding emphasizes man’s depravity but his emphasis on the dark side of human nature is amed at making us more conscious of the reality of evil and its perils.

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Modern novel has been a constant referral source of rationality , spirituality , dignity , intellectuality and what not. Though the novel is not life , it is a representation of life and