Comparing Night And Lord Of The Flies By William Golding

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The debate on man’s natural condition has been argued since before anyone can remember. Although many people believe humans are inherently good, this is not true because the idea of being good is something imposed by a society. Societies create rules to teach them what they consider to be right and to ultimately prohibit their evil and primitive ways. Without regulations and morals, man would stay or return to their original state of nature as being “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short,” as mentioned by Thomas Hobbes. Both stories, Night by Elie Wiesel and Lord of the Flies by William Golding, help justify the fact that humans are inherently evil by showing how they act without a firm society to guide them or how they will abandon their…show more content…
As the story progressed, it had shown how they started to abandon their own morals. They began to become brutally selfish because as they faced their own death, they moved to protecting themselves rather than helping others in time of need. One example of this from the story is when the prisoners were crammed in a train cart, starving, and desperate for food. Germans threw them scraps and laughed as they fought over them. It got so intense that even a son killed his own father for a small piece of bread. Elie Wiesel, the author of Night, witnessed this ordeal himself, describing the father begging “Meir. Meir, my boy! Don’t you recognize me? I’m your father…you’re hurting me… you’re killing your father! I’ve got some bread… for you too... for you too…” as his own son was beating him to death (68). This quote reveals how humans go back to their instinctual, cruel ways once their own survival is at stake by becoming selfish and killing, stealing from, and betraying others. In Lord of the Flies children became stranded on an empty island without any adults. These kids were so used to living in a society with rules and regulations, after they realized that they then had basically no rules they became astonished by the unrestricted place.
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