Whatever falls on them makes an impression." The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding shows a lot of evil in each child. Golding believes that every person is born evil, but there are many reasons why these children are acting evil.
One reason why these children are acting evil is their fear. Almost all of them are afraid of lightning and the dark. Some are afraid of never being able to go home. For example, in the novel they killed Simon. They didn't kill him because they were born evil. They killed him because it was scary in the dark and they thought he was the beast. "Coming in the dark- he hadn't no business crawling like that out of the dark, it was an accident" (157). This quote said by Piggy is exactly true. They did not know it was Simon.
Another reason why they are acting evil is because of their environment. They do not have much food, shelters, and comfort. It is always hot during the day. There are not any parents to keep these children in order. "They are like a crowd of kids" (132) This quote said by Piggy happened when all the youngsters followed Jack down the beach while Ralph had the conch and was going over rules. That would not happen if there were parents keeping them in order.
Peer pressure and environment influences are more reasons why they act evil. For example, Ralph tries hunting for a pig to get Jack's respect. "Did you see me?" Another example from the book would be Jack torturing other children to get respect from Roger. These boys are just trying to get respect. They would have done anything to get respect, even if they have to act evil. .
An example from the novel of an environment influence is when the littluns learn bad influences from the biguns. It is also possible that the littluns learn from their parent's bad examples. Some of their fathers could have been evil themselves. Another example from the novel would be Jack ordering people to do evil things.
