The Good Gone Bad essays

The Good Gone Bad essays A famous quote by Mahatma Gandhi states, You assist an evil system most effectively by obeying its orders and decrees. An evil system never deserves such allegiance. Allegiance to it means partaking of the evil. A good person will resist an evil system with his or her whole soul. However, Gandhi also observed that Mans nature is not essentially evil. The validity of both these statement can be keenly observed through William Goldings novel Lord of the Flies. At the beginning of the novel, a group of boys who are stranded on an island are forced to build a society in order to survive. Two main boys are Simon and Jack. Simon is a very quiet yet strong minded boy, while Jack is very power-hungry and mean. As the novel progresses and the island gets less civilized evil starts to appear among the boys, except in one, who finds the will to resist. William Golding contrasts the characters of Simon and Jack, in order to show that deep inside man is good, but man becomes evil and power -hungry. Through Simons actions, William Golding sets Simon up to be strong and unselfish to show that man is good. Simon is a very unique character in this novel, and he does things that others dont normally do. For instance, one day Ralph, who was feeling let down from the other leader Jack, yells to Jack, And I work all day with nothing but Simon and you come back and dont even notice the huts! (54). In this part in the novel Ralph and Simon worked all day on the shelters alone, while Jack hunted. Simon was the only one to step up and help Ralph when he needed it, and without even being asked to do so. This shows Simons and mans good-hearted nature, as he puts himself above the rest because of his unselfish acts of kindness. Simon not only helps out others, but he takes time to himself to enjoy the good things nature provides. As Simon wanders off alone to seek a qu...