The View | The lord of human nature

My children read Lord of the Flies, a dystopian novel by Nobel Laureate William Golding, when they were young. I also use the story in a course I teach at the University of Hong Kong to create a vision for my students of Thomas Hobbes' conception of the state of nature. I recommend teachers and parents read this novel together with their children in the coming year.

Lord of the Flies offers a disturbing and sobering lesson on humanity. It takes place in the midst of a nuclear wartime evacuation when a group of boys, aged six to 12, ends up stranded without adult supervision on a tropical island.

Initially, they attempt to form a culture similar to the one they left behind. They elect a leader, Ralph, who strives to establish rules for behaviour. Ralph asserts three primary goals: to have fun, to survive and to maintain a smoke signal that could alert passing ships to their presence on the island.

But Ralph's authority is challenged by Jack, who wants to be leader himself. Jack neglects his assigned duty of maintaining the smoke signal and starts to develop his own power base among the boys by offering them the prospect of playing the role of savages. They put on camouflaging face paint, hunt and perform ritualistic tribal dances.

These activities symbolise violence and evil, and eventually they bring Jack and Ralph - and the forces of savagery and civilisation that they represent - into open conflict. Two boys are killed and Jack takes control of all the others in the group apart from Ralph. They begin to hunt down Ralph but inadvertently set fire to all the forest on the island, which brings a nearby rescue boat to them. The novel ends with the boys weeping as they realise what they have done.

When Lord of the Flies was first released in 1954, Golding described it as "an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature". One of these defects concerns the desire to rule others. The boys had sought unthinkingly to dominate those not of their group. They discovered within themselves the urge to inflict pain and they enjoyed the accompanying rush of power.

Ironically, by giving rein to their urge to dominate, the boys find themselves in the grip of a force they neither understand nor acknowledge. When confronted with a choice between Ralph's civilising influence and Jack's self-indulgent savagery, most choose to abandon the values of civilisation.