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International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences
ILSHS Volume 58
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Instinct or Society? A Rouseauist Analysis of Corruption in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies

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Abstract:

The present study argues that William Golding’s Lord of the Flies can be read as a manifest for the natural degeneration of human beings, and that human beings are violent and competent by nature. In doing so, the present article, firstly, draws upon the Hobbesian philosophy of human nature and how it is in conflict with the related ideas of Rousseau. The article, then, analyzes certain elements of the novel so as to show the Hobbesian ideas behind the novel where there is a society of children and the upcoming relations of power and individual desires. The article afterwards argues that human nature, against what the author declares in the Hot Gates (1965) as the degenerated human nature, is not naturally degenerating, but through society this savagery of human being takes place. Ideas of Rousseau are then used thereupon for backing this very argument. Golding’s novel launces attack on Rousseau’s ideas that society is the agent of corruption in beings.

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Periodical:
International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences (Volume 58)
Pages:
155-158
Citation:
A. Al-Zamili, "Instinct or Society? A Rouseauist Analysis of Corruption in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies", International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences, Vol. 58, pp. 155-158, 2015
Online since:
September 2015
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References:

[1] Golding, William, Lord of the Flies, Penguin Group: New York, (1954).

[2] Golding, William, The Hot Gates: and Other Occasional Pieces, Harcourt, Brace & World, New York, (1966).

[3] Hobbes, Thomas, De Cive, Kessinger Publishing, Montana, (2004).

[4] Hobbes, Thomas, Leviathan, Cosimo Inc., New York, (2009).

[5] Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, Œuvres complètes, ed. B. Gagnebin, M. Raymond, Gallimard, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, Paris, 1959–95.

[6] Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, Discourses and Other Early Political Writings, ed., trans., and annotated by Victor Gourevitch, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, (1997).

[7] Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, A Discourse on the Origins of Inequality: with introduction and notes by Maurice Cranston, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, (1984).

[8] Spitz, David. Power and Authority: An Interpretation of Golding's Lord of the Flies, The Antioch Review, Vol. 30, No. 1 (1970) 21-33.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/4637248

[9] Sabine, G. H, A History of Political Theory, Holt, Rinehart and Winston Publication, New York, (1961).

[10] Wokler, Robert, Rousseau: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, New York, (2001).

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