Defects of (Human) Nature? Cognitive Biases in Golding’s Lord of the Flies

Long before the narrative arc of William Golding's 1954 Lord of the Flies (LotF) reaches its peak, one of the novel's protagonists shares a reluctant insight that crystallizes what Golding himself saw as the message of his work: "Maybe," he said hesitantly, "maybe there is a beast."The assembly cried out savagely and Ralph stood up in amazement."You, Simon?You believe in this?" "I don't know," said Simon.His heartbeats were choking him."But . . . .What I mean is . . .maybe it's only us." (119-20) 1 What follows is an onslaught of ridicule, anger, and fear with which the assembly rejects Simon's shocking indictment, the intended warning only serving to further weaken the boys' tenuous grasp on reality.Faced with an unbearable realization-that of their own culpability in the disturbing events on the island-they resort to outright denial as a shield against owning up to who they have become, or indeed who they've always been.The subsequent breakdown of communication leads to the breakup of the assembly and to Ralph's dire prediction that if the social order they have created collapses for good, they ("us") will become like animals and "never be rescued" (124).Nearly seven decades on, LotF remains an essential work of fiction grappling with the notion of "human nature."Golding's own stated aim was to "trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature" (qtd. in Epstein 288), as his active service in World War II led him to conclude that "the condition of man was to be a morally diseased creation" (qtd. in Reiff 29).Soon after publication, LotF was noted for combining psychoanalysis, anthropology, social psychology, and philosophical history to explore human personality and its reflection on society (Epstein 289).A "modern myth on an ancient theme" (Chellappan 3) and "the Robinson Crusoe of our time" (Tiger 133), LotF is often seen as revealing human darkness and evil (Gindin 18) through the boys' inability to escape their essential nature of murderous savagery (R. Wilson 48).