Delaney 1

Darren Delaney
Mrs. Hoffman
English 4
27 March 2015
The Good Inside
It has become a recent debate whether people are naturally good or evil. There are plenty
of valid arguments coming from both sides. However, i personally believe that people are born
naturally good. Even though many parents are able to teach right from wrong at a young age,
most kids know good without being taught. Even as kids get older i think humans are good until
forced to be evil. This novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding is full of great examples of
kids being great people. A young teen named Ralph seems to be the most important character but
also the best kid when it comes to being good. Jack and Roger are two other main characters but
are the first to rebel against Ralph and commit some evil acts. Simon and Piggy both seem to be
very smart and logical in everything they do as they also look out for others. Last there are a
bunch of young kids that follow along. Humanitys predisposition is more towards good because
people are always performing good deeds, people are very honest, and people need to be
provoked to do evil things.
First of all, people in society will always have reason for doing evil things. Nobody goes
out to do evil things without incentive or reason for the action. From background knowledge i
know nobody goes out into the streets and kills or mistreats others for no reason. It may not seem
like a valid reason but they will have reasoning behind their evil actions. People often do evil
things based on the situation theyre in. Philip Zimbardo completed an experiment where people
were assigned to read off a list of words and have somebody repeat them back. If they made a
mistake they were told to send a shock through the person as the shock increases in voltage every
time. He said best that the line between good and evil is permeable and Any of us can move
across it at any time...I argue we all have the for love and evil (Dittmann). I think this is an

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excellent quote by Zimbardo as i completely agree with what was said. I definitely agree that the
situation a person is put in can affect how they act. The only part of Zimbardos statement i
disagree with is when he said You dont need a motive, all you really need is a situation that
facilitates moving across that line of good and evil (Dittmann). He said this because of his
experiment and people shocking others just because they were told to. However i believe being
told to do so by an authority figure is enough incentive. There is a great example of this in the
novel Lord of the Flies as the group of young kids turn against the leader. Many kids turn against
the leader because they want to follow another wannabe leader. Leaving the leader definitely
isnt the good thing to do but they are beginning to lose trust in him. With them feeling this way
it causes them to rebel and go to the rival side.
Along with reasoning for evil, majority of people are also honest; which is a great
characteristic of a good person. Im not necessarily talking about honest as in asked a question
by your friend but more honest as in paying for things you take and looking out for others. I have
seen on multiple occasions people pick up dropped money and return it. This is a great example
of honesty. But this also goes for people going to a store somewhere and honestly paying for
everything they took. Those are a few examples of things i have noticed just from my own past.
An experiment conducted by a man named Leonard Bickman, at Smith College, had someone
leave a dime in a phone booth and go back to retrieve it after a subject had entered the phone
booth. The results showed that many people returned the coin to the person claiming to have
forgotten it there. To be exact, the results showed that 38% of people returned the coin to
someone dressed like they were part of the lower class and 77% of people returned the 10 cents
to someone who was dressed nicer and more of like someone from a higher class (Bickman).
This is a great example of how honest people generally are. In the early part of the book Jack is

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assigned to go hunt for food. However it seems as though he knows better than to kill animals
just to eat them. I say this because he throws the spear in front of the pig-run and then ends up
missing his opportunity to hit one. He rushed out of the undergrowth and snatched up his spear.
The pattering of pigs trotters died away in the distance (Golding 44). This is a good quote to
show how honest/loyal Jack is. Golding obviously made Jack unsuccessful the first time for a
reason. He wanted to show that Jack is a good person until forced to be evil. He isnt in desperate
need for that food yet so he doesnt get it.
People all over are constantly doing good deeds. A lot of times without even thinking
about it. Good deeds could be as little as holding the door for someone. Anything like that is so
common and seen all the time. Its also something a lot of people do without even thinking about
it. My example about returning dropped money could also apply to this section of good deeds.
Majority of the time good deeds dont take long at all and could completely change somebodys
day around for the better. Not only do good deeds make you seem like a good person, it has been
proven that it also has some health benefits. In everyday life, countless people choose to give up
free time to volunteer (WebMD). Jeanie Davis said this in an article for WebMD called The
science of good deeds and I think this is a good quote because it completely backs up what I
had said earlier about how common it is to see people do good deeds. This article also contains
information about an experiment conducted by Cornell University. They followed 427 married
women for 30 years and evaluated the results. They found that 52% of them who did not
volunteer, came down with a serious illness. This is compared to only 36% of ones who did
volunteer. This goes to show that volunteer and doing good can also help people physically. A
great example of a good deed in Lord of the Flies is when Simon shares his food. Jack finally
kills a pig and as they are eating the meat, Simon generously shares his food with someone who

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didn't get some (Golding). Of course he didnt have to do this but it was a good deed he felt good
about doing.
Some people may try and argue that people are naturally born evil. They are entitled to
this opinion but id respectfully disagree. One point they may try and use is the fact that in Lord
of the Flies, Jacks kids killed Simon for no reason coming out of the woods. As unfortunate as it
is, I sort of agree with the need to do this however, I believe they had logical reason and needed
to take some evil actions. Simon came out of a wooded area in the dark with a parachute and the
kids had no idea who it was. They assumed it was the beast they had been worried about and
were sent to attack. Once Simon began to explain who he was, it was too late. The kids had
already gone after him and began their attack. I believe this was the right thing to do and they
were forced to do evil because they have some stranger come out of the woods and they think its
someone/something out to get them. The only way to guarantee it isnt out to get them, is to get
to the beast first. At once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt on to the
beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore (Golding 141). This is a quote taken from the end of chapter 9
showing how the kids reacted to Simon. I already mentioned that they teamed up and destroyed
him but this quote helps show they forced him over a ledge and then still continued to attack
him. I thought what they did was the right thing since they had no idea who was coming out of
the woods. Not saying this wasnt evil, but saying that they have a justified reason for this evil
action. This was a time where they were forced to be evil.
When people are born, they dont know evil but only good. As mentioned earlier, evil is
definitely something that could be taught by parents but for the most part, humans are naturally
good people. Humans often times do good deeds, are very honest, and only do evil things when
provoked to do so. Its very common for people to complete good deeds without even thinking

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twice about it. You see people being honest all the time whether it be return something that isnt
theirs or honestly pay for something they took. Last is how people wont complete evil acts
without reasoning. People have some type of reason to back it all up. It is very clear and evident
that humanitys predisposition leads towards good over evil.

Works Cited
Bickman, Leonard. The Effect of Social Status on the Honesty of Others The Journal of
Social Psychology (1971): 87-92. Print.
Dittmann, Malissa. What Makes Good People do bad Things? American Psychological
Association 35.9 (October 2004): Page 68. Print.
Golding, William. Lord of the Flies New York: The Berkley Publishing Group, 1954. Print.
The Science of Good Deeds. WebMD: Health and Balance. Web. 2005.