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Erin Willingham THESIS: ACCORDING TO LOTF AND HARMS WAY, MANKIND IS EVIL. Ms. Anhalt ENG 311 6 October 2011 Harms way: The Lessons of Youth Violence, Lord of the Flies, and The Darkness of Mankind All human are inherently evil. Well, Golding thinks so at least. It seems like a logical conclusion to come to, after witnessing some of the acts that humans are capable of. In Lord of the Flies, when society and order arent present, the darkness shows through. In Harms Way: The Lessons of Youth Violence, again we can see the evil underneath. According to Golding, all humans are born evil. Children dont have to be shown how to be bad, instead they are constantly reminded to act well behaved. In Lord of the Flies, when the children dont have the guidance of adults, they make foolish mistakes and act like savages. In Harms Way, the kids also do stupid things and act uncivilized, to some extent. They kill meaninglessly, like the death of Jesse and Simon. When law and order is forced upon someone, their raw savagery and evil is concealed. They are conditioned to act in a way that is acceptable by our modern society. We have laws and rules to keep everyone in line. If you disregard them, you are punished. In Lord of the Flies, their demise into savagery is quick, once they realize that they wont be punished. Sometimes, it doesnt take much for our savagery to peek through the veil that society has thrust upon us. The kids in Harms Way, for the most part, havent had a very good upbringing. The environment that they were surrounded by promoted bad actions. Its easier for

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them to be evil. They lie, steal, and maybe even kill because they have been witnessing violence since their early years. Conclusion