Abstract

William Golding tells a story about a group of children living on an isolated island in his famous novel Lord of the Flies. Without the guide of adults, the children gradually lapsed into savageness, losing all their moral sense. Why such terrible story happens? Why does he show evil human nature in this novel? In the first chapter, the novel will be introduced. Golding makes use of psychology, which has a great effect on literature at that time, to portray the seemingly ridiculous but inevitable dark story. The second chapter will analyze the western view of human nature from different aspects, including Greek and Roman mythologies, Biblical stories, psychology and other areas and western history. Golding is deeply affected by the core value in western culture of evil human nature. In the third chapter, the era background will be introduced. Golding’s involvement in the Second World War and the atmosphere of the after war period, fortified Golding’s belief about human nature. Finally the conclusion will be drawn. Affected by different factors, Golding considered human nature evil and dark. He did not deny it, but accepted it and uncover it in his work. With the help of psychology, he managed to make the seemingly ridiculous story reasonable, in order to warn people that it was the high time we paid attention behavior before it was too late.

Key words: William Golding; Lord of the Flies; human nature; evil

摘要

威廉•戈尔丁在著名小说《蝇王》中描述了一群孩子流落荒岛的故事。失去成人的引导，他们逐渐丧失道德，堕落成野蛮人。为什么会有如此可怕的故事发生？为什么作者会在他的小说中表现人性的黑暗与邪恶？在第一章节中，我将首先介绍故事本身。戈尔丁运用心理学当时对文学界有较大影响的心理学原理，塑造了这样一个荒诞，但在那样的情境中却是不可避免的黑暗故事。在第二章节中，我将从古希腊罗马神话、圣经故事、心理学和其他领域，以及西方发展历史等方面解释西方人眼中的人性恶，而作者戈尔丁，正是这一思想的传承者。在第三章节中，我将分析时代背景。作者曾参与二战，并且亲眼见到了二战后西方世界的悲哀气氛，以及当时文学界的氛围和责任感。最后我将得出结论：受西方核心思想人性恶理念以及二战的影响，作者坚信人性是黑暗的。他并不排斥这种思想，相反，他接受它并揭露它。他运用心理学原理，将一个荒诞的故事描写得相当真实，由此来提醒人们采取行动，控制自己的言行，压制我们恶的本性，以免造成不可挽回的后果。

关键词：威廉•戈尔丁；《蝇王》；人性；恶