"No one who conjures up the most evil of those half-tamed demons that inhabit the human breast and seeks to wrestle with them can expect to come through the struggle unscathed." -Dora (Complete Psychological Works)

There exists an all poweful force in this universe that makes man fall into an eternal abyss of illusion and hell. It is called Maya (Cosmic Illusion) by the Vedanta and "evil" by the English It wounds the opponent always, many times almost fatally. It is the most ferocious, wild, and swinish beast in existence. Sometimes a mere glance at it can provoke it to attack. There is only weapon that can kill this "evil", that can wipe it away once and for all, that can triumph over all else: and that is the Highest Good. In Golding's Lord of the Flies, through the characters and symbolic happenings, it is shown that in all being lies this Maya, or illusion which we call evil, and the Highest Good and if either of these are dove into, astounding effects on the human heart are inevitable.

Golding shows that how even within innocent school boys, there lies this tremendous force of illusion. As he builds up his novel, he reveals how evil manifests itself in different wa

ys until it reaches its climactic maximum. The story can be said to be an allegory of present day society, for evil is not just in the pages of books but is a reality that affects the world. Golding makes his central theme very clear when the pig's skull, which represent evil, is speaking to Simon. The Beast says, "Fancy thinking the beast was something that you could hunt and kill!" Evil is not something in gross form that one can handle by physical means. "You knew, didn't you? I'm part of you? Close, close, close!"(143) As Mahatma Gandhi once said, "The only devils in the world are the ones running around in our own hearts." With the manifestation of these devils, our hearts as well as the hearts of others are scarred more and more. "I'm the reason why it's no go? Why things are what they are?," says the Beast. All of the characters in the book, Ralph, Jack, Piggy, Samneric, the rest of the biguns, and all of the littluns and even Simon are injured and "scathed" as they battle a force which they are just discovering and find no means to fight.

Of all the characters in the book, it can be said that Jack was the most possessed by evil and was therefore scathed deeply by it. At the beginning of the novel, Jack is preoccupied with being able to hunt and kill a pig for food and he tries several times, but fails; since evil has not possessed him yet, he cannot bring himself to kill a living being. "'I was choosing a place,' said Jack. 'I was just waiting for a moment to decide where to stab him.' . . . 'If I could only get a pig!'" But slowly, the evil possesses him more and more; he not only can hunt, but thoroughly enjoys it. "'I cut the pig's throat,' said Jack, proudly . . ." One can see the progresion of evil in higher degrees from comparing the following quotes. "He noticed blood on his hands and grimaced distastefully, looked for something on which to clean them , then wiped them on his shorts and laughed." Later in the novel, after a hunt, "Jack grabbed Maurice and rubbed the stuff over his cheeks." Jack slowly forms his own group and the transformation from human being to savage is complete. The climactic possession of evil over Ralph is when he makes the decision to hunt Ralph, a living human-being. The difference between Ralph and Jack was that Ralph was immoral, being conscious of his actions being wrong and being able to reflect on the matter. Jack however, was amoral, losing all conception of what morality is in the first place from; Maya had completely taken hontrol over him. Jack's scars from evil are so deep that he doesn't realize them at all.

Jack and Ralph dealt with the theme of evil in the novel, but Simon is one of the most important characters of the novel, since his charcater deals with the aspect of the theme concerning the Highest Good. What is this Highest Good? It is the divinity or God present in all beings. Simon represents the conce

Some common words found in the essay are:
Waht Beat, Piggy Samneric, God Simon, Swami Vivekananda, Lord Flies, Supreme Soul, Jack Ralph, II Simon, Illusion Vedanta, Mahatma Gandhi, ralph jack, devils world ones, cosmic illusion, characters novel, jack ralph, kill evil, little little, maya cosmic, evil scratched, maya cosmic illusion, god simon, innocent school boys, world ones,
Approximate Word count = 1966
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)