Essay/Term paper: The surroundings of man

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Position Papers

Lisa Trask

Mr. Bronner

Advanced Sophomore English

1 November 1999

The Surroundings of Man

Is man really born with a evil persona or a persona that is

worthy as an angel or is man born naked for a reason because he

has nothing to bring to this world but himself? A person is not

innately any characteristic, he was brought to the world from

love and must choose to love or not. Mother Theresa explains

this best by saying, "Everyone was created to be loved and to

love." The novel, Lord of the Flies, has characters that were not

brought to the island good or evil, but has characters that

changed because the atmosphere that they are in changed them.

Because of the environment that you are in makes you become a

certain person, you change with the circumstances of your

environment, and interact with the condition of your

environment.

Major events affect your life in drastic ways. A marriage,

for instance is a major occurrence and different kinds of

marriages can drastically change your life. A marriage that is

abusive emotionally and physically can make your life full of

hatred, you could be depressed, you could see your self as less a

person than you are, and you could also be a frightened person

because of it. A marriage completely different is one full of love.

A marriage like that can cause a person to act blissful, to go out

and do more things on account of your support system, and you

can show other people to have loving lives like yours. All the

characters, as one, are in a kind of marriage together, they lived

concurrently and supported each other. The marriage was

abusive, they taunted each other, especially Piggy. They taunted

him at first meeting by saying this, "He"s not Fatty... his real

name"s Piggy"(21). On account of that Piggy felt not worthy to

other characters in the novel and didn"t get to show his more

intelligent side to everyone. Events are a primary device that

causes people to act a certain way. If the characters didn"t live

so close together and taunt Piggy, would he have acted the way

he did through the course of the novel?

Being brought into particular situations can alter your life.

To cite an instance, a child being taken from his home, the only

place he knew, and put into a foster home would be a particular

situation that could alter one"s life. The other place he lived in

may have been harmful to his well-being and it was a positive

occurrence that he was brought out of his home. On the other

hand, the foster home could affect his well-being in a more

negative way than his old home. The Lord of the Flies is based

upon the fact that these children were suddenly thrusted into a

new environment that in the end affected them in a very negative

way. The conversation Ralph has with the naval officer in the

end expresses how a person from the outside can"t believe that

children could be killing each other just because they are alone

on an island; the officer says," We saw your smoke. What have

you been doing? Having a war or something?" (201). The truth

was that their new environment, the island, was a big reason

that did really have a war with each other. Changing an

environment may have an effect on a person in many different

ways, good and bad.

People are who they are because of people that surround

them. For example, Piggy grew up with his aunt, who spoiled

him, and taught him about his asthma. Piggy proves he runs his

life according to his aunt by saying, "My auntie told me not to

run...on account of my asthma"(9). Piggy"s new surroundings

changed him into what he was in the story. An example of this

would be when the other boys teased him. Because of their

harsh treatment he was quiet and less self-confident. The boys

were now his aunt and they now controlled how he acted and

felt. Lord of the Flies is a good example of how people in your

surroundings help make the person you are.

In conclusion, your future is not decided at birth. The good

and evil in mankind depends on the situations that happen, not

on that one person. The evil that happened in Lord of the Flies

occurred because of the situations on their environment, the

island, and the situations that happened to them individually. A

person is not just plain evil or just good, we are all full of

different characteristics because of the experiences that we

have had, good experiences and bad. Finally, as human beings

we are all born equal, and what happens during the course of our

lives determines who you are.