Woe Soyinka, a Nigerian writer, once said: "Well, some people say I'm a pessimist because I recognize the cycle eternal evil. All I'm saying is: look at the history of humanity up to this point and what do you find? Essentially, Soyinka is saying that it is humanity's inevitable fate to repeat its past due to the infinite existence of evil. Soyinka's ideas are echoed in William Golding's Lord of the Flies. In the novel, a group of well-behaved British boys find themselves stranded on an island. In time, boys' natural wild instincts are revealed. Throughout the novel, the reader should see that Golding uses Christian imagery to reinforce the idea that humanity is naturally evil and is doomed to repeat its past. The reader should see that Golding uses diction to describe the island as a living hell. Early in the novel, when the boys crash land on the island, Piggy expresses his concerns that the boys might be stuck on the island until they die. Precisely with this word, the heat on the island seemed to increase until it “became a threatening weight” (14). Golding didn't need to mention it at all, but he deliberately chose to write that the island seemed to be getting warmer just when Piggy said the boys might die on that island. Not only was the island getting hotter, but the heat was “threatening.” The reader should see that with these words, Golding describes the island as hell. In Christianity, hell is the place where sinners go when they die; a place where the heat is unbearable and endless. For Piggy to mention death and for the heat on the island to increase at the same time as he says it, hell would have to be on the reader's mind. Not only is the island hot, but several times throughout the novel Golding places emphasis on Jack's appearance, particularly... middle of paper ...... Eve, the first humans , got involved. This idea, along with other Christian ideas, reflects many of Golding's arguments. We can now see that Golding wanted us to understand that humans are naturally evil and will simply repeat their past mistakes. He reinforces this idea by using a motif of hell and images of the figure of Christ. Golding makes this argument so that we can understand who we are as people. Since the dawn of time, man has made mistakes. The natural evil within each of us takes control and bad things happen. From the slavery of the Israelites in ancient Egypt to the slavery of African Americans in 1800s America, people have been doing bad things for a long time and will continue to do bad things. Soyinka would agree that humans are doomed to repeat their past; it's just the natural order of things.