Lao Tzu, the founder of Taoism, and William Golding, the author of Lord of the Flies, may share a viewpoint on leadership and its effect on society, but they differ on the existence and causes of good and evil. Tao Te Ching has a simple message of paradox and identifies with nature in its verses. Lord of the Flies contains a strong allegory about the interdependence of human nature and civilization.

Lord of the Flies conveys a bold separation of good and evil, while Tao Te Ching doesn’t explicitly define the terms. Lao Tzu suggests that we only know what is good because “there is evil”, arguing that not only do good and evil exist, but they complement each other. However, the path to enlightenment in Taoism does not necessarily have to be ethical. The only requirement to become a Master is to be in touch with the Ten Thousand Things, or nature itself–a moral grey area. Golding makes the symbols of right and wrong easy to identify. Jack, a vicious leader, is an embodiment of evil while Piggy, the most logical of the boys, is a symbol of good. Lord of the Flies was published in the shadow of World War II and its ethics relate to the stark contrast between Nazi evil and the Allies’ good. Golding had no doubt of the inhumanity man was capable of. With this in mind, the schoolboys who were supposedly escaping the war instead exemplified the roles of good and evil.


Lao Tzu and Golding agree on one idea: that egotistical leadership can bring down a society. Tao Te Ching argues that to lead effectively, “you must place yourself below” the people. This means that a functioning leadership must be humble and not egocentric. After the boar hunt in Lord of the Flies, Ralph “tried for their attention”, depicting that one of the leaders desires to be revered by the others. Then Ralph, when seen to be challenging Jack’s leadership, “[sensed] the rising antagonism” from Jack because Jack’s goal is to have the most power over the boys. Those leaders were either hostile or show-offs, and by the end of the book inadequate leadership is what compelled them to sacrifice Simon and burn down the forest. Lao Tzu experienced war, having lived during the Warring States Period, and knew about the corruption among his superiors during that time. In the same fashion, Golding recognized venal leaders during World War II, such as Hitler and Stalin, responsible for their own downfall. Both texts draw the same conclusion: that power-hungry leaders don’t consider the well-being of their followers, thereby creating discord and eventually leading to the destruction of their own people and society.

In nature, is man inherently good or evil? According to Tao Te Ching, if you embrace the world, you accept the “bearing and nurturing” Tao. Becoming one with nature is therefore being enlightened and is the highest form of good. Lao Tzu also recommended living “close to the land”, or away from the bustling manner of people, to connect more with the natural world. Golding seems to have the opposite opinion. When approaching Jack’s camp, Ralph wondered if he should pretend that his classmates were still schoolboys, even though “darkness and the horrors of death” contend otherwise. This speaks to the negative change the boys undergo when dwelling in nature and isolated from society. When Piggy dies and the conch becomes irrelevant–the conch being the only symbol of order left –the boys believe in the Beast as a deity and become savages. They commit acts of murder, arson and sacrifice. If the boys were still in England, what they did on the island would have been unthinkable. Finally, a hallucination of a dead boar tells Simon the Beast is not “something you could hunt and kill”. At this moment the reader understands that the Beast is no longer a dangerous creature on the island, but a ruthless animal inside each of the boys. Conversely, the Tao conveys that tranquility and sage-like behavior comes with separation from civilization, while Lord of the Flies depicts seclusion and isolation as bringing out the worst in us.

Lord of the Flies and Tao Te Ching come to conflicting conclusions about the nature of good and evil and their reality, but they agree on the qualities needed for a successful leader. Tao Te Ching doesn’t specify what is right and wrong; Lao Tzu only states that the concepts exist. Both Golding and Lao Tzu imply that leadership needs to be handled with humility. Taoism emphasizes the enlightenment of the soul with connections to the environment, while Lord of the Flies communicates that nature leads us to savagery. These texts illustrate the different perspectives the writers had on human nature. When Tao Te Ching was written–in the Warring States Period–many regions in China were involved in violence, possibly leading Lao Tzu to think negatively of society in general and concentrate more on the harmony of the universe. In Golding’s case, after World War II, the idea of mankind being capable of evil was all too real. While the authors differ on the effect of the natural world on people, they agree that good and evil are reflections of the interaction between human nature and the nature of the universe.