The Duality Of Human Nature Embodied In The Desert Island Tradition

Favored by many writers, desert island tradition has great appeal to the reading public. Its appearance is a diachronic phenomenon. As a special artistic symbol, the desert island has double implications. It is either idealized to suggest an earthly paradise or presented as a nightmare to warn against the corruption of man and his society. In fact, varied emphases in the presentations of the desert island result from varied understanding and interpretations of human nature.The essence of human nature has been an ancient topic of argument for philosophers for centuries. In western literature, good and evil, the two contradictory aspects of human nature are also presented in two extreme ways. However, in desert island tradition, the duality of the desert island image reflects the duality of human nature: human tends to be both good and evil.To get a better understanding of the desert island tradition and the duality of the human nature embodied in it, Robinson Crusoe and Lord of the Flies, two representatives of the desert island tradition, are under discussion in this paper. Produced in different literary stages, the two great novels interpret the duality of human nature with different emphasis.The present paper probes and discusses the duality of human nature in three aspects: instinct, drive and force. Chapter One analyzes the instincts of civilization and savagery. The conflict might also be expressed as reason vs. passion, order vs. chaos, or in any number of other ways. Chapter Two discusses the drives for democracy and autocracy. To expound the duality of human nature in this aspect, the contrast between responsibility and power lust and that between consent and dictatorship are implemented. Chapter Three focuses on the constructive force and the destructive force of human nature. Through the environmental and moral construction and destruction in the two novels, this aspect of human nature is fully demonstrated.