Reilly 1

Alex Reilly
English Foundations I / B4
March 10th 2016
Mrs. McGovern
Humanitys Flaw
A military general and the first president of the most successful country on the planet,
George Washington, had once stated To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means
of preserving peace. Since the dawn of man, fighting for power had always been part of its
culture. This has caused numerous empires to grow and disease, and new ones take their place.
While this happens man forgets the perspective of the victims who are relentlessly tortured and
stressed throughout the process. This nature of man has been seen in North Koreas Hydrogen
Bomb Project, the war against Jews and Muslims from Newsela, and in fiction such as the book
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding and A Separate Peace by John Knowles. Human
kind is bound to destroy and rebuild itself for the rest of time, as it had in the beginning through
the present.
War has been a necessity to man since the beginning of time. As small tribes grew to
power, they fought and killed each other out for more power. After tribes empires began to grow
and fight with other small nations for more power, killing thousands and wasting resources in the
process. After the empire grew massively, a war would go on inside of it splitting it apart and
destroying and killing even more people and resources. This process has repeated throughout
history, and today one couldnt simply ignore the outcome of it. Nations are more divided than
ever and consistently fighting for the resources they do not have, and people are simply trying to
rebuild their past countries but cannot do so without war. If the past wars never happened

Reilly 2

humanity would have been prosperous, and no evidence of destruction could be found. Countries
could have peacefully traded with one another and each have done their own thing, and
everybody living inside it would be happy and content. However ever since the war cycle had
started, it cannot be stopped. Humans have evolved to be in competition with each other so that
the best will survive and the weak will die out, but at this day in age war is simply not needed. If
we all just got together many of the world's problems would be inexistent and humanity can
focus on advancement rather than the destruction of itself.
The problem of war is that, even in recent weeks, there is evidence of it bringing down
humanity even more. Less than two months ago a corrupt lying monarchic nation looking to
expand its power had produced a massive weapon of war, known as The H bomb of Justice.
This accomplishment, if one could even call it that, has gotten many to feel mixed emotions. In
South Korea people are debating on whether or not the country even has the bomb. The article
North Korea Reports a Hydrogen Bomb Test, but Many Doubt it by Newsela, the author states
If North Korea has the H-bomb, it would make bigger problems between North Korea and other
countries. (Newsela 1). This means that if the country doesn't have the bomb, more and more
countries will develop their weapons, and if they do the same would happen all out of fear. This
would than be in the end a massive battle that would obliterate the world and set us centuries
back in progress because of self defense. What makes this specific situation even worse is the
fact that the war that influenced North Korea to become as violent as it is directly related to this.
It shows that mankind has literally repeated history by starting up another Korean War, except
this time our technology has evolved hence more, and will set us back farther in the past. This
action proves that man will never be able to find an alternative to killing itself. Another example
of how our own race is destroying itself is in the nearby country of France. In French Jews

Reilly 3

struggle with an identity dilemma as violence increases by Newsela, the author describes that
due to the extremist group known as ISIS claiming to defend their religion, their is a massive
uproar in anti semitism. This has created an entire mess between all 3 religions. The author states
"At some point, we have to defend the model of our society and it is a society of secularism and
freedom of religious practice." (Newsela 2). Because of ISISs defense they have now planted
the roots for a new age of Crusades and Jihads, plunging us back into the 1300s. This article
even relates to the last one, humanity will not stop repeating its past. The religious wars were
horrible, and people realised that and learned from their mistakes. But now it is proven that no
matter what humanity cannot simply overcome the factor that we cannot stop killing each other.
In the 1940s the world was once again on the brink of destruction, due to nothing other
than war . The British Empire was finally crumbing and the rest of the world's countries were
fighting each other to expand their own power. Due to this, man people began to realise how
terrible war can be, and people realised that they needed to send out a message that if we don't
stop we won't be around much longer, and to make us realize how ridiculous human nature has
become. The way that these authors got their message out was through literature, specifically the
two novels The Lord of the Flies and A Separate Peace. In The Lord of the Flies there was
a group of stranded British children on an island during the process of a war. In this book there
were three main characters, Ralph the leader, Piggy the advisor, and Jack the greedy one. At the
beginning there was peace and nothing more that happiness and union. The boys all got along
and helped each other for a short period of time until problems began to arise, the boys began to
disobey Ralphs orders. This started out as small issues such as taking too long of breaks, and
escalated to Jack eventually putting out the signal fire when a boat was nearby. As expected
Ralph was furious, and this infuriated Jack as he tried to defend himself. A short time passes and

Reilly 4

issues begin to arise between the group. Eventually Jack ends up leaving the tribe with a small
amount of followers, and the two tribes begin to fight. The one intellectual, the only kid that saw
the stupidity in the conflict, Piggy, was eventually assassinated for trying to heal the fracture
between the tribes, and Ralph was almost killed by the tyrant known by Jack. During the first
problem between the boys, Golding wrote They looked at each other, baffled in love and hate.
(Golding 55). This shows how the destruction began with a simple exchange of emotions
between two human beings, and it boils down to the fact that humans simply haven't evolved to
the point where two of us can't simply meet each other halfway, thrusting us into a destiny of
destruction for the rest of time. In A Separate Peace the novel describes the friendship of two
boys by the name of Gene and Finny. In this book, WWII is currently going on, but there is a
more significant war on a much smaller scale in the story. When Gene befriends Finny in this
novel, the two personalities do not mix together very well, it's more like a nerd vs jock
situation. In the book Gene thinks to himself Finny had deliberately set out to wreck my
studies (Knowles 45). This thought that Genes instincts inflicted on him was the beginning of
an act of anger, sadness, confusion and jealousness, Gene pushed his friend from a tree causing
him to break his leg. Although this may not have been a war, this is the human instinct and
generally the cause for major conflicts. Through our journey in evolution, when we feel bad or
despicable emotions we find ways to defend ourselves and attack others.
From the dawn of man, humanity had always built itself up into a prosperous state and
then shred itself apart. No what perspective a person has about war they have to accept the
evidence. In the anti-semitism in France article by Newsela, and the article about North Korea's
new weapon of mass destruction by Newsela, there is more than enough evidence that humanity
has repeated its bad moments of history multiple times. In novels, such as the book The Lord of

Reilly 5

The Flies by William Golding, and A Separate Peace by John Knowles, the novels
demonstrated through made up stories that human nature can be low enough were younger
individuals cannot overcome basic human instinct. Therefore as humans we shouldn't even
bother trying to stop war, as it is against what we have been designed to do. Our consciences
stands no chance of overcoming our animal instincts that have been the root to humankind.

Works Cited
"North Korea Reports a Hydrogen Bomb Test, but Many Doubt It." Newsela. N.p., n.d. Web. 10
Mar. 2016.
"French Jews Struggle with an Identity Dilemma as Violence Increases."Newsela. N.p., n.d. Web.
10 Mar. 2016.
Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. New York: Coward-McCann, 1962. Print
Knowles, John. A Separate Peace; a Novel. New York: Macmillan, 1960. Print.

Reilly 6

"George Washington Quote." BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2016.