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William Golding's Lord Of The Flies: Character Analysis

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It is hard to remain sane when one is stranded on an island, has little food, and no chance of survival. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, a group of young boys struggle to tackle the feeling of savagery. Set on a deserted island, young men such as Ralph, Jack, Piggy, and Simon are stranded with no adults. The boys vote Ralph, the main protagonist, as the leader and attempt to create an organized society. However, Jack, the main antagonist, strives to be in charge. Eventually, Jack becomes the ruler of his own tribe. All the boys fear the “beast” which is the evil within them rather than the creature they imagine. The boys slowly start turning savage and end up killing two boys, Simon and Piggy. In the end, they do get rescued; however, …show more content…
The so called beast was climbing down the hill when the boys started to attack, “There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws” (Golding, Lord 153). The boys had no rules to follow which turned them so insane that they murdered one of their friends, and thought it was fun. By not having a societal type life, these young men could not control their actions. A recent study focused on the teenage brain, and why teenagers make the decisions they do. The study about teen influences states, “Adolescents are particularly sensitive and responsive to influence by friends, desires and emotions…” (Mascarelli 3). So when the evil within one of the boys came out and started attacking Simon, the evil within all of them came out. Due to not being held back by rules, the boys saw their friends doing it and immediately wanted to join, and no one could stop them. The boy’s desire to do something they would not ever think of doing in a society took over and resulted in murdering Simon. Savagery takes over when laws are …show more content…
An experiment was conducted at the Stanford Prison to show the effects that can occur when experiments on human nature are performed. The psychologist, Philip Zimbardo, wanted to show “prison guards and convicts would tend to slip into predefined roles, behaving in a way that they thought was required, rather than using their own judgment and morals” (Qtd. in Shuttleworth). The boys following Jack knew that what they were doing was wrong, and that the dance they were conducting was uncivilized, but they thought it was required. Jack was the boys’ only sense of leadership or sort of parental figure. Due to Jack performing these actions, the young men thought they had to follow him and do it too. They got so caught up in doing what they thought was necessary rather than using their own judgement and morals. When Jack ordered to do the dance, “The hunters took their spears, the cooks took spits, and the rest clubs of firewood. A circling movement developed and a chant” (Golding, Lord 151). Since there were no sort of rules or society on the island, the boys turned to the closest thing to it, Jack. The flaw within the characters came out because there was no well conducted society or rules that the boys had to

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