Preview

Groups In Lord Of The Flies

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
904 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Groups In Lord Of The Flies
Throughout fiction and human history, many people have befriended and allied with others to advocate a certain idea. While some groups remain small and simple, other groups consist of extremely passionate members with substantial beliefs for their group. For instance, many novels emphasize the vehemence people hold for their interests, and modern society reveals how far people fight for their beliefs. William Golding’s Lord of the Flies illustrates that all humans naturally affiliate with others to satisfy their place in society, which often leads to deindividuation and harm to bystanders, even if they refuse to acknowledge their mistakes. Moreover, many communities still succumb to mob mentality in order to assimilate into society today. First, …show more content…
For instance, when President Donald Trump mentioned his rival Hillary Clinton at a rally, his supporters yelled “’Put her in jail! Waterboard Hillary!’” (Dana Milbank) and later, those same supporters called for security just because John, an ordinary civilian attending the rally “’got into a political argument with some Trump fans” (Dana Milbank). Since many people consider politics a significant issue, those involved with politics naturally stand their ground for their ideas. Under those circumstances, however, with their energy and activities intensifying with larger numbers, Trump supporters end up causing much more conflict with Hillary supporters than necessary. Furthermore, while John did not physically harm anyone, Trump supporters let their rage overwhelm them to the point where security forcefully removed John from the rally to prevent further conflict. On the other hand, in Lord of the Flies, when Jack’s tribe conducted a war dance, “Now out of the terror rose another desire, thick, urgent, blind” (Golding 152), and once Simon entered the party “there were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws” (Golding 153). While everyone on the island started out civilized, the lack of adult pressure plus Jack’s ardent struggle for power led to him taking drastic measures to obtain power on the island. However, unlike John’s situation at …show more content…
For instance, while Trump frequently states, “Mexico is sending rapists and criminals into the United States” (Chris Cillizza), he defends himself by shoving the blame to “the Border Patrol officers he has talked to” (Chris Cillizza). While Trump repeatedly states his distaste for Mexicans throughout his campaign, he automatically pushes the blame onto a side group to defend his reasoning, thus diverting any sort of blame off him. In addition, when Jack’s tribe chased after the mother sow in Lord of the Flies, “the sow fell and the hunters hurled themselves at her” (Golding 135), but after murdering the sow, the novel depicts them “standing over the dry blood…suddenly furtive” (Golding 137). While all of the savages teamed up to kill the sow with equally fervent malevolence, the fact that they all wanted to avoid attention to themselves afterwards implies that none of them would have admitted to their animalistic breakdown if questioned by authority. In short, both Jack’s tribe and Trump would have diverted their actions onto other people if it meant they would all appear innocent to their

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In Lord of the Flies, William Golding depicts morals and the boundaries of society in the form of characters. This essay will compare and contrast the differences between four pivotal characters: Ralph, Jack, Simon and Roger. The goodness and order in society is portrayed by Ralph and SImon. The darkness in human nature is explained through Roger and Jack.…

    • 700 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Power is often a source of violence in Lord of the Flies. The desire for power breaks down the boundaries set by rules and order, causes strife and competition, and governs the actions of many of the boys on the island. Once achieved, power has the ability to either improve or corrupt its holder. Ralph, the more noble of the two leaders on the island, is bettered by his position as chief; whereas Jack, the usurper, abuses his…

    • 1617 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    1. in both the novel the Lord of the Flies and the article “After British Riots, Conflicting Answers as to ‘Why’”, people are doing things they would never see them selves doing. In the article it says “People see that other people are involved and they’re encouraged.” I think by this they mean that people are only doing what other people are doing and they realize that maybe they should do the same. I also think that they feel like that because they are finally showing who they really are deep down inside of them. They showed that in reality they are going to riot and take things without paying. In the novel the Lord of the Flies most of the boys follow Jack with his hunting. The boys didn’t necessarily want to hunt or kill but they did it and showed that deep down inside thats what the human kind is, beasts.…

    • 564 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Leaders, visionaries, and followers. This is what the world is made of. By scaling down this world, William Golding, the author of The Lord of the Flies, created a small tropical island inhabited by lost British school boys. By living unsupervised in the wild, these boys found their natural behaviour as humans. Most of them can be categorized into the three sections from the beginning of the paragraph, but there is a best example for each. Ralph is a leader, Roger is a follower, and Simon is a visionary.…

    • 990 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When in a group or a mob, people tend to act differently: stronger, stern, bigger than if they were to be there without the people around them. All the other people around them help hide their weakness, but sometimes those people are weak on the inside, and can be easily made insecure. Groups usually try to back each other up to make the target feel smaller and weaker, but sometimes they can be easily defeated.…

    • 656 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The worst of mankind can come in many different forms, from little pre-school children, to the deaths and dangers of war. As Thomas Hobbes’ theories state, the nature of mankind is a state of war; all against all. In the novels Lord of the Flies by William Golding and A Separate Peace by John Knowles, the authors both examine a story that takes place under limited adult supervision while in the backdrop of war. In this setting, the characters act out the worst of mankind. In Lord of the Flies, the main characters show the worst of mankind through jealousy, savagery, and fear. Contrary to Lord of the Flies, In the novel A Separate Peace by John Knowles, the worst of mankind is shown mostly through jealousy. Violence in the children’s everyday life made the children themselves grow up violent. As Locke said, a human mind is blank until society contaminates. If you grow up in a war zone, you are likely to be more violent and open to conflict than someone who grew up in peace. Having said this, the boys in Lord of The Flies have experienced, first hand how war works. However, the effect of war in a A Separate Peace is much more direct to the story than in Lord of the Flies.…

    • 1393 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Piggy's Symbols

    • 865 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Military theorist Carl von Clausewitz once said: “Savage peoples are ruled by passion, civilized peoples by the mind. The difference lies not in the respective natures of savagery and civilization, but in the attendant circumstances, institutions, and so forth... even the most civilized peoples… can be fired with passionate hatred for each other.” In Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, the boys on the island slowly lose sight of their humanity, becoming more and more savage as the days progress. William Golding illustrates the darker side of mankind and shows how quickly man can turn evil when left to his own devices. Within days of being on the island the…

    • 865 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In both the novel Lord of the Flies and the 1990 film version of Lord of the Flies, tension between Ralph and Jack had arisen to critical levels. Jack’s bloodlust, rather than to have a concern about the well-being of the entire group, conflicted with Ralph’s concerns towards the well-being of the entire group. When Ralph confronted Jack about his bloodlust ways after their first chance to be rescued is denied because of Jack, this angers Jack and he began a group of his own (Hook). Ralph said, “Great killed a pig. Face it Jack you fucked you. We could have been rescued” (Hook). Ralph understood the need for the pig, but realized that it is something more than just food to feed everyone for Jack. This left those who believed in the group were more important than individuals and wanted to be rescued with Ralph. Those who wanted to give into their impulses to kill and give into savagery went with Jack. To keep his…

    • 1570 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    When life throws scary and dire situations at you, some believe it is a test to see a person's true colors, and how that person reacts under extreme pressure and conflict. In situations like these, leaders are born. In The Lord of the Flies, Ralph becomes a frontrunner as the “chief”, or leader in the story. Ralph struggles to maintain a civil relationship between all the boys, but still remains the more appropriate leader, including his civility, his conflicts, and his purpose.…

    • 760 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Each individual is acknowledged as good or bad, but is there such a thing as good and bad? Golding, who has written the Lord of the Flies, expresses and shows how people react towards each other. The Lord of the Flies shows the image of civilization and influence. Golding articulates each and every individual in detail. Around the 1700’s, two men named Hobbes and Locke had an intriguing conversation, “What are humans?”, “Were we meant to be savages?”, “What would ourselves be without laws?” These questions are yet to be answered by your own opinion. ‘The Lord of the Flies’ has many situations relating to the nature of humanity. The nature of humanity describes the characteristics such as society, influence and individuality.…

    • 997 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    They argue that no matter the situation, evildoers have always had the capacity to do evil. John Lockem author of The Second Treatise of Civil Government suggests “The freedom then of man, and liberty of acting according to his own will, is grounded on his having reason, which is able to instruct him in that law he is to govern himself by, and make him know how far he is left to freedom of his own will.” This simply means that we all have the ability to do whatever we want, sometimes we just make the wrong choices. But, in The Lord of the Flies it was made obvious that the lack of authority and order in the novel is was caused their “society” to deteriorate.…

    • 775 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Essay On Enviroment

    • 541 Words
    • 3 Pages

    For another example we'll take Jack, from The Lord Of The Flies by William Golding. Jack had been forced to maintain his composure constantly because of School rules, and Laws. But after he was taken out of that enviroment, and given the freedom to let his true identity show unfiltered, he became gruesome. He viciously slayed pigs just to prove that he should be leader, even though the survivors on the island hadn't even had a shelter yet. He wanted power, so he seperated from the main group, and started his own group where he disgustingly slaughtered a pig, decapitating it, and impailing the pig's head with a stake. Leaving it as a peace offering for the "beast." Because Jack was no longer goverend by moral impulses he could release his true colors, letting them…

    • 541 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Symbolism is a writing technique found in literature, poetry and life. Many authors use symbolism in stories to help indicate one of the main themes in the stories. The definition of an assembly is: The name given for the democratic meeting sessions held for the group when led by Ralph. William Golding, the author of Lord of the Flies, uses the symbol of the assemblies to represent not just civilization and order, but the political parties in the world. Near the end of the story, this symbol changes, and there are no longer any assemblies, which is the main reason of why the story falls apart in the end.…

    • 605 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mob Mentality

    • 2032 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Mob mentality can occur in any society. It can take place at any time, any day or any night. Mob mentality does not have a direct target. It will take over anyone, leaving them with no control over themselves. Mob mentality proves that under critical situations people will be selfish and follow others’ leads; however, the leads people usually follow are not the ones best for them. Due to large amounts of stress everyone carries, people do not think as clearly as they normally would. Those horrible leads that people choose to follow will eventually cause groups to become out of control. Violence usually ensues when within a large group. In their respective works, both Arthur Miller and Ray Bradbury write pieces that reflect upon social criticism and how it can corrupt any society to their breaking point.…

    • 2032 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the Twentieth Century, there were a multitude of events that darkened almost everyone’s view of the world. These events had a great impact on the pieces of modern literature being published since the authors would write with more pessimistic views. William Golding, at the time, developed a theory which stated that people are inherently evil and that society keeps us good. While both the novel Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, and the short story The Most Dangerous Game, by Richard Connell, demonstrate the savagery and inherent evil of mankind through the desensitization to violence, the help of secondary and tertiary characters as well as a similar setting, the motivation propelling the characters’ actions differs greatly between the two pieces of literature.…

    • 912 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays