How Does Lord Of The Flies Relate To Conformity

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The ability for a society to function depends largely on the amount of individuality or uniformity the society contains. Throughout history, many different leaders have tried various approaches to the structure of the society under their rulings. Popular examples include socialism in the USSR, communism in North Korea, and capitalism in the United States. All of the previously listed examples have a similarity: they involve changes in the involvement of people in their community. For example, communism consists of all people being treated equally. Capitalism, on the other hand, focuses on not conforming individuals to be exactly like each other. In Aldous Huxley’s 1930s novel Brave New World and William Golding’s 1950s novel Lord of the Flies …show more content…

In Brave New World, leaders use conditioning to create a uniform society, and by doing so, members in the World State avoid chaos that stems from individuality. When Bernard says he would “not like to be enslaved by [his] conditioning,” Lenina replies, “you're saying the most awful things” (Huxley 91). When people begin to have strong feelings towards anything, they develop an aspiration to become their own person. Purely the thought of people having the desire to have personal thoughts and feelings confuses Lenina, because she understands that her society would collapse without conditioning and conformity. Individuality seems beneficial to people’s well-being, however, in a society, uniformity has an important role in controlling civilization. Lord of the Flies shows that once civilization deteriorates, humans resort to innate savage instincts. Ironically, Jack wants to ensure that he and the other boys remain civil through “[having] rules and [obeying] them,” because they “are English” (Golding 42). Through Jack, Golding conveys that as long as the boys can follow rules and stay obedient, their society can function and they can all remain civilized. Golding emphasizes that the boys come from England, because the country has a developed society. If they boys all come from an advanced country with a civilized society, they should understand the necessity of rules in order for their island life to function

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