Abuse In Lord Of The Flies

Shocking studies show that human nature and fear of the unknown can cause a person to use verbal and physical abuse, even to the point of murdering their own comrades. Examples of such cases can be seen in Lord of the flies, a story written by William Golding, showing fear of a "beast" so extreme it led to violence, group fragmentation, and eventually murder. What seems like nothing more than a story proves much more terrifying when compared to real life survivor stories, also connecting to fear of unreal monsters, competition with savage behavior and decisions. The threat of opposition from rival groups and fear of our own imagination are two factors to cause normal citizens to ignore rational behavior and self-control, falling into a savage

behavior.
In both Lord of the Flies and the Robber's cave experiment, rivalry and competition among teen boys ignites a power struggle that triggers rouge vandalism, verbal abuse, and escalating violence.

For starters, a Lord of the Flies character named Jack was the core of the spreading savageness. He would constantly insult Ralph, the leader amongst the boys, saying he was unfit to be their chief. Eventually, Jack decided to start his own tribe, this lead to attacks on Ralph's tribe, the murder and capture of who was left, and the stealing and destruction of their conch shell. This behavior practically mimics how the boys in the Robber's cave experiment acted. For a week, two groups of boys were kept at a camp setting, unaware the other group was there. As soon as the leaders of the experiment allowed the two groups meet, there was immediate rivalry amongst the groups. This led to verbal abuse among the boys, physical fights would break out, stealing and destroying a flag from the other group. This proves that, fictional or not, people will easily fall into a savage behavior. The boys in the cave experiment were not in any actual danger nor were they afraid, pure rivalry driving

them.
This leads to the second point, where darkness fuels imaginary and irrational fears among survivors of catastrophes leading to mental instability. In the Lord of the Flies, the boys believe a beast is living on the island. They have no idea where it comes from, their only knowledge being that it could come out at night. Eventually, it came to a point where the boys gave a sacrificial pig head to keep the beast at bay. In the end, however, they were the only beast they had to fear. Another example of this is from the crash of the Belgica ship, where a doctor analyzed the effects of fear among the crew members. Although they had sufficient supplies for survival, the crew's mentality was feeble. When a man, Emile Danco, died three weeks later, everyone was convinced the darkness had taken him. Humans with a lack of understanding of what is surrounding them will naturally make them afraid. They do not know what to expect, nor when or if a creature will attack them. However, this is nothing compared to a threat among your own species.
When it comes to people's mental instability induced by unknown fear, this can also erupt into extreme violence against each other.

Lord of the Flies shows this very well with the antagonism between Jack and Ralph, especially toward the end of the book. While Jack would naturally be ready to attack anyone against him and his rule, Ralph was not quite as violent. This changes toward the end of the book, as stated, because Ralph is forced to fight on his own. Anyone who stood with him was either dead or captured by Jack. Out of fear for his survival, he attacks mostly in a defensive form against his tribe. This was different for passengers on the ship Medusa, which sank, leaving its survivors on life rafts. Mostly the passengers were worried with the regular problems: hunger, thirst, fights amongst themselves and so on. However when it came to night, their unstable condition showed more than at any time. People and their own raft would be cut up, some people would even be beat to death or thrown into the ocean. Men who could not use weapons would simply use teeth or fists, giving animalist vibes. This insanity only lasted through the night, leaving many in a state of shock by morning. Everything they did was caused by their fear of the darkness, proving our mentality may not be as strong as we

believe.
It does not seem to take much to push people to the brink of insanity. Especially when we believe ourselves to be a civil species, if a person is challenged or if there is a feeling of fear from a false force, they would go ballistic. This is mostly a unrealistic look on the situation, however after the readings they seem pretty plausible. So many survival stories not mentioned beforehand prove the stated information and then some. These savage behaviors for some of them were not even life threatening, yet it took no time for them to devolve. It's interesting to consider our true state of civility among our own kind.