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Nurture versus nature essay
Nurture versus nature essay
The bystander effect concept paper
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Although it may be natural human behavior when stripped from civilization, how the boys' behavior has changed morally based on their situation is the main part of the destruction on the island. One thing is that the boys on the island were not willing to go after and help each other. The bystander effect engaged, they let all these horrible things happen to each other without taking action to stop it and get things under control. This quote shows us an example of how the bystander effect was happening while Jack and his tribe were killing Simon: “Again the blue-white scar jagged above them and the sulphurous explosion beat down. The littluns screamed and blundered about, fleeing from the edge of the forest, and one of them broke the ring of biguns in …show more content…
There wasn’t any kind or response as they saw Simon get murdered in this moment, except expressing emotions of fear. They saw him, and knew it wasn’t the beast. No one stopped to help Simon, they let him die to the hands of Jack and his group of hunters. That also went along with another psychological factor. The boys were following whoever took charge which led them to be manipulated, or they were under blind obedience to authority. This quote of dialogue shows us that they were going to let a chief takeover decide things for them instead providing ideas themselves: “‘Seems to me we ought to have a chief to decide for things.’ ‘a chief!, a chief!’” (Golding 22). Clearly showing their willingness to have a leader and more importantly, to be led. This was only the beginning of the boys just following and needing a leader just because they couldn’t do anything, along with them being under the influence of fear. Everyone just followed whoever took charge and didn’t bother to weigh the pros and cons, or actually question if they were a good leader. They were so blinded and would do whatever it takes to survive. This also connecting to this next psychological
One reason why the boys on the island turned into savages was because of peer pressure. Peer pressure is a common thing that happens among children and it causes them to behave the way their
The goal of any person stranded in an island is surviving. These boys are well aware of this goal and know they must stick with the leader that will help them survive the longest. The options these boys have for possible leaders are Ralph and Jack. On one hand, Ralph is focused on building a signal fire to be rescued. On the other hand, Jack focuses on settling on the island by providing food and protection.QUOTE OF BOYS NOT CARING FOR BEING RESCUED The biological factor that encourages these boys to follow the orders of Jack is the fact that the majority of the boys have little to no hope of being rescued. They probably believe that Jack can keep them alive for a long time on the island by providing protection against the beast everyone talks
This is an instance of diffusion of responsibility among the boys. In order for them to all survive everyone needs to pull their own weight and work to provide food and shelter. However the boys get lazy and start getting distracted by other things on the island. Golding states, “I mean who built all three? We all built the first one, four of us the second one, and me’n Simon built the last one over there.” (Golding.107). There are so many boys on the island that each one thinks it’s alright for them to slack a little. One by one they all start slacking and there is not enough people actually working in order to make up for all the boys who have stopped. All of the boys fell into witness behavior and watched as people worked rather than helping them. Similar to another part of Darley and Latane’s experiment with fake seizures. A group of students were all in a chat room where they had an allotted time to speak, one actor faked a seizure for the students to hear; yet, only a third of students reacted. They expected the others would help him, so they wouldn 't have to. The same with the boys, they expected the others to do the work for
eventually turns the boys into frenzied savages, undaunted by the barbaric orders he decrees. The boys focus more and more on hunting and exploring, neglecting their primary objective: returning home to their families and civilization. The island boys experience manipulation, intimidation, and brutality while under Jack’s authority, revealing that the impact on those under reckless control can prove to be extremely harsh and
When the boys first arrived on the island, their behaviour was civilized and they attempted to convince themselves that they would soon be rescued by their parents. As the days passed, the boys began to open their eyes and realized that sitting around was not going to benefit them in any way, and most importantly it would not help them survive. Because of their new unrestricted life on the island, the boys become ruthless and replaced their previous identity.
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a peculiar story about boys stranded on an island, and the plot and characters relate to many prevailing events and problems. A specific problem that is currently occurring is the mutual hatred and enmity between North Korea and South Korea. This is a current event, but the North and South’s hostility has been ongoing since 1945, when Korea was split into North and South, Communist and Capitalist. When the 38th parallel(Border between North and South Korea) was created, Kim Il-Sung ruled the North, and Syngman Rhee ruled the South. As of now, a power hungry dictator, Kim Jong-un rules the north, and an optimistic president who wants to see change was recently elected in the South, named Moon Jae-in. In Golding’s book, Ralph is a character who aimed to keep everyone alive and to stay together. Jack on the other hand, wanted to have fun and hunt, and although he also wanted to be rescued, he made no effort to help. In this sense, North Korea is a clear representation of the character Jack and his quest for power, and opposingly, South Korea is a representation of Ralph and his strive for order, democracy, and civilization.
All throughout the novel the boys revert to child like playfulness therefore denying to themselves that they are actually in a dire situation. Even in the very beginning of the story when the boys first get to the island, they don’t think that much about rescue or their future living on the island. For instance, when Ralph is first voted chief he reports, “’While we are waiting we can have a good time on this island’ he gestured widely…’This is our island. It’s a good island. Until the grownups come and fetch us we’ll have fun.’”(Ralph 35). This illustrates their mindset that there is no real danger or struggle to survive. The boys feel they can just hang out and have fun until they
The impact of Jack’s savagery on the island leads to the boys forgetting the real truth about about themselves. The boys on the island are able to explain that human are evil from the beginning and that they aren’t impacted by society. The boys see the island as a place where they are free from the adult world and without any rules. The boys don’t realize that a world without rules causes the chaos on the island and the savagery within the boys. Jack’s authoritative power forces him to push the rest of the boys out of their comfort zone by making them evil being that was not there true identity before. Upon realizing that the savagery they had obtained was only destroying themselves they “wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart”(202). The power that was developed by Jack impacts everyone and destroys all of the lives that rejected him. Piggy who was the most knowledgeable character and also the weakest character was often disrespected by Jack because he opposed Jack’s power and recognizes that his power not voted for. As as result, Piggy is killed by Jack’s own boys because they too have been impacted by brute force. They killed piggy just like how they hunted pigs. Next, Simon's death reflects the rejections of religion and the idea that the
Simon’s death brings darkness and evil to the island because the characters lose track of what is right and wrong as they become focused on hunting and killing so they can gain complete power of the island. In conclusion, Simon’s lifetime on the island has taught the boys that a humane nature is important when trying to deal with others. His personality and relations with the other characters lead them to be strong for a great amount of time before it starts to die off and they lose their innocence with all the evil nature on the island. As the plot develops, everyone becomes savages and forget who they originally were and how to act like they did when there were parents around. A majority of the problem could have come to an end if all the characters could support each other and have a state of mind of what was going on around them.
Importance of Leadership Leadership is something that stands out in people. In a group, people tend to look for the strongest person to follow. However, the strongest person may not be the best choice to follow. In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Ralph and Jack each have leadership qualities. Jack is probably the stronger of the two; however, Ralph is a better leader.
While the boys stranded on the island begin with the basis of a plan to keep order, as time progresses, they are faced with conflicts that ultimately brings an end to their civilized ways. Initially, Ralph, the assumed leader, ran a democratic-like process on the island; however, later in the story, Jack, one of the boys, realizes that there are no longer any consequences to their wrongdoings for the reason that there was no control. This ties in with the ideal that moral behavior is forced upon individuals by civilization and when they are left on their own, they return to their fundamental instinct of savagery. Furthermore, there is a differentiation in beliefs that result in chaos due to the fact that some favored an uncultivated manner of life over an ordered structure. Opposing ideas are commonly known t...
Lord of the Flies is a novel written by William Golding in 1954 about a group of young British boys who have been stranded alone together on an island with no adults. During the novel the diverse group of boys struggle to create structure within a society that they constructed by themselves. Golding uses many unique literary devices including characterization, imagery, symbolism and many more. The three main characters, Ralph, Piggy, and Jack are each representative of the three main literary devices, ethos, logos, and pathos. Beyond the characterization the novel stands out because of Golding’s dramatic use of objective symbolism, throughout the novel he uses symbols like the conch, fire, and Piggy’s glasses to represent how power has evolved and to show how civilized or uncivilized the boys are acting. It is almost inarguable that the entire novel is one big allegory in itself, the way that Golding portrays the development of savagery among the boys is a clear representation of how society was changing during the time the novel was published. Golding is writing during
“Adults run the world; and there is war, and enmity, and destruction unending.” (Peter David) Throughout the novel, the boys in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies consistently admire the life of adults. Ironically, Golding’s imaginary island is a microcosm of the adult world- both destined to be destroyed. Golding reveals this microcosm through conflict and characterization.
When the children become stranded on the island, the rules of society no longer apply to them. Without the supervision of their parents or of the law, the primitive nature of the boys surfaces, and their lives begin to fall apart. The downfall starts with their refusal to gather things for survival. The initial reaction of the boys is to swim, run, jump, and play. They do not wish to build shelters, gather food, or keep a signal fire going. Consequently, the boys live without luxury that could have been obtained had they maintained a society on the island. Instead, these young boys take advantage of their freedom and life as they knew it deteriorates.
Bystander effect, (Darley & Latane, 1970) refers to decrease in helping response when there are bystanders around relative to no bystanders. Referring to previous study stating that there are some cases of which group size may promote helping instead of hindering it (Fischer et al., 2011). Researchers then speculate the possibility of positive influences from bystanders by taking public self-awareness into consideration. Researchers proposed that high public self-awareness would reverse the bystander effect in this study with 2 independent variables which are bystander and presence on the forum. They are defined as number of bystanders (absent vs present) and salience of name (salient vs non-salient) respectively. 86 students are randomly assigned to one of the four conditions in the experiment. Response of participants in the online forum is the operational definition for the dependent variable of helping behavior. The result shows that number of response increases with respect to increase in bystanders when public self-awareness is enhanced by using accountability cue (Bommel et al., 2012). Participants were asked to rate how notable they were from their view afterwards as a manipulation check.