Crowd Mentality In Lord Of The Flies Essay

The Lord of Flies, by William Golding demonstrates the scenario of children trying to survive on their own, with no formal rules or guardians. Hence, the theme of the novel is with the lack of authority even the well mannered can resort to evil ways. Therefore, by society enforcing the laws, many may be able to prevent this certain behavior. Throughout the novel, the author tells the story through the eyes of a group of boys, who were stranded on an island due to an unfortunate plane crash. With no sort of authority or rules the boys rely on each other for survival. However, by spending a fair amount of time with each other the boys change miraculously into savage children. During the novel, the author portrays the theme by symbolism, crowd

By having no sort of society on the island, the little ones are dependent and look to the older ones for support and guidelines. While the older ones do try to give moral support it may not be the best type though. Having said that, most of the boys cannot distinguish what is right from wrong as they all ‘“[made] a ring” (125) and attempted to hurt Robert. Many of the boys think it is okay to physically hurt people since there are no regulations to stop them from doing this. Although, in all circumstances it is a cruel thing to hurt people, especially since they are trying to live on the island peacefully. At the same time, by having more than one becoming immoral can influence others to follow along. Jack, in particular, tends to show a negative impact towards the boys. Jack influences them to do what he wants which is to ‘“ tie them up”’(198), referring to Ralph and Piggy. Without a doubt the little ones follow what Jack says since he is showing leadership. However, the little ones are now captivated to this certain behavior as no rules are being enforced to show what the consequences are if they do something