Have you ever gotten mad at your mom for making you do the dishes after dinner? Do you wonder why we technically belong to our parents until we’re 18? Also known as an ‘adult.’ It's like we’re something they own, they can boss us around and tell us “no” to going over to a friends house. I used to think maybe they just wanted to have a little fun themselves, making us work more than they have to. After reading Lord of the Flies, I disagree with the statement that children can naturally organize themselves because of the lack of motivation, communication and mental drive these boys face on the island. A group of British boys land on a deserted island in the Pacific Ocean from a plane crash. Within the first minutes on the island the boys are completely ruthless. “We might stay here till we die.” (Golding 14) Ralph and the other …show more content…
Because of the fact the boys don't have any reason to get off the island leaves us to infer they have no motivational drive trying to stay alive. “Simon’s dead body moved out towards the open sea.” (Golding 139) The group of boys is literally maybe not so confidently dropping like flies with main characters dying one after the other, is that even a thing? Since when have you read a book where the plot is so twisted and reversed, Golding takes the most civilized human beings into the dark side of humanity to attempt surviving uncivilized and unsupervised. Before I read Lord of the Flies I agreed with the this statement in my English journal saying children can naturally organize themselves, but now I have a completely different opinion. Children need their parents, or just a mature influence in general until we’ve been under their influence enough to know not to make those careless mistakes and poor decisions we do when we’re feeling a bit
The books Lord of the Flies and The Chocolate War both have children in that awkward spot of authority with the twists of different settings, situations, and conflicts. While there is hope for everything to work out for the children in the books, eventually it turns out to be a struggle for them in the end. Children are not mature enough to make the decisions to be in charge of their own lives, they need guidance and the wisdom from adults with life experience. Even with the presence of an adult, children with authority can cause many problems and chaos to be aroused. Coming to a conclusion, children do not deserve this authority until they have
The island boys ultimately choose Jack as “Chief” for his confidence, self-assertiveness, and charisma. His certainty convinces the stranded boys that they can conquer the “beasties” that lurk in the jungle. Jack tells Ralph, “ ‘Bollocks to the rules! We’re strong – we hunt! If there’s a beast, we’ll hunt it down! We’ll close in and beat and beat and beat!’ ” (Golding 92) Jack proves to be a self-assured and strong hunter, telling them that he will
After realizing that they are stranded on the deserted island, a group of young boys establish a
Even the smallest boys appear to have accepted their fate on the island, and they have developed strategies, such as the building of sand castles, to minimize and contain their anguish. The key to the initial tranquility on the island is the maintenance of customs from the society in which the boys were raised. Yet, as the chapter's opening passages imply, these customs are threatened by the natural forces at work on the island. The regular schedule of work, play time, and meal time is impossible in the volatile tropical atmosphere. That the boys do not know whether the movement of the mid-afternoon sea is real or a "mirage" indicates how ill-adjusted to the island they still
In Lord of the Flies, the school boys went from order to utter chaos, with unlimited power granted to the leader. John Locke would disapprove of the manner in which the boys lived in Lord of the Flies. Locke would also disagree with the leadership on the island, believing that the boys’ natural rights were infringed upon, the government was not legitimate, and would oppose Ralph’s and Jack's’ style of ruling.
The boys attempt at making friendship is evident throughout the beginning of the story. When a meeting is dismissed, they leave the group to survey the island, along with another boy named Simon. After
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
When the teachers leaves the classroom and it’s just left with a room full of students, rules are broken, pencils fly, kids begin to run around, and in the matter of seconds the room is filled loud voices beaming from the children. Whenever there is a time when it is just kids in a room and no adults, it gets hectic very fast and most of the time turns into utter chaos. What do people do in a time of chaos? Some people become leaders and others become followers. In the book the Lord of the Flies the kids are faced with struggling to survive, and what roles they will be playing as they are on the island. The kids desire for popularity and power gets a little out of hand and the kids feel peer pressure to submit to these power crazed children
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
In Lord of the Flies the castaway children are similar to Huck Finn, whereas once they were deprived of civilization they began to do what they believed was right, implying that the common idea of civilization is only “skin deep.”("An overview of Lord of the Flies"). Jack followed his instincts to hunt and survive without order or reason, as soon as he was released from the influence of society. Ralph relied on order and plans to handle issues such as keeping the signal fire alive, and doing what needed to be done on a daily basis. All of the boys but Ralph and Piggy joined Jack because they believed that Jack was more powerful than Ralph, and that his power would keep them safe. Jack had an inner conflict, after Jack’s group of boys killed Piggy, whether or not to joi...
As times have changed, so has our culture. Our country tends to veer children towards one particular individualization over another. It seems developmental individualization is more common. People have expectations by society which they must fulfill, and are expected to do so at particular times in their lives, as said by Tamara Haraven who argues the importance of “… the timing of transitions, with those to adulthood becoming more uniform and orderly.” People are expected in life to go to school, work, get married, start a family, all these things are expected to be done at a certain time in their life. People may not want to do all this in this order and whatever point in their life, but they do because they are expected to do so. This is all supposed to happen developmentally. People are molded by society, actively making decisions and trying to be ahead of life’s obstacles. This is occurring in not only America but as well as in Europe, as Wallace observes how instead of becoming their own individual people, people “choose identities from among and increasingly complex array of options”. Sven Morch makes similar observations, on youths who must ‘master’ their adolescence ‘ways’ in order to become successful adults, showing the importance of structure to their culture. Life must be followed in a particular sequence according to ‘contemporary capitalism’ in order to succeed in life. With a million and one people trying to get the same task done, people do things because they have to, not because they want to.
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.
Jack fails to realize that the boys need security, stability, and order on the island Jack was a leader of the choir before the boys landed on the island. These boys, who were in the choir, still want to follow Jack; however, they have no discipline at all. The only thing that is on Jack’s mind is hunting. He doesn’t care about anything else, except capturing and kill the pigs for some food.
... instances where the boys can no longer suppress their darkest urges, they lose all former ties with a civilized lifestyle. Once these ties are sufficiently severed there is nowhere for the boys to turn, other than towards the darkness and savagery within each and every one of them. This darkness can seem thick and impenetrable, however, just a glimpse of civilization and order can lighten the darkness within anyone. William Golding, while realizing this fact, chose to share it with the world by writing this tale. He showed that even the most proper British boys can become savage beasts within a few days, and then return to their old civilized lives once reintroduced by a familiar figure. No one is so far gone that they cannot be saved, and no one is immune to the savagery within.
In today’s society, human beings must learn to take care of something or someone,and that is a responsibility that they must uphold. In both the Lord of the Flies, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the responsibility of the boys is to manage by themselves without any adults to take care of them. The events in William Golding’s book Lord of the Flies can be easily compared to those of Mark Twain’s book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, because the main characters both have major responsibilities. There are two responsibilities that the characters came in contact with, taking care of people,including themselves, and being responsible enough to do the right thing. Thus, responsibility helps individuals to evolve and mature.