Lof And Lord Of The Flies Dehumanization Essay

The Dehumanization of the Individual Within a Novel

To deprive a person or a group of human qualities of any sort is a crime in our society, but in many others it is a normality. This cruel dehumanization is presented in both Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, (BNW), and in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, (LoF.) In Brave New World many of the dehumanizing features of the society include the mass production of humans, the manipulation of thoughts by hypnopaedia, and the suppression of human emotion with soma. The Lord of the Flies also demonstrates dehumanization, but on the contrary, in much different ways. In the LoF, the boys wear masks to cover insecurities, call each other terrible nicknames, group together the children in a social system-like category called the littluns, and Jack hunts Ralph like he would a

pig. All of these characteristics present how both of the dystopian literatures show dehumanizing as a way of life in such different ways, forming different forms of societal-corruption.
As soon as I began to read BNW I saw multiple ways that the inventors of this society had dehumanized the people within it. The first thing was the way humans no longer give birth to their children, but the babies are grown in labs. This form of fertilization completely rids the society of any sort of family life taking away the deep connection with other people that humans tend to hold. If the way that the society produces humans in bottles like they would manufacturing a product isn’t dehumanizing enough, they produce them in large sets of identical humans through the Bokanovsky’s Process, which is described as, “One of the major instruments of social stability… Standard men and women; in uniform batches” (Huxley 5). By mass producing these sets of humans which are genetically the same, they are depriving them of any sort of individuality that they should have held. Not only is there numerous amounts of one individual, each human is programmed from fertilization who they should be. They do this by hypnopaedic conditioning which teaches the child while he or she is sleeping. Ultimately, “The child’s mind is these suggestions, and the sum of the suggestion is the child’s mind... The adult’s mind too - all his life long” (Huxley 23). This conditioning from birth aims at, “making people like their inescapable social destiny” (Huxley 12), which was assigned to the child. The mass production and programming of humans is, in every way, depriving a person of individuality and dehumanizing the human themselves.
In Huxley’s society he steals the humans’ identity and makes it so that the state can decide what the person thinks, but as if deciding what the person thinks is not enough, they greatly encourage what the person feels too. Mostly, due to the conditioning, they are happy with their lives, but when they are not they have soma. Soma is a medicine given out by the state which has, “All of the advantages of Christianity and alcohol; none of their defects” (Huxley 46). This drug distracts the people from any harsh realities or human emotions that would make them want to revolt against the government. One of the world leaders says, “If ever, by some unlucky chance, anything unpleasant should happen, why, there’s anyways soma to give you a holiday from the facts” (Huxley 210). This drug allows a perfect cover up for any emotions the people might experience in which the state does not want them to experience. Anyone who does not take the soma is seen as weird by a mass majority of the population, such as Bernard. Bernard did see that soma was a cover up for the problems that humans experience and he did not want this fake happiness upon him. He saw the dehumanization at play here and he certainly did not stand by it.
Two of the most apparent ways that the kids are dehumanizing each other in the LoF is by name-calling and grouping.Within the first few pages of the book, the boys have established that they would call the fat boy Piggy.

Jack and Ralph began the name calling when Jack says, “Shut up, Fatty” and Ralph responds, “He’s not Fatty, his real name’s Piggy” (Golding 21). This name calling separates Piggy’s true identity with this persona that was assigned to him. A similar thing happens to a large group of the boys that are referred to as the littluns throughout the book. Although these boys are very young and not of much help, each of them have a separate personality that was not given a change to be shown. Because of this, creating deep connections that are vital for trust and survival in this type of situation is not allowed. When the talk about a beastie first began Jack was clearly furious as he talked to the group, “I’ll tell you what’s what. You littluns started this, with all the fear talk. Beasts? Where from?.. Anyway, you don’t hunt or build or help- you’re a lot of cry-babies and sissies” (Golding 82). The littluns are not given hardly any

respect.
Another example in the LoF is the use of the masks, first by Jack and then by the boys who follow Jack’s poor leadership. Jack shows his insecurities in chapter four, “He peered at his reflection and disliked it, (before he paints his face),....He looked in astonishment, no longer at himself but at an awesome stranger, (after he paints his face)” (Golding 63). Whether or not these insecurities root from his bossy, arrogant persona or from his outside appearance we do not know, but regardless the mask he chooses to and encourages others to wear from then on out helped cover them. The masks changes who they are as you can see later on it the book when the narrator describes Jack as a chief and the choir as a tribe, “The chief was sitting there, naked to the waist, his face blocked out in white and red. The tribe lay in a semicircle before him” (Golding 160). The group is no longer Jack and the hunters with the face paint, but the chief and the tribe. This new persona gave the boys a sense of confidence that allows them to do whatever they want as shown at the very last pages of the book while they are on the verge of murdering Ralph by hunting him like they would a pig.
Both of the books both clearly present dehumanization in the individual societies, but they show this dehumanization is very different ways. In BNW it is state- administered, while in Lof it is the boy’s actions that lead to the dehumanization, such as when they choose to wear the masks. This comparison shows that whether it is the fault of the government in charge and the people within the society it makes people more comfortable in doing things that their true nature as a human being would not allow. An example is when the characters choose to sleep around in BNW they are going against the instinct of falling in love and choosing someone. The emotion of love is not allowed because programming in their brain that makes them cringe on the idea of a family life. Another example is in the LoF when under Jack’s command the boys are willing to hunt down and kill Ralph. They would not have been able to do this if it were not for the masks. Dehumanization appears as a common thing in dystopian literature as without it, humans would not be able to stray from the societal norm that is in place in our world.