Lord of the Flies - A different opinion can be the cause of death

Lord of the Flies
A different opinion can be the cause of death
In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, many young British boys tragically get stuck on a desert island where they have to survive on their own and without adults. The boys quickly split into two groups which follow certain strategies to survive on the island, but boys who have different opinions then the leaders of these groups are not tolerated or listened to. Some of the characters trying to break away, like the littlun with the birthmark on his face, even disappear or die for some mysterious reason. Is it actually that hard for them to maintain their individual dissident opinions as a member of the group though, like Doris Lessing says?
Piggy is one of the intriguing characters of the novel. He rarely agrees with the opinions of the others and he seems to be smarter. Still, the other boys pretty much don’t listen to him, except Ralph, who appreciates his opinion in some parts. At the beginning of Lord of the Flies, Piggy talks a lot, especially about him and his aunt, but quickly he learns that nobody is interested in it and he accepts being ignored, "’I don't care what they call me,’ he said confidentially, ‘so long as they don't call me what they used to call me in school. [...] They used to call me Piggy’” (Golding 11). The boys haven’t been on the island for a very long time at this point, and Piggy makes the mistake of telling Ralph the

Tilly 2 nickname kids used to give him at school. From that part, everyone starts calling him Piggy again and even though he explicitly mentioned before that he doesn’t want to be called like that, he still accepts it. It’s just too tiring to oppose the thoughts of a big group. If Piggy did that, maybe something...

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...Eric was killed for refusing to steal candy for his tormentors” (Staples 1). The poor boy just got killed for not wanting to do something the other boys wanted him to do. He did the right thing by believing in his individual opinion and not stealing from the store just to make his friends happy. Tragically, his decency lead to his death.

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Synoptical it can be said that maintaining an individual dissident opinion as a member of a group is indeed “the hardest thing in the world” (Lessing), because sometimes it is just easier to agree with the opinion of the majority of a group than opposing a big amount of people who could easily exclude someone. Many people, in Lord of the Flies and in real life got in dangerous and partly fatal situations just because they didn’t agree with the opinion the rest of the group had. A different opinion can be the cause of death.