Manipulation In Lord Of The Flies

Lord of the Flies
Manipulation. A word so twisted and corrupt that its powers reach far beyond the owner’s hand, and spread through the tendrils that are its captives. This is the idea that William Golding has decided to show in his text “The Lord of the Flies”. The story of “The Lord of the Flies” revolves around a group of schoolboys who recently survived a plane crash. The majority of the boys are aged between six and twelve, who become stranded on a deserted island, without any adults to reign over them. The text follows the subsequent events of how the boys deal with being away from a formed society. With this, it is clear through Golding’s use of symbolism, that manipulation quickly spread from individual to individual. By using the symbols

of: the meat, the “lord of the flies” and the masks, Golding has perceptively enabled us to explore the three aspects of manipulation of desire, fear and group mentality.

Greed: An abstract noun so vile, it is itself a deadly sin, which is why it can be seen as one root of manipulation.

Golding has shown this idea through the symbolism of the meat. Greed is very manipulative. It overrides all sense of logical thinking and your mind acts on impulses, meaning that we think before we act and deal with the resulting consequences later on. This level of manipulation is controlled by burning desires, where, without fail, you will try and achieve to gain them. In reference to the text, the desire the boys succumb to is the meat. This is shown in the text as something the boys want, even going as far as becoming their priority to gain it, overriding their vital need to build shelters. “P’raps we ought to go… just for some meat.” (163). Where this symbol of manipulation is shown is in the actual act of killing the sow (the mother pig) for meat. In the text we read that while hunting they kill the sow and a few of her piglets, “She was black and pink, and the great bladder of her belly was fringed with a row of piglets that slept… one piglet rushed into the sea… the sow collapsed under them.” (147). In this act of greed, it manipulated the boys to not think of their consequences. By killing the sow the boys doomed themselves as now no new piglets could born, therefore killing off their future of meat. Also any surviving piglets would soon die off, as they will have no one to nurture them, meaning that all possible sows was also die. However, if the

boys thought of the consequences beforehand, then it is uncertain to say whether or not they would have made the same decision, thus showing that greed can be seen as a root form of their manipulation. But in saying this, our own greed has manipulated us to be blind to the fact that we are killing our own planet. Everyone wants the new this or that, but these technologies use rare resources in complicated processes that while produce fancy gadgets, also produce harmful chemicals and gases that pollute our environment. Although there might be a few activists, like Greenpeace, trying to reverse the damage, it is not until everyone realises the damage made from our greed, can we truly steer the planet back on track.

Fear grips us by the throat and throws us against the cold wall of solidarity, bidding us to do its dirty work. This idea of manipulation is a dark one that Golding has chosen to end in death. On the island fear grew out of the innocence of the boys and spread from individual to individual. As soon as the idea of “the beast” (an imaginary creature on the island that harasses the boys) was spoken, it became commonplace knowledge that it existed. Its existence began to make the boys skittish and scared, and even though they tried to act brave, ultimately deep down the boys were equally afraid as each other. This had devastating effects as it made the boys take precautionary steps, against an imaginary thing, which in turn allowed them to perceive anything new or unordinary as a threat. This is how their fear manipulated them. But, during a crazed night Simon spoke to “The Lord of the Flies”, a simple pig head on a stick used as an offering for the beast. This simple offering is important. As it is the only physical representation of the beast, something that the boys fear, then therefore the head itself represents their fear. In this crazed night Simon discovered two things, that the beast was not real “May it’s only us”, and that the beast was created out of their own fear, ”You knew, didn’t you? I’m a part of you.” But even though there was no beast, the group’s perception of their still being one, manipulated them. A manipulation which unfortunately led to Simon’s death. Simon died on his way to tell the group the recently founded news, but people saw him as a threat, or more importantly as the beast. So they struck him down. “A thing was crawling out of the forest… the sticks fell… the beast was on HIS knees in the centre… Simon’s dead body drifted towards the open sea.” It wasn’t only until afterwards, did they realise their grave mistake, wanting to reverse their actions. If they were not manipulated by fear, they would not have killed Simon, but instead, recognized him as a friend. Simon could still be alive. I believe that Golding has used this aspect of manipulation of fear to reflect the events that took place only a decade beforehand. WWII saw the rise of the dictator Hitler. A man many feared. His powers reached far beyond him, gripping control of every man underneath him, even to the point where the slightest command would be enacted at once. Why? Because people feared him. People would sell out their neighbours, inform on their siblings, or report their parents, all because equally, they didn’t want to feel Hitler’s wrath. Thus we are presented with a society manipulated to do unspeakable actions, simply out of fear.

“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person.

Give him a mask, and he will tell the truth” – Oscar Wilde. Initially, Golding used these masks as a simple tool for the boys to use for hunting, but soon enough, these masks were used by the characters in the text to hide behind and camouflage from prey. But as Jack’s dictatorship role became more define, so too did the real intentions of the masks. As this group formed under the collective goal to hunt for meat, each member would gain a mask, so as to be allowed to partake in the hunt. But this also was a sign that they were now a part of the group, and that no longer were they a Jerry, or a Tommy, but now they were a hollow, faceless person, who was now the eyes and driving life force of the group. Any new action from now on, that the individual undertook, could no longer be linked to that single person, but was now linked to the whole group. Also, all actions had to be justified to be “for the greater good of the group”. This allowed the boys to do much more daring deed than before. Although they were still confined to the limits at which the group found acceptable, it still allowed them to steal the fire, trample shelters, and beat others. This is due to fact that if a small number of people from the group found that action acceptable, then the whole group would have to agree. Therefore anyone could do unspeakable actions. “The mask was a thing of its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and

self-consciousness.” Because of this anonymity, it allowed for Simon’s death. Simon’s death was rash and sudden, evoked by the cry of a boy calling “Beast”. As that boy moved to attack, others followed. Some may have followed out of fear of the beast, and realised that now was the only time to kill it, but others followed as they had group mentality. Mentality that if someone in the group does something, then they should too. It wasn’t until the next day were individuals questioning their actions, making excuses for their behaviour, implying that it was the group who was responsible. “There was that bloody dance… you were outside the circle (group)… it was an accident… don’t let on we was in that dance (173). Thus people were manipulated by having group mentality to commit deeds that normally wouldn’t have been committed. An idea, however, that comes up many times in today’s society is this one. Take the Baltimore riots that occurred earlier this year. In that people formed as a group to protest the racism against them. But soon one person breached into vandalism, and one by one, others followed suit as they had that group mentality. Ultimately Golding uses this to serve us a warning that even though we may perceive our own fellow friends as good people, we need to question both them and our own morals, as to whether we find certain actions acceptable.

Manipulation is a tool that can be used by everyone. From ruthless dictators, to harmless grannies, it is a power that is freely available to the open market. In the text, “Lord of the Flies”, William Golding has explored three different ways people can be manipulated (desire, fear and group mentality) through the symbols of: the Meat, the Lord of the Flies, and the Masks. Golding’s implication of this idea is one we need to learn from. Manipulation to me is something that I see daily. Whether it is by desiring to have a particular body shape, or being pressured by your friends to commit a deed, it is an evil yet common occurrence. Ultimately Golding has used this to express to us a challenging idea, that we are our own man. That we should not be twisted or bent from our morals by any man who pretends to control the stick of power.