Savagery In Lord Of The Flies Research Paper

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The debate about what makes adolescents savage can be separated into two categories: Nature and Nurture, otherwise known as internal factors or external factors. In the novel “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding, a plane holding a large group of boys crashes on a deserted island, leaving them stranded with no adults. Along with the passage of time came the decline into savagery for majority of the boys, leading Simon and Piggy to be brutally murdered by Roger, Jack, and the rest of the savages. The third boy, Ralph, is about to be killed when they are finally rescued by a sailor. The boys’ savage behavior should be blamed on external factors. The boys turned to savagery due to lack of parenting. In Lord of the Flies, the boys’ subtle shift towards savagery can be …show more content…

Later studies have shown that “If the guards had been given stricter guidelines from Zimbardo at the beginning then there may have been fewer sadistic tendencies shown by the guards selected for the Stanford Prison Experiment” (Shuttleworth). Due to the high tensions during the experiment, the “guards” acted solely on instinct, showing sadistic tendencies early on. If they had more instruction, they would not have had to resort to feelings of barbarity. In Lord of the Flies, during an assembly, Piggy gets mad that no one is listening to what Ralph says or following the rules. He stamps his foot and asks the group “‘What are we? Humans? What is the difference between human and human? Or a snare of animals? Or a savage savage? What’s grownups going to think? Going off - hunting pigs - letting fires out - and now!’” (Golding, Lord 91). Piggy is noticing the groups’ decline in savagery, and he is upset that it is happening. Since there are no adults, therefore no instructions, the boys have been acting undomesticated and feral. In both Lord of the Flies and the Stanford Prison Experiment, the situation is causing the change in

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