Susan Dittman Lord Of The Flies Quote Analysis

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Innocence is a blessed state that most people wish to reside in. Yet, this state is never preserved long and is often broken by the harsh realities of this world. It is as if we are being seduced into a labyrinth of life, commonly known as the future, while being promised only the fruits of it all. Throughout William Golding’s Lord of the Flies and the article “What makes good people do bad things?” by Melissa Dittmann, loss of innocence is examined as a central idea. The novel takes place on a stranded island with no sign of help coming soon and a group of boys who try to survive. The article researches how a situation can cause people to act how they usually wouldn’t. Both the article by Dittman and the novel by Golding delve into the theme …show more content…

The speaker uses juxtaposition by comparing complete opposites in human character, extremely good and extremely bad. Zimbardo also goes further and explains several lessons about why these situations take place. He states, “Provide people with an ideology to justify beliefs for actions.Transform a once compassionate leader into a dictatorial figure.Make exiting the situation difficult” (Dittmann 2). These points are especially significant as they are vividly seen in Lord of the Flies. The ideology created was the beast and used to justify the killing of Simon. The transformation of Jack as a leader who, at first, promised everyone fun and meat but soon became a leader that no one was allowed to question. Finally, exiting the situation was near impossible because it almost certainly meant torture or death. Piggy was murdered and Ralph was hunted until the end of the story until saved by a miracle. This further emphasizes the significance of situations and how they shape individuals. Lastly, Zimbardo stated, “So is it a few bad apples that spoil a barrel? ‘That’s what we want to believe - that we could never be a bad apple,’ Zimbardo

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