The Environment Affects Man In Lord Of The Flies By William Golding

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It has been argued time and time again whether the environment affects man’s choice or man affects the environment. In William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, it is proven that environment affects man. A group of boys, with no adult supervision, land on a deserted island. They are young, innocent children, but as time progresses, they turn into malicious, animalistic savages. The Lord of the Flies supports the argument that the environment affects man through the character Ralph, the progression of the chant, and the trips up the mountain. Ralph is a prime example of how the environment changes man. Ralph was, at first, a posh boy who was well put together, but after staying on the island, he started changing. When Ralph was standing by the ocean, he was thinking about when they first arrived on the island, as if …show more content…

In the beginning, the boys went up the mountain to find out whether or not they were on an island. On the way up the mountain, they were yelling words like “’Wacco’” and “’Wizard’” and running around like the children they were (Golding 27). They had their innocence since they had just arrived on the island; they had not been affected yet. This shows the initial attitude of the boys. Although, some believe that man affects nature, which can be shown with the “scar” (Golding 29). The “scar”, as the boys describe it, is where the plane crash landed, which destroyed the land. This can be disproved by the event in which the boys went up the mountain a second time. They were looking for a beast at the time, and their attitudes had completely changed. They were standing by the edge when Ralph began to remember “how silly” they used to be (Golding 120). The boys had realized that they were different, but they did nothing to change it. The audience is affected by the way that the boys’ whole demeanor had changed. All of these events show how the boys were changed by the

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