The Lord Of The Flies: A Literary Analysis

It could be said that tragedies serve as Humanity’s catalysts of thought. When we line up literary eras with wars, the shifts in eras are always marked by some war- especially in America. The Romantic period was broken by the dawn of the civil war, and took a little magic from the world of writing. Writing shifted to realism, which was the polar opposite of romantic thought. When the First World War broke out, the modernist movement overshadowed realism. Similarly, the Second World War produced postmodernism. Should there be another horrible tragedy, the view will shift similarly. Whatever the implications may be, tragedies seem to change how us humans think and act. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, he tells the story of a group of schoolboys

stranded on an island after being mistakenly shot down by the Luftwaffe. The boys do their best to maintain order, but plunge into bloodthirsty violence when order is ill maintained. I believe that both the events that transpired and the boys’ biological factors contributed to the chaos that ensued on the island.
Some of the boys had backgrounds that may have enhanced their capabilities to survive and to thrive on the island.

Jack had a bit of a war-mongering stripe in him. His need for conflict and competition is evident throughout the book, such as butting heads with Ralph and bullying Piggy. Even worse, he was the “Leader of the choir boys…who followed him everywhere.” (Golding 16). He had a following before he reached the island, whereas Ralph had to build his own faction. As a final advantage, Jack was also one of the older boys on the island, so anyone younger would automatically look to him for advice and help, along with Ralph. However, being that many of the other boys owed their loyalties to Jack due to their collective participation in choir, some of the stragglers might seek to go to the larger “side” that developed in the latter half of the book. Solomon Asch’s explained this in his work on conformity, which states that if a large number of individuals are moving in a direction, more should follow. Luckily for Ralph and Piggy, it was not unanimous, or the likelihood of them gaining followers would be almost nil. Piggy had predispositions that were better earlier on in the story, but soon faded into obscurity. Piggy was representative of the educated man of society; the one society produces so that the individual can be successfully adapted to society. While his keen ideas were useful at the beginning of their endeavors, his physical shortcomings ultimately doomed him.

Ralph was the boy composed of both the wild and society, and at a conflict with himself. While he wanted to believe that they would be rescued, he could not but help think that they may never get off of the island. He knew what he would need to do to survive, but did not do so. While the boys may have had a few traits manifest themselves, it was only with the right situation that they did so.
Ultimately, there is no way that the boys would’ve resorted to such savagery in England, as the environment would not permit or require it. Only under the extreme stress of the island would their more sinister sides show. The “Beastie” was a manifestation of their fears that drove them (Golding 23). This was not present in England. Thus, there was no way for the beast to drive them into savagery.