Transformation In Lord Of The Flies

Experiences and surroundings are powerful forces in humans’ lives. They can help form a person’s ideals as well as change them later in life. The human mind is keen on taking these in and translating them to thoughts or adaptations, demonstrating its flexibility and malleability. The defining characteristic of being human, then, is that we are shaped by our experiences and surroundings. And once our ideals are established, we are not static beings, but rather adapt our thoughts and actions based on the circumstances.

Humans are born as blank slates, tabula rasa. Because of this, we are most susceptible to being shaped by experiences and surroundings during the earlier stages of our lives. Children’s earliest and most frequent interactions are

They start out as proper civilized children, but in order to survive, they must hunt for food and defend themselves from “the beast.” Their constant hunting creates a thirst for blood, illustrated in their chant, “‘Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood’” (Golding 69). As they stay on the island, the boys become even more violent and civility is all but forgotten, eventually unknowingly killing one of their own as they “surged after [him], poured down the rock, leapt on to [what they thought was] the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore” (153). Even the most civilized of the group joins the rest in their viciousness when, “Ralph too was fighting to get near, to get a handful of that brown, vulnerable flesh. The desire to squeeze and hurt was over-mastering” (114-115). The boys’ degeneration into barbarity demonstrates how their environment causes changes in their previously-established thoughts and actions as they adapt (and go too far in doing so) to their wild surroundings. Similarly but in a more positive direction, the time I spend surrounded by gregarious individuals in Youth and Government has made me more outgoing than before. The change of a group as a whole toward similar ideals and characteristics exemplifies the power peers have over each other. In response to both their surrounding environment and people, humans are able to change

They are like lumps of clay, molded by their surroundings and experiences. This is especially true early in life, when they take in their surroundings and translate them into ideals and characteristics. As they get older, this susceptibility can lessen but does not disappear. Adults are able to take what they learn from their experiences and surroundings and adapt appropriately, whether instinctually or intentionally. They are able to do this because of the malleability of the human mind even after initial shaping has been completed in childhood. Humans, then, are defined by their ability to use their experiences and surroundings to form their ideals as well as adapt to