Traumatic Changes In Lord Of The Flies Research Paper

Traumatic Changes in Lord of the Flies

When humans get stranded in a deserted place by themselves, they have to pick a leader and generate rules for everyone to follow. This way everyone can stay civil and contribute to all of the work equally. However, this is not the case in the novel Lord of the Flies written by William Golding. When a plane full of young boys crashes on an island, the boys need to discover and fill key roles that will contribute to keeping the island sustainable and civil. Their roles work well at first, but then quickly the community crumbles apart and the children’s egos start to collide. The boys start to stop listening to each other’s rules, which generates major conflict between them all. This major complication caused

the children to start going savage and gave them reasons to not care about each other. The abhorrent time line of events makes the battle of survival horrendous and, leads up to multiple murders on the island. Without the structure of society, human’s ways of living start to clash against each other’s causing major conflict which turns them into savages.

Firstly, after being stranded on the island for a while, the boys begin to not care about each other and start to focus on their own wellbeing’s instead. In the start of the novel all of the boys get along and are civil with each other. They realize that in order to survive they will all need to get along and contribute equally to the island. One of the boys suggest that more rules will be needed to keep peace with one another. Although some of the boys disagree, this is because they enjoy their freedom to do whatever they want, but they end up complying. One of the boys state that, “We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, were not savages. Were English, and the English are best at everything” (Golding 42). The boys first swim to the island and then come up with very basic rules. They soon realized that those rules are not enough to keep everyone happy and peaceful. In order to help everyone they needed new rules that everyone could comply with. This quotation helps prove that at the start of the novel it was all fun and games, and that the boys are away from supervision so they can do whatever they want. However, the boys soon start to fully understand the responsibilities of not having adult supervision, and it starts to overwhelm them. Suddenly the boys start to believe in a mysterious creature that lurks the island with them. They all agree that having a meeting would be best for discussing the situation and coming up with a solution. The leader of the group decides to debrief one of the boys who claims to have seen the beast. The boy ends up having a mental breakdown while explaining it and then, “Jack was the first to make himself heard. He had not got the conch and spoke against the rules; but nobody minded” (Golding 94). This quotation from the novel is the first time anyone goes against one of the major rules on the island, that being, talking without the conch. This is a very powerful quotation because when this happens, all the boys start to believe that they can live without the rules. If one person does not have to follow the rules why should anyone else. This is when the boy’s fun unsupervised life started to run downhill. The boy’s inability to listen to and obey the rules has a bold impact on their future.

Secondly, When all the boys start rebelling and breaking all the rules, their trust between each other vastly depletes.

They all start only caring about themselves and have no consideration for one another. In fact with no guidance all the boys start to go insane and become savages. After the boys had lived on the island for a while, their imaginations start to run even wilder. The theory of the beast living on the island with them becomes a bigger deal every single second that passes. This crazy dreamt up idea, soon turns into reality. When talking about the beast at one of the meetings, Simon suggests that, “what I mean is… maybe it’s only us” (Golding 96). Simon is interpreting that maybe there is a beast, but not in the way everyone thinks. He believes that there is a beast inside of them all that is fuelling all on their evil, driving them insane. Simons theory is not well understood by all the other boys at first, but as the novel reads on, they start to understand it and realize its true meaning. The boys start to go more insane as each day passes by. All of the rules are not followed anymore and the boys behavior keeps getting worse. During one of the meetings the boys get in a large dispute about the rules. This is when two egos collide, those being Ralphs and Jacks. The boys start having a big fist fight and then Piggy yells out of nowhere, “which is better, law and rescue, or hunting and breaking things up?” (Golding 200). This quotation helps the reader understand the constant conflict that occurs on the island. The boys actually are having a serious debate over being civil with each other or killing each other. When they first got on the island, their first priority was surviving. After being stranded for so long the boys only concerns have become about who is the most dominant. This state of mind is what is turning them into savages. After the boys were secluded from adult supervision for so long, they became incredibly reckless and

selfish.

Lastly, as the boys lived on the island longer, their psychotic thoughts intensified very fast every day. Before they had only murdered pigs, but it turned into them murdering humans too. In the novel all of the boys were dancing around a fire chanting and screaming. They saw something that was making its way out of the forest and they all started to freak out. Without even knowing what the creature could have been, they all charged at it with pointy wooden spears and stabbed it many times. They were chanting, “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” (Golding 168). This quotation helps prove how savage all the children really were. Without even knowing what was coming out of the forest, their first instinct was to run at it and jab it to death with spears. The so called creature happened to be a boy named Simon from their group. The boys all let their urge to kill get a hold of them, and they ended up killing one of their own friends. The savagery never ends for the boys until they make it off the island. When the Naval Officer shows up to finally rescue the boys, it suddenly hits them. All the damage that was done while they were stranded, just because of the beast lurking inside of them. One of the boys who murdered Piggy really starts to realize what he has now done. It hurt him a lot because “Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy” (Golding 225). When the Naval Officer comes to save them, they all start to remember what life was like before the crash. The boys now understand how insane they went and that after all they have been through, their innocence cannot be restored. The monster that lived inside of them while they were stranded changed their lives forever. The boy’s inner evil took control of them and led them to killing two of their own friends.

When people stop following rules and live how they want, it influences others to do the same. Living without rules in a society is a very risky way to live and usually ends up with all hell breaking loose. The boys stop following the rules and stop listening to each other, which sparks tension between them all. This tension led to the boys becoming savages and not caring about anything at all. When the anger and the savagery is combined, it ends up with people being murdered. Society and law keeps peace in the world, and we would not live a civil life without it.