William Golding Lord Of The Flies Morality Essay

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Determining morality through societal influences In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the existence of morals and goodness rely on societal influences taught by their environment.Throughout the book, William Golding applies societal corruption and reliance through human behaviors and catastrophic events. The constant continuation of society, provides an absolute guideline for a person to follow, regardless of their beliefs. Lord of the Flies displays the gradual downfall of morals by a group of innocent boys dependent on pre-existing ethics. The boys do not come empty handed, however their selected judgements frame their personalities and behaviors on the island. Morals do not necessarily hold the boys back from doing what their heart …show more content…

Whether the choices are made under stress or for self needs it correlates with the impression of society on them. A stressful situation consists of the first event in the book; the plane crash. This brings in to perspective several different interpretations of similar ethics. Each boy has their different opinion on how they should continue on from that point. Sometimes morals become controversial or deadly, as Lord of the Flies taught readers. Disagreement seems to be a leading complication in the collaboration of several boys and their beliefs. The first sow killing opens up the idea of how morals can change based on how society applies itself in the community. The initial reaction of Ralph's group consists of guilty awareness and their idea to ignore the argument because, they believe there choices consist of crucial components that need to be discussed before the others. “But now we really got a beast, though I can’t hardly believe it, we’ll need to stay close to the platform; there’ll be less need of him and his hunting,” (Golding 128) Ralph is unable to see the importance of killing something owing to the fact that he was raised in a society with different interpretation. Although Ralph is entirely set on ignoring the event he eventually alters his perspective and begins agreeing with the other groups morals. This is more noticeable in the second killing of the female sow as countless boys

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