William Golding's Lord Of The Flies: Literary Analysis

When power is unchecked, society can fall apart and true darkness can be revealed. In William Golding's Lord of the Flies, a group of young boys crashed onto an uncharted island with no adults around. The boys had to form their own society, which quickly fell apart when they gave into indulgence. In the beginning, they voted for a chief and had daily assemblies; but once they did not agree the order started to fail. They split into two sides, one side valuing order and rescue, the other caving to their savage impulses. The boys reach a point of savergy where they can barely recognize who they have become and all the horrible things they have done. Humans have a darkness inside of them that, if left loose, it can lead to chaos and corruption.

Once someone is thrown out onto the street and forgotten about, they cease to think about the law and do what their greatest desires are. If someone was in a bad state, “the orders and patterns of society cease to matter,” and they would have, “joint fulfillment of their darkest instincts,” because they are no longer bound to the laws of society (Golding, “Why”). William Golding believes that once the conditions become uncivilized a true darkness comes out in humans that some never thought they had. If a community does not keep humans tied to the law, their morals will unravel and they will become corrupt. Adding on to this idea, there was an actual experiment done at Stanford Prison that involved university students. These students were placed in a pretend correctional facility and split up into two groups, one with a position of power and one not. The position of power was guards, being played by mentally stable students. The guards became out of hand beating the other subjects, who were acting as prisoners and, “The Stanford Prison Experiment degenerated very quickly and the dark and inhuman side of human nature became apparent very quickly,” because of all the power the guards had without any rules of society to follow (Shuttleworth). The experiment goes to show that if a person has any power and does not have a guideline to follow, they will become corrupt. The dark inhumane side came out of the students and they took it out on other people. If the students were dropped back inside the university, they would conform to the regular rules of society, but once given freedom without law, they went to their inner dark side. Overall, humans that are not checked by the rules of a community will become