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Adulthood In Lord Of The Flies Essay

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The boys on the island in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies attempted to imitate adults but they faced a series of events that proved they were not ready to be part of the adult world. The novel exemplifies the helplessness of the boys on the island. Even when they tried to govern themselves with adult strategies, they failed. Despite their best efforts, the boys on the island in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies were simply not ready to be adults and create a civilized society because they were not developmentally ready to tackle adult challenges yet. They were destined to fail as a society without the presence of an adult because they had not yet experienced adolescent growth, they lacked experience, and their cognitive abilities …show more content…

According to the article Adolescent Growth and Development, adolescence is between ages 13 and 19. With Ralph being the oldest at 12 years old, they have not yet reached adolescence, meaning they have not started the process of growing into mature adults. During adolescence, teens experience many changes, including ones which are physical. They are expected to gain weight and increase in height. These changes would be beneficial for the boys on the island, as it would allow them to reach things at higher levels (such as food), be more productive when building shelters with their increased strength, etc. When Simon saw that the littluns wanted to eat the fruit from the tree, "Simon found for [the littluns] the fruit they could not reach […] [and] passed them back down to the endless, outstretched hands" (Golding 56). The littluns were too small to do certain thing necessary for survival such as obtaining their own food. Their abilities have not fully developed so they were not able to do several things that adults would be able to do such as being more inclined physically, mentally, and emotionally. (Adolescent Growth and Development) “Adolescents' brains are not fully developed until late in adolescence. Some studies suggest that connections between neurons that affect emotional, physical, and mental abilities are often not complete until later stages of development” (Adolescent growth and

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