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Lord of the Flies - Psycological Analysis

Decent Essays

Lord of the Flies Essay

Our class just recently read Lord of the Flies which is a book that looks at the thinking of mankind. It has an overall negative vibe and was published 1954, this wasn’t long after World War II ended so some of the themes that seem dark in this story are almost justified with all the previous occurrences before it was written. This book has many messages, not just one, but all of which concealed within the text and are usually unforeseen without closer investigation. Most of the messages in the book are concerning social contact and psychological matters, all main factors of human life. The book is set on a secluded island where a plane containing a number of young boys has crashed and left them stranded. One …show more content…

This perception is shown in Lord of the Flies in a few examples. A main one is surrounding Jack once again. His choir boys look up to him and see him as a leader, the head choir boy. This influences them into trying to be like Jack, if he wears face paint they follow suit, Jack hunts and so do they. This is also a method which aids Jack in his rebellion against Ralph and the original group.

This speculation puts forwards a new theory. If people are so easily influenced does it mean that they all have the potential to act unjust or like savages? This seemed to be believed also by William Golding. This is backed up by him writing a book in which six to twelve year olds commit murder and slaughter live animals, This is obviously not a twelve year olds normal behavior and would only have originated from outside influence. I believe that this can apply to everyone, even the most cultured person could result to savagery if it were to preserve his life. A slight contrast to this is TV show Fear Factor, this sees people eating blended rats, intestines or even insects. This in sophisticated culture is known to be revolting, and these people aren’t savages but when shown a prize worthwhile or a greater achievement they give in to this primitive

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