What Are The Similarities Between The Stanford Prison Experiment And Lord Of The Flies

The Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a novel about a group of boys stranded on an island with no adults and no rules. Golding believes that humans all have a capability to do wrong, and through The Lord of the flies portrays how certain situations make a human’s capacity for evil more prominent. Golding shows how the boys’ civilization deteriorates from being good British kids to murderous savage people. The novel can easily be connected to the Stanford Prison Experiment, and how what happened to the boys on the island can happen outside the realm of fiction. Golding shows the reader what the Lord of the Flies is in the book and how the namesake of the book is found in all of us.

Human’s innate behavior after the constraints and expectations of society disappear is the recurring theme centering the characters. William Golding’s Lord of the Flies uses the righteous Simon to highlight Jack and his evil role throughout the novel of savagery and civilization. The foil characters in Lord of the Flies exhibit the contrasting ideals and characteristics, the dissimilar symbolism of both characters, and the circumstances which lead both characters to follow one’s natural tendencies. To emphasize the message of Lord of the Flies, two young innocent boys will gradually begin to show their individualism.

In The Stanford Prison Experiment it explains how guards take power over the prisoners. In paragraph 11 it tells how they are tormenting the prisoners and enjoying the things that they are doing. The guards demanded even greater obedience from

“Cruelty is all out of ignorance. If you knew what was in store for you, you wouldn’t hurt anybody, because whatever you do comes back much more forceful than you sent it out.” (Willie Nelson). The Stanford Prison Experiment was extremely similar to the concentration camps of the Holocaust in many was however the one think that that makes then similar was the fact that they were both extremely cruel and dehumanized people. Three things that the victims of both events faced are dehumanization, cruelty, and extreme mentally scaring things that they will never forget. Both the concentration camps in the Holocaust and the Stanford Prison Experiment were things that did not go well and were immensely traumatizing.

In 1971 a group of 18 students took part in what was to become the

A review on the Stanford Prison Experiment - 1) Philip Zimbardo wanted to demonstrate how the environment can change people. To this end, he launched a study called The Stanford Prison Experiment. Zimbardo was trying to show what happened when a human being was stripped of his individuality and dignity and his life was completely controlled. He also wanted to show the dehumanization and the collapse of the social and moral values that could happen to the guards immersed in that situation. The duration of this experiment was initially planned to last two weeks.

During the 1971 Stanford Prison experiment, an experiment conducted by Philip Zimbardo, Zimbardo found that bad situations take over good people. Coming into the experiment the test subjects we all of good nature however the situation they were put into was a bad situation which is why things went sideways. This situation in ways is very comparable to jack’s in Lord of the Flies as the story begins he is of good nature and good intentions but the situation he was in was bad. Which is why things went sideways for him. However it is very important to consider that power corrupts people just as the prison guards became corrupted.

Researchers used mostly qualitative methods. Videos, direct observations and interviews were used. The experiment should have least 14 days, however, it had to be stopped just

Although this was not direct physical violence, sleep deprivation and rigorous physical activity could have been detrimental in other ways to the prisoners’ bodies. Also, when Zimbardo was confronted by one of the prisoners requesting to leave the experiment, he responded as a superintendent and negotiated the prisoner into staying at the prison, causing him to endure further torment by the guards. This would not have occurred had Zimbardo responded in a transparent manner as a psychologist. This prisoner eventually displayed signs of severe distress. This is added evidence that the experiment took a negative psychological toll on the participants. Furthermore, a prisoner who performed a hunger strike was forced into solitary confinement, which was an uncomfortably narrow and dark room. It is generally known that extended periods of stressful isolation can cause psychological damage to an individual. Overall, the Stanford Prison Experiment blatantly demonstrated various types of abuse to its human subjects through its prolonged degradation and harm to the individuals. Ultimately, it violated the ASA’s Code of Ethics. Despite the controversy, many found the results of the experiment interesting.

The Stanford Prison Experiment was one of the most criticized human nature experiments in history. In the experiment Dr. Zimbardo wanted to see if people would think for themselves, or fall into predefined roles that they were given. Before the experiment took place, Dr. Zimbardo picked 24 male subjects he thought were mentally and emotionally stable. He also built a mock prison in the basement of Stanford University. During this process all the subjects were divided in half making 12 guards and the other 12 prisoners. To help define the roles even further he dressed the guards in police type uniforms with wooden clubs. The individuals that were used as the prisoners were stripped searched and given smocks as their uniforms. Once the experiment started everyone seemed to fall right into the roles they were given. Even Dr. Zimbardo fell into his role as the prison

1. What was the point of the study? The Stanford prison experiment answered the question that has plagued humanity since the beginning of time. Which one will prevail, good or evil?

In this book, we see the good person is Simon, he tries to maintain the peace and then when he is killed all peace is gone, and the island goes into anarchy. Likewise, in the prison experiment, the good guards who did favors for the prisoners but also were fair and listened to the other guards were the peacemakers, which lost their mind and conformed like the other guards. In addition, we see a request for guidance before the state of nature. In the Lord of the Flies, Ralph and piggy requested a “sign” from the “grown-up[s]” (Golding 92). In the prison experiment, the guards asked “what do we do” and were responded to by “it’s your prison”, while given a “warning about physical abuse” (Dreifus 1). The guards then went to do psychological punishment followed by physical abuse as punishments. In the end, after the anarchy is stopped there is regret that occurs. In the Lord of the Flies, the kids cried in front of the British officer, for the fact that they killed Simon and Piggy. In the prison experiment, the guards were disappointed in their behavior, but still were sad that they lost all the

The Lord of the Flies by William Golding is an allegory that explores the instinctual evil humans possess and how this evil manifests into our societies. The book demonstrates this through young boys who are stranded on an island due to a plane crash. Despite their best efforts, the lack of adult guidance inhibits the boys from maintaining an orderly society. The boys turn to their survival instincts, many of which are evil. The lack of order exposes the internal savagery within the boys, resulting in an understanding of the flaws within all humanity. The Lord of the Flies uses the innocence of young boys to show the societal impact of human errors through their lack of adult supervision, the desire to inflict violence, and the need for authority over others.

The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, is an allegory that connects the boys’ behavior in the novel to the basic behavior of human nature. In the novel, the boys fear a wild beast that has the potential to kill them off. However, Simon, a quiet boy, finds that the beast is not an animal that everyone should fear, but is a part of each boy himself.

Lord of the Flies and Heart of Darkness are exceptionally well written novels that teach the readers how to live life. The novels portray how a society depends on the ethical nature of an individual rather than on a political system. Both novels explored the idea of darkness in humans that caused by having desire of power and savagery within society. Conard and Golding believed that if a man is kept isolated from a civilization for long time they would be tempted by evil which leads them into iniquitous conflicts. The dark tone left a negative impact on the characters but, the situation they were in explains their actions. Although human thoughts can be potentially wicked and vicious, the prominent qualities of having moral values and realization demonstrated by different characters prove that human nature is truly good.