Lord of the Flies question

the thing is, these kids are supposedly from a british school during wartime. they would have so much structure and order in their lives that to be on their own with no warning and having to make their own living would drive them insane.

I think we can look at London within the past week for the answer to that question. I read an article about some of the people who were pulled in for charges during the rioting. They included wealthy people, and a woman who was studying to be a social worker - she looted a TV she didn't even want.

There is something fundamental in our nature, with its capacity for mayhem and our ease at getting pulled into mob mentality. I would guess that fewer of us are immune than we'd care to admit, as evidenced by the small number of "hero" stories we typically see during a crisis, compared to the overwhelming number of stories of destruction.

I think book was a microcosm that should be applied to the macrocosm. As individuals and in small groups, humans tend to be more rational and peaceful. As large systems of people with, as Ember said above, structure and order, people tend to become less rational and more belligerent.

I don't know if the author would agree with my reading, but basically each character in the novel could be a metaphor for a corporation, a religion, a nation -- large systemic elements comprised of people but that seem to run on an entirely different set of rules than mere human nature. It becomes more like a weather pattern at that level, and weather has no conscience: it is pure, random Force.

I don't think Golding believes that all people are, at heart, murderers. After all, only Roger ever truly acts with pre-planning and malice (though at the end, the rest of the boys seem willing to go along with Roger and Jack begins plotting Ralph's death). I think instead Golding is saying that we are--under the right circumstances--truly capable of anything. A subtle distinction.

The other death (Simon's) occurs as a part of mob violence, something just as frightening. And in this case, even Piggy and Ralph help rip Simon apart. So truly, everyone is to blame.

I teach this book to my high school freshmen, and it provokes some of the best discussions on this very topic. Golding believed deeply that at our core, as humans we are corrupt and evil. Society and its rules are the only things that keep average people in check. Lord of the Flies (a direct translation of Beelzebub, or the devil) tells Simon in the clearing that he is "inside of you. I'm the reason it's a no go." In other words, every person has evil inside him/her, perhaps at varying degrees, but certainly it is there. Simon is the only character who never reveals his inner evil, and he is the one sacrificed.

Really the allegorical level of this novel is what makes it so beautiful, and every single thing is symbolic for a larger part of society--from Piggy as intelligence and logic, the conch as society's rules, to the Lord of the Flies and its symbol of innate human evil.

I don't think the boys are insane. The are just acting on thier own inner desires, no longer hamstringed by society's rules.

I think the fact that children learn by example, and need instruction about morals and manners is a vital clue to what is instinctual and innate. Any mother can testify to shocking discoveries about their toddlers' naked aggression when children are having a bad day and believe themselves unmonitored. I believe the book a true reflection of human nature. Our brains are not unified in a strong manner, but evolution has "built" our brains in parts, with our most primitive survival instincts at the core, and our higher thought processes handled by the exterior portions of our heads. Fear and anxiety cause most of us to go to our most primitive survival mechanisms, oldest part of ourselves evolutionary speaking. Generally, people are predictable because for many of us most of the time we go through our day on habit, custom and ritual, without high cost intellectual engagement. Most behavior is simple rote and instinct. Have you been to a football game in person? People are animals with civilized behavior stapled on as an accidental afterthought. We have to work at using intelligence. Sigh.

it's been a while since I read it, but as far as I remember, these boys were all very dominating, or at least most of them were. Of course, there's no comparison, but the way I remember it, they were the same, only in extreme measurements, if that makes sense ....