Elements of Psychology and Sociology in The Lord of the Flies

In William Golding’s novel, “The Lord of the Flies”, he displays human nature in an animalistic viewpoint that is not seen in “normal” people. He describes the unknown savagery of human beings, without missing the good nature found within us, which allows us to work as a well-organized group. World War Two is also used effectively as a backdrop, since it shows that the violence is found in everyone.

In Lord f the Flies, a group of young choirboys are stranded on a deserted island after their plane was shot down and crashed, and the boys interact with many different types of elements that symbolize distinctive thoughts and ideas. In William Golding’s most famous novel, Lord of the Flies, Golding expresses law, intellect, and purity through his characters.

William Golding is heavily influenced by his service to the royal navy and the events of World War One. “Human beings are savage by its nature, and are moved by urges toward brutality and dominance over others”. This is a recurring issue in William Golding’s, Lord Of The Flies. Not only where characters demonstrate elements of human nature beyond civilized human beings as they were struggling in a society with no rules nor civilization, but also as the novel is Golding’s attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature. The world is an evil place within which living without fear would be a dream come true. The fear inside the boys had a major negative impact on the dramatic change of human nature

Throughout Lord of the Flies, Golding shows his views of the inherent evil of humans. He shows how humans can be in such a savage state, practically mimicking the way of life of their prehistoric ancestors. He exemplifies this with acts of carnage carried on by the young stranded children. It all started with a slight urge to hunt down a pig and then continued on to murdering another human being. Golding shows his views best at the end of the book with the boys being rescued by a Navy crew, which would go on to war it self.

First, in Lord Of The Flies, Golding uses the social relationships between each of the boys to tell us more about our own relationships. The first of these roles would be the one Piggy played. Throughout the novel Piggy dispenses intelligent ideas to the leader, Ralph, yet he was very rarely listened to. One example that appears on page 45, goes as follows,

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.

One’s behaviour can have an substantial impact on a society's outcome. There is a common notion that humans are nurtured to be peaceful and civil. However this belief is contradicted by the action of the boys, in William Golding’s, “Lord of the Flies”. A group of schoolboys are abruptly thrown out of their controlled and civil circumstances into an inhabited tropical island in the middle of the Pacific. The novel is Golding’s attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature, by using symbolism to delineate this theme. Golding’s extensive use of symbolism, such as the conch, the signal fire and the painted faces helps demonstrates the defects of society. These symbols are used by Golding to illuminate the subsequent effects on the boys’ behaviour, which undoubtedly illustrates the defects of human nature on society.

Society can influence many people to change their beliefs and the way they feel about themselves. This can lead to them being depressed, miserable, and having suicidal thoughts. A group of choir boys in the Lord of the Flies get stranded on an island from a plane crash and turn into blood-thirsty hunters, killing pigs in order to survive. Soon after it becomes challenging to survive, trying to find shelter, build a fire, and trying to leave trails of smoke so ships notice and rescue them.The boys are isolated by society because they don’t know what’s happening in other parts of the world, yet they still have their sense of style.In the book Lord of the Flies has many examples of societal influences that change the lives of the boys from going

‘Lord of the Flies’, is a novel by William Golding that distinctly denotes how vulnerable you can become when you are not a part of the ‘tribe’; a pseudonym for our society. The novel depicts a group of young boys, stranded on a deserted island with nothing but themselves, and through a countless series of events they go through

Simon's position and wording nearly justifies the idea of man's inherit evil. Another example of diction in this novel can be found in chapter eleven, where Piggy deliberates over "what is better - to have laws and agree or to hunt and kill" (Golding 164). Piggy's choice of wording in this quote was intended to try and expunge the harsh negativity of Jack's tribe. In the beginning of the novel, Jack was known to be like every other boy on the island: lost, confused, and desperate; However, throughout Golding's novel, Jack transformed to a new character from who he was first presented to be. It can be sought out that himself and his tribe would rather be savages and hunt than stay civilized and follow rules. Golding explains Ralph's actions in chapter twelve

In order to view Lord of the Flies as a microcosm of the adult world and society, we need to first understand what a microcosm is and how it represents the larger picture. A microcosm is essentially a miniature situation that reflects the characteristics of the big picture on a small scale. The novel can be viewed as a microcosm of the adult world based on the boys assigning roles of power, forming a ‘government’ and a ‘military’, developing societal norms, and Golding representing typical forms of leadership throughout history with Ralph and Jack.

“Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals.” The posed question is if society is controlled by people, or are people controlled by society. Some may argue that society is controlled by people, but if you step into the light is that really the case. If you were to look at society, really look at it, who is being controlled. Its not society itself, sure people affect the directions society turns, but that is a small group of people who represent societies movement and trends. People do not really affect what society truly is. Society is, as said before, a mental concept, the popular, important figures in the world are the physical representation. The world is full of unique individuals, although everyone is under influence of society. It is subconscious, but always there. These next paragraphs will express how society controls people by elaborating on three main ideas that show up in the book Lord of The Flies. Society controls our actions, we learn from society and use it to try to be in control of others, and it is always there and so we have no idea what to do apart from it.

Some speculate that the people who commit extremely appalling acts as adults were raised to commit these ghastly crimes, while others believe that everyone is born with an evil already inside of them. In William Golding’s psychological fiction Lord of the Flies, the idea of being born innately evil is recurrently alluded to. The novel is about a group of young British boys who crash land on a remote island. They are left with no laws to tell them what they can or cannot do, and are extremely frightened of a so called “Beast” that they expect lives on the island. In the Lord of the Flies, “The Beast” symbolizes the evil and devilish proclivity inside of all humans. Through the use of “The Beast”, William Golding illustrates how the novel is

Imagine yourself in one of the characters shoes in the novel “Lord of the flies.” You would see yourself loaded with responsibilities, major decisions, etc. “Lord of the Flies” represents a microcosm of adult society. The island can act as a democratic government, demonstrate knowledge, and each character can demonstrate an aspect of adult society. William Golding was in the Royal Navy during WWII. He creates a smaller image for what’s really happening in the world.

William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, narrates the story of a group of English boys as they struggle to survive on an uncharted, uninhabited island. The boy’s airplane crashes into the island and kills any adults on board -- leaving the boys to fend for themselves. Ralph and Piggy meet each other first and, upon Piggy’s counsel, Ralph decides to call a meeting of all the boys by blowing on a conch shell. The boys quickly begin to form a society in which they elect Ralph as their leader. A boy called Jack quietly disagrees and believes that he should lead the group. As times passes, Jack and his choir become hunters for the rest of the boys and they begin to enjoy the ways of a predator. As Jack grows more savage, he becomes unhappy with the