In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Goulding the boys are on a plane that is shot down stranding them on an island with no adults. Eventually the boys behavior changes from civil to savage and immoral this may be due to nature or nurture. Nature is the biological factors that influence a person's behavior. Whereas nurture is the situation influencing behavior. The boys’ savage and immoral behavior in Lord of the Flies should be blamed on nurture because no adult authority figures were present to enforce rules and the boys don’t know how to cooperate well. The boys are influenced by nurture on the island this is shown by having no adults to make rules and having everything fall apart. For example, “We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages. We're English, and the English are best at everything...I'm chief. I was chosen.Why should choosing make any difference? Just giving orders that don't make any sense—.” (Goulding, 58 & 129). When the boys first get to the island they decide they are going to have rules and follow them but as their stay continues they start to not only not follow the rules but they start to question the “leader” that put them forth. Since the boys did not have any adults around they will not listen to someone their age trying to enforce the rules they do not want to follow. Further evidence is, “‘Most of the participants said they had felt involved and committed. The research had felt "real" to them. One …show more content…
While nature may have some part in development nurture definitely influenced the boys to make the decisions they made. The boys are influenced by nurture because without a guiding figure they fall apart and cannot put themselves back together again with group
The boys on the lone island, simply lost respect for human life and regulation. Adventure is what they wanted and adventure is what they got, but with only having minimal rules the boys lose control both physically and mentally. This disorderly function literally makes the boys act as though they are
The boys don’t put into practice their teachings from church/school on the island, but become savage beasts. This shows us that man is civilized in our society, only because of the fear for higher authority, not because that’s their nature.
The boys on the Island may have done certain activities, because of their typical stereotypes. They made huts, determined who
It’s a good island. Until the grownups come and fetch us we’ll have fun.’”(Golding 35). During this brief period of time on the island, the boys were already dependent on the idea of being rescued. The boys illustrate signs of hope reaching home safely with the help of a third party of rescuers. Not knowing that they were to be rescued in the future, the boys were in denial of their possible fate, and began to act as if they were not going to encounter any obstacles. Although, a few of them tried to create a structured system in which they would nominate one of themselves as a superior to the others. In the midst of creating a hierarchy, the boys were undergoing numerous feuds in the concern of who will have higher authority, which lead to the concept of jealousy. “‘Shut up’, said Ralph absently. He lifted the conch. ‘Seems to me we ought to have a chief to decide things.’‘A chief! A chief!’ ‘I ought to be chief,’ said Jack with simple arrogance, ‘because I'm chapter chorister and head boy. I can sing C sharp.’"(Golding 22). From the start of the novel, Jack presented excessive amounts of jealousy
Boys are very barbarous and erratic when they do not have an adult to keep them under control. Imagine what would happen if a group of boys were stranded on an island and with no adults. In the Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, a group of boys from England survive a plane crash and land on an unknown island. There are no adults and no signs of any civilization near by. There are boys who want to be rescued and civilized, and boys who are savages. There is a struggle for power between the savages and the civilized boys, and things that you would not expect to happen, do happen. In the beginning everyone wanted to be rescued and they made it a priority, but as the plot unravels, the boys change. As the group of savages grow, the hope for
Hunger, fear, leadership, and power can lead to destruction in a society. Who doesn’t want to feel powerful and and worthy of honor? Who doesn’t want to guide others and create a character that is strong in body and mind? An island filled with boys going vicious for these characteristics just makes the situation ten times worse. There is no way that deterioration of society on the island could have been avoided, especially with boys like Jack and Ralph constantly battling to gain ultimate control over all the others. Clearly there was antipathy between the two. Instead of working together, they split themselves apart and lessened their chances of surviving the island.
However, the boys decided to create rules, which helped at first then started to fade away. They also used their prior knowledge to survive on the island. Lastly, they used others intelligence to help.
There are many characters in the book Lord of the Flies that can be related to the debate nature vs nurture. Characters like Jack, Ralf, and Piggy all have certain specific changes in their personality but Jack and Ralf relate more to nurture. Where Piggy’s personality does not change making him more related to nature. All in all, the Nature vs Nurture debate is one that will be debated for
‘Lord of the Flies’ explores several different themes – many of them to do with the idea of the fragility of the moral state of conscience that we are conditioned to be in - which means that there is a breadth of morals to write about within the novel. One of the strongest present morals is that somebody with a cruel streak will always be cruel, no matter how well it seems to have been conditioned out of them. In short, it teaches that nature will always take precedence over nurture.
Most texts discuss the idea of Nature Versus Nurture Nature and nurture relates to the inherent qualities (nature) as opposed to personal experiences (nurture). In the 1954 classic Lord of the Flies, Golding slowly shapes the boys and leads the reader from a group of civilized young boys into true savages. Golding uses a metaphor to compare [Jack’s] laughter to the “bloodthirsty snarling” of an animal. This demonstrates to the reader Jack’s descent into barbarism and we question whether he is more human or wild animal.
The boys come to the island as naive children, and exit the island as brute savages. Because of their corrupt social structure and false sense of leadership, the boys cannot gain control of their rotten society. Their society “. . . describes the logical conclusion of letting young people loose without rules” (Roberts 1). Their separation from the adult world and adult ruling creates further problems for the boys on the island. Because the boys cannot remain civilized, the clash between their separated groups create a need to gain power to control others in order to
In the novel “The Lord of the Flies,” by William Golding, is set on a paradise like island. There are only little boys on the island and the author gave them almost a perfect island to live on. They have fruit, water, but there is no sign of civilization on the island. The boys first instinct was to group together when the conch was blown. The children can do whatever they want because they have no authority. They also established a leader right when the whole island was started.
The boys’ uncontrollable actions reduce their chance of getting rescued and eventually lead them to disastrous events. Living on the island, the boys have no hardship. They have gotten into a daily pattern to live on the island, but soon, the pattern becomes forgotten. Even though the boys followed a day-to-day schedule in the beginning, the system fails because of human savagery. The breakdown of an orderly system can allow humans to become unmanageable, which can be the path to human savagery.
One problem that the boys are facing is being deserted on the island. When stranded on an island, being rescued should be one’s top priority. However, many of the boys seem to have forgotten the gravity of the situation. After some time on the island, a ship appears to be heading towards the island, meaning they could be rescued. But when Ralph gets to the top of the mountain, he sees that the signal fire has been let out. Ralph confronts Jack about this, but Jack does not see the fire’s importance, believing that “[they] can light the fire again” (73). Because of a lack of communication, the fire on the mountain, which would lead to their rescue, is let out. A community cannot function properly without communication, and there is a clear mix of values in this community. The mix of values will lead to future conflict over how things should be approached. Shelter is a necessity and should be perceived as such. However, on the island, the majority of the boys will “work for five minutes then wander off or go hunting” (51). Being stranded on an island is not like a walk in the park, and some of the boys understand that, but their way of coping with the situation is harmful to the group. The possibility of not being rescued is letting the boys think that they are able to slack off without repercussions. The lack of contribution to the community will lead the others to believe that they may not be loyal.
At the beginning, the boys on the island are shown how they are still civilized as they respected and listened to one another. The reason being is that the boys still inhabit