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Essay On Lord Of The Flies Nature Vs Nurture

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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

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