'Examining The Mob Mentality'

In history, humans have influenced ways to abuse each other in hateful ways. Because of hate, all miserable things that happen to people relates to mob mentality. Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel states, “The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.” Throughout history, humanity has seen dignified people pursuing horrendous actions because these individuals got caught up in mob mentality.

In the statement on mob - mentality by Nina Munteanu, mob - mentality is when one individual takes fear and uses it to their advantage. They are the ones that are responsible for controlling how others act within the mob. People in the mob also become someone other than themselves. It is as if they are temporarily insane, not thinking straight. A mob - mentality is when the people within the mob come up with their on desired form of justice. I agree with Nina, when she says if you allow the mob to happen, you are allowing insanity to occur.

In today’s society, there are still flaws in how people act under the influence of a collective mind. In Sigmund Freud’s “Le Bon’s Description of the Group Mind”, Freud explains how the collective mind, or mob mindset, is a mentality in which individuals receive when in a group. Similarly, in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, a novel where a group of boys are stranded on an island after the crashing of their plane, this is present for Jack, an untamable vicious character, who is antagonizing the authority of the voted ruler Ralph. Throughout the novel, Jack shows progress in developing power over Ralph’s rule, this is symbolized by through the conch shell which is used to control the group. Along with the conch regulating the boys, Jack’s violence influences the overall behaviors of his followers, making them more murderous. According to Freud's “Le bon’s description of the group mind” and the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Jack’s progression is influenced by his collective mind in the way that, he is rebellious, lacks self-control, and becomes a depraved power figure on the island.

Many examples of mob mentality can be found throughout Lord of the Flies. Occurrences of events demonstrating mob mentality increase throughout the book as the boys grow further away from civilization. There is at least one clear example per chapter.

After reading and viewing the mob mentality pieces, I conclude in which mob mentality can create a cruel mindset that effect people negatively. One reason I believe that mob mentality is cruel is because Edmonds states that mobs, “lose their individual values and principals and adopt the group’s principles, which, during a riot, are usually to cause destruction and avoid detection.” The above states that people lose their ethical thinking, and decide to go along with the group and make horrendous decisions. Even though the mobs can be powerful and exciting, the individuals in a mob make bad decisions and feel at the time they will not be affected by the situation(s). In the photograph, the illustration shows how cruel a human being can be.

In many instances in the book the boys show the true evils of themselves. Greed, Cruelty, and Irony is key to the entire story. Greed is a huge flaw within some of the characters in Lord of the Flies and Jack, I would say is the biggest culprit of greed. Time and time again in the story he reflected his obsession of having complete power and being the best. He said things like, “Choir! Stand still!” Wearily obedient, the choir huddled into line and stood there swaying in the sun. None the less, some began to protest faintly. “But, Merridew. Please, Merridew. . . can’t we?” (Golding 1) The choir boys can 't even sit down without Jack needing the power to control their actions. In another instance in the book he said, "The circle of boys broke into applause. Even the choir applauded; and the freckles on Jack’s face disappeared under a blush of mortification." (Golding 1) Showing that

The novel, Lord of the Flies, by William Golding reveals that the true nature of man is savagery. Golding uses a group of young boys, who are stranded on an island, to show the collapse of society. The boys assemble together and initially establish a democratic system of “government.” Ralph, a twelve year old responsible for calling the boys together, is elected as the “chief” of the island over Jack, who is the leader of a group of older boys. Ralph’s role as chief is to implement rules and assign task to each boy on the island. Ralph becomes the face of the government and upholds law and order. However, order begins to crumble as Jack and his choir boys neglect the rules and eventually leave to start a new tribe. Ralph quickly loses his power and leadership ability as all the boys slowly migrate to Jack’s tribe.

In the novel Lord of the Flies author William Golding shows how society really acts when there is no order to keep them in line. In the story a group of boys get stranded on an island where it’s up to them to stay alive. They try having a leader but one of the characters gets upset with the way things go. Him and and a small group rebell and turn into dark minded savages who want power and death. This character Jack represents the darkness of mankind by slowly going savage, becoming vicious for power, and wanting to kill Ralph.

The idea of mob mentality is complex. Mob mentality is typically defined by the aggressive behavior of a large group of people (Smith). Mobs can create a widespread sense of a sense of confusion and panic which adds to the commotion (Smith). People act in the way they do and exhibit these behaviors because they are influenced by their peers (Smith). Furthermore, they are more likely to act in an aggressive manner because of the belief that they will not be caught, or punishments will be less severe than if they acted alone (Smith). Violent acts of mobs are most often fueled by the group sharing an emotion such as anger (Smith). The anger of the group results in their aggressive nature (Edmonds). In contrast to angry mobs, some result from

Have you ever seen corruption in society? William Golding’s novel, The Lord Of the Flies reflects how society is corrupt. The novel starts off with youngs kids plane getting shot down. This makes them end up on an island all separated. Two of the kids meet up and use a conch shell to bring everybody together. The group meet up and ran into another group. The groups merged and choose one main leader, Ralph. They each kid had a job to do so they could get saved. There were a few kids who didn't do their job and in the end revolted by making their own group. These kids were lead by Jack. Their idea wasn't as much trying to get saved as more to hunt. The groups clashed in ways and Ralph's group became small, while Jack’s group became bigger.

This snippet from Chapter 4 describes the beginning of Roger’s cruelty to the smaller boys, which was a step towards the group’s outbreak into savagery. At this point in the novel, the boys are still building their civilization, and they remain to act like civilized human beings. However, they are slowly slipping into savagery, especially when some of the older boys are willing to use violence to show superiority. This quote begins the trail to savagery. Roger feels like throwing stones at Henry but his sense of behavior that he was taught is too strong for him to slip into savagery just yet. Roger still feels the need to abide by “parents and school and policemen and the law” or otherwise known as the figures that teach the right and wrongs

The quotation, “A crowd finds it easier to cheer than to think,” is very telling of human nature. We often adopt a mob mentality when we are around others; as a result of this mentality, people often refrain from thinking about the consequences of their actions when acting as a group. Human nature drives us to better our image and fit in with others, so we sometimes do whatever others are doing simply to make ourselves fit in. This mentality is present constantly throughout the world and human life and affects much of human behavior and the establishing of social norms. I agree entirely with the quotation presented in regards to human nature; it proposes a mob mentality that shapes much of our culture and societies today.

In Lord of the Flies, it was Roger who was the first to realize that the social

In the novel, Lord of the Flies, author William Golding, uses Jack’s effective destruction on the island to outline how civilization can easily turn into pure savagery that all mankind has brewing within them. Throughout the novel, Jack exhibits extraordinary savagery. Ralph establishes a strong leadership by being productive and well organized about how he would like to run the island. On the other hand, Jack is known to be demanding with the kids. The island is the one place where he gets to have full control and be incharge of everyone Jack's identity has anger and savagery beneath the surface which proves that man is essentially evil.

Throughout the Lord of the Flies, a major theme is power and leadership. Whether it is the battle for power between Jack and Ralph, or the readers inferring similarities about today’s ways to gain leadership with the books. Ralph is elected chief in the beginning of the book, because he has something nobody else has, the conch. “Him with the shell. Ralph! Ralph! Let him be chief with the trumpet-thing” (Golding 23), It is similar to how in today’s society, people compete by saying “I have this,” “I can give you that.” This is what happened with Ralph, because he had the conch. When Jack doesn't become chief, he creates his own group, “The Tribe”, and slowly throughout the book gets more kids to join his group and leave Ralph. “He turned and trotted away and after a moment they followed him obediently” (Golding 187). Thusly, it shows how Jack is “in charge” of the boys and thinks he needs to lead. A common way to gain trust and control over people is fear, which William Golding shows in Lord of the Flies.