Lord Of The Flies: Community Comes From Chaos

Fear stalks humanity wherever it goes. It feeds on our panic and uncertainty. This is seen throughout 1692, the 1950s, and the present, when a leader with great power creates a solution to a problem that people did not even know they had to fear people begin to fear as well as the cycle of innocent people falsely confessing adding to the fear.

Every person deserves the right to experience a sense of community amongst people who share a common characteristic. A sense of fellowship amongst similar people allows a person to become more comfortable with who they are through interactions with others who are going through—or have gone through—the same triumphs or hardships. Without this feeling of belonging, one could be driven into insanity. Anxiety due to isolation and desolation could run rampant through a person’s mind because of the loneliness that comes with a lack of community—making it an essential part of a humanhood. By definition however, community invites inimitability. Community can be defined as a group of unique individuals with shared characteristics. From that a

“Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of a true, wise friend called Piggy” (Golding 225). In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, he uses the theme of order versus chaos to show that good has the capacity to become evil. It starts with the boys’ beginnings on the island, to the breakdown of their society, to the tragedies that unfold their civilization. The boys are victims of a deteriorating civilization that turns them into ruthless and more animalistic characters without any law, order or control.

“Fears are educated into us, and can, if we wish, be educated out.”-Karl Augustus Menninger.

There are many laws and unspoken and logical rules that keep society civil. In the beginning of Lord of the Flies, Roger finds himself throwing minuscule stones at the younger boys, however missing them, due to the conditioning of society. This is a result of the little boys being protected by policemen, parents, school and the law. It is also evident and true that there are other factors that allow for civility to prosper in humanity, some of which are present on the island with the boys, but some factors are extremely scarce. But it is when these factors are mostly absent or diminish, that the idea and foundation of civilization will weaken or fade. William Golding allows symbols to show a complex, yet beautiful and convincing transition from a theme of civility and order, to one of savagery and also moral depravity. The reason for this new theme being that the boys are faced with an internal danger; the true nature of humanity, which fuels the drastic change from innocent boys who abide by rules to rabid animals. In William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, while the conch symbol best conveys the influence of the adult world on the boys, the conch symbol, paired with the pig hunt motif best conveys the theme of regression into savagery.

Theodore Roosevelt once said, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” What is fear? Fear can be a noun or a verb. In the noun form, it is an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat. In the verb form, it is to be afraid of someone or something that is dangerous, painful, or threatening. If one person looks into fear, then that person becomes feared. But imagine a whole society or community looking into fear. The fear not only gets larger as it spreads, but it also gets more fearful than it already is. The power of fear can be displayed in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and in Ronald Oakley’s “The Great Fear”. As fear moves on from one mind to the next, it leaves the

William Golding s novel Lord of the Flies significantly symbolizes characters, objects and the setting to represent our world as a whole. Golding uses those symbols to make the island similar to society and to show the difference between living in a civilised society and savagery. The novel takes place on an island during World War II, this is significant since the isolation forms a sort of civilization and community, a sort of microcosm to the real world and to human civilization.

“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.”- H. P. Lovecraft. In the 1900’s, fear drove America. The Red Scare was a time when Americans were afraid of the threat of Communism. In the Sacco and Vanzetti case, two Italian anarchists were convicted of crimes which they were clearly innocent of. The Ku Klux Klan attempted to keep African-Americans out of positions of power and for brief time was successful. The Red Scare, Sacco Vanzetti case and the rise of the KKK all are example of how American’s fear the unknown and what we don’t understand.

island is tropical and shaped like a boat. At the low end are the jungle and the

In William Goldings book, Lord of the Flies there are many different causes and effects of the societal collapse. First, they had no emotional support. They did not have the parent love that they really needed. Second, they did not have not have adult supervision to keep them in order. Lastly, there was a lot of evil that went through the island. The boys did not mention God one time while they were on the island.

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.

When children are trapped on an island, no one thinks about them killing each other. In Lord of the Flies it sure does happen though. Throughout the book each event that occurs causes that much more chaos. Each character has his own way of dealing with this chaos. Some turn to hunting animals, while others turn to hunting humans.

“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.

Since the dawn of man, there has been a primal calling pulling humans out of solitude and into communities. When men are put into the state of nature there are certain traits that are almost always apparent. Hobbes’ Leviathan shows the true reasons, that are ingrained in man as instinct, for forming a community. We can see these traits appear in the boys in The Lord of the Flies. The boys in Lord of the Flies form a community because of the desire of commodious living, the need of a leviathan to not go to war, and the fear of death.

A community is established when more than two people share the same values and through time this personal connection evolves into a fellowship governed by rituals, traditions, and a particular form of communication that when taken together makes a group of individuals whether living in a specific geographical area or connected by ideals so distinct that their distinguishing marks allow them to stand out from among the crowd. They do not just believe in something like an organization but they need each other to survive and thrive. A good example is the Old Order Amish Mennonite community wherein the community serves as source of identity, strength and provides the reason why they should sustain the community’s way of life.