Dehumanization In Lord Of The Flies

One of the most prominent and powerful entities in today’s society is a Corporation. Tremendous infatuation amassed towards their brands by a vast number of dedicated consumers universally is the basis that transformed some of these corporations to be so renowned and dominant. During this process, consumers unfortunately lost their self-expression because of the advertising strategies used by these companies which dehumanize people into judging others based on materialistic standards and physical appearance. As a result of such manipulation, people who don’t own the company's products are being treated as less than human by others who can afford those, as typically such products aren’t priced for middle class consumption and tend to be expensive.

In most cases, companies are able to make an average person feel that they are falling short of normal expectation by setting impossible expectations and greatly influencing the general public into accepting them as the necessary standards through constant materialistic and physical dehumanization.

Although humans have a choice to make a decision, it can be heavily influenced by something or someone; which can sometimes force another decision. This outside influence can oppress a person, forcing them to follow the outsider’s commands without having a say in the process. The freedom of expression is limited for consumers because of the control companies impose over them similar to how Jack controls the boys in Lord of the Flies. Jack has gotten control of Piggy and Ralph since “under the threat of the sky, they found themselves to take place in this demented but partly secure society” (Golding 152). Even though Piggy and Ralph

This is most prominently noticed in the female modeling industry in which companies advertise women who set an impossible standard for regular females to emulate. With slim bodies and “perfect” faces, these female models are splashed all across American shopping malls and internet ads. In our consumerist culture, “objectifying women has been the primary target of countless brands, companies and corporations in order to sell their products much more easily” (Turriago 2). Constant sighting of these females across various media sways the average American into envisioning this “perfect” girl and what she should look like. This sets impossible standards for almost all women to meet since most companies use applications such as Photoshop to make these models look much better than how they look in reality. This play on reality can influence an individual looking at such pictures invoke the common behavior of consumers to bring up “reference groups” who “are particular groups of people who influence the behavior of a consumer, because the consumer compares himself or herself with them”(Goodwin 9). Pathos is introduced here, as consumers are comparing themselves with the perfect representation of a gender, and ultimately start to feel worse about them because of this. Companies are morally dehumanizing consumers and taking advantage of a situation where