Descent Into Savagery In Lord Of The Flies By William Golding

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Descent Into Savagery Noticing the change from civilized to savage seems easy until the people around are the ones changing. In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a group of young British boys become stranded on an island while evacuating during World War II. After gathering together the boys have to figure out a system that they will be able to maintain to survive on the island, and hopefully get rescued. The boys make a set of rules and assign roles amongst themselves and they put their plan into action as tragedies start to occur. The tragedies that occur on the island are caused by betrayal, impulsiveness, and greed. The first reason for the tragedies on the island is betrayal. Jack, the leader of the choir, is constantly trying …show more content…

In the book the boys are on edge and is causing them to take action without thinking through their actions, which in turn is affecting them negatively. The article says, “negative emotions were related to heightened impulsivity measures. Interoceptive sensibility was only associated with negative emotions” (Herman, Critchley, & Duka). When in a stressful state or situation that can cause people to act on impulse and in turn put themselves and others in danger. The boys on the island decide they need to create a fire in case any boats sail by, so the smoke will signal to them and they can be rescued. Jack decides to leave the fire unattended and goes to hunt instead.Ralph discovers this just in time to see a boat sail by as the fire is out. Ralph says, “There was a ship. Out there. You said you'd keep the fire going and you let it out!’” (Golding 70). When Ralph finds out that Jack leaves the fire unattended which leads to the fire going out he finds Jack and confronts him. What Jack does not know is that while he is out hunting the fire goes out and a boat sails by, eliminating a possible chance of rescue for the boys. Impulsiveness is a main reason why the boys have multiple tragedies occurring on the island because of multiple impulsive actions that the boys take which turn into multiple