Environmental Factors In Lord Of The Flies, By William Golding

In the novel, Lord of the Flies, the author, William Golding, demonstrates how environmental factors on the island cause the boys’ savage and immoral behavior. These environmental factors on the island shown in the novel, ultimately made the boys act differently and have weird actions by the end. For example, Golding shows at the beginning of the novel that the boys act normally. One of the boys, Ralph asks why Jack didn’t kill the pig, and the author explains, “They knew very well why he hadn’t: because the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh because of the unbearable blood” (31). At first, the boys were civilized and acted like normal kids, they couldn’t even kill a pig. But throughout the novel, we see the island shaping the boys into doing things they could never imagine. Towards the end, the boys murder a boy, Simon, thinking he was the beast. The savage boys made a circle around Simon and chanted in a dance, “Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood! Do him in!” (152). Moments later Simon was murdered and swept out to sea. The long time on the island and its environmental factors impacted the boy's behavior and actions to turn immoral and savage, leading to murdering Simon.

In the article, The Old Age Debate of Nature vs. Nurture, the author, Kendra Cherry, displays how behaviorism focuses on the effects the environment has on behavior. She describes, “The behaviorists believe that all actions and behaviors are the result of conditioning. Theorists such as John B Watson believed that people could be trained to do anything, regardless of their genetic background.” According to the article and the novel, the environmental factors in one's life can form unexpected or new behaviors. Going into further detail on environmental impacts, the article later provides information on how aggressive behaviors can be formed, Cherry