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Panoptic Theory In Lord Of The Flies

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Isolated and alone, you have to make the right decisions to help the group survive. Without authority figures around to help make decisions, you’ll have to think for the group. In William Goldings, Lord of the Flies, young British boys are secluded on an island where they must learn how to survive in an unknown environment and with each other. The boys make games of hunting and killing each other while their humanity slowly erodes and they become more beastly. The boys’ proper British morals slip away with their new found freedom on the island. Bentham’s panoptic theory is demonstrated by the boys’ misbehavior and the choices that they make while they are not being watched. In the panaptic environment like society the boys would be under very …show more content…

The boys went from proper British boys to young savages that would kill someone for their own amusement and fun. At the beginning of Lord of the Flies, Jack was very nice and even wanted to have many rules to keep peace and order on the island. But by the end of the book, peace and order didn’t matter because all Jack cared about was hunting and becoming the leader over Ralph. Every boy on the island changed, but the most dramatic change was Ralphs because at the start, he was very confident and had control of the boys, but as time goes on he lost any authority he had. Ralph lost his power because even he changed into a savage, but unlike the rest of the boys, he knew what he did was wrong and decided to stop doing wrong and focus on getting off the island. There was a time when even he questioned who he was and who the other boys were. “What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages?”(68). The boys lost respect for him when he didn’t decide to have “fun” on the island with them so they ran to the “fun” leader Jack. Even though Jack changed more than Ralph, the boys didn’t lose any respect for him because he didn’t change back and he scared some of the boys into joining him like the twin; Sam and Eric were forced to join Jacks’ group or they would have been hunted just like Ralph was at the end of the

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In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, because of three defining moments, Jack changed the most out of all the boys. The first of the moments that changed him occurred in the beginning of the novel on page 23 when Ralph was chosen to be the chief of the boys instead of Jack. Jack was upset at not being chief, but he still took a position of leadership by making the choir boys the hunters and volunteering to be in charge of them. Ralph says “Jack’s in charge of the choir. They can be-what do you want them to be?’’

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Through examination of Lord of the Flies, Golding seems to share this point of view. When left in an environment lacking authority, the boys attempt to follow the fundamental rule of nature, electing Ralph as their leader and for a time, following his rules. However, when another boy desired the same position, competition arose and Ralph was revealed to be less powerful and disrespected by the group. Jack found his power in feeding off the other boys’ fears, and using violent, animalistic techniques, which proved to be what they truly desired. War broke out between the two, as Hobbes predicted would happen in such circumstances, and morality was only restored when a powerful figure of authority finally arrived on the island.

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