Parental Influence In William Golding's Lord Of The Flies

While the English school boys on the island evolved into demonic creatures without a strong parental INFLUENCE supporting them, modern U.S. high school students are not much different. Many adolescents let unachievable standards set by the media and their own peers dictate their social lives, and as a result, many teenagers, depressed, resort to unhealthy methods of dealing with stress when they are unable to reach the set standards. A hope for solvency, parents possess the ability to stop these cycles of conformity; as University of New Hampshire’s Amber Carlson puts it, “parental support is the largest influence on creating preferable behavior in adolescents” (Carlson 42). In a speech to the Brookfield East student body regarding the state

In order to ensure history would not repeat itself, Golding emphasized the slippery-slope nature of sinister INFLUENCEs on society in his novel, Lord of the Flies, namely through character development. Initially in the PLOT, everyone willingly agrees to “have rules and obey them” claiming that they have “got to do the right things” (Golding 42). However, they ultimately end up clashing between and changing their opinions on the values they advocate for in the beginning, like peace, and the opposites of those values, such as savagery. It all starts with the “BEASTie” (35). Due to the fact that the BEAST is described as a snake, an animal viewed as inherently evil, the group shows an eerie feeling of uneasiness as the BOYS “stirr restlessly” (36) in an anxious state, causing them to alter their values. Notably, Golding uses the darkness as a means of releasing the kids’ imaginations during the nighttime. Exemplifying the bone-chilling effect of the darkness, Phil, a littlun, explained that he “saw something moving among the trees, something big and horrid,” (85) which emulated in “the other[s] laugh[ing] in horrified sympathy” (84). Already, the BOYS let the unknown superstition of the BEAST override their logical reasoning and values, as the debate about the BEAST results in “the storm [breaking loose]” (89). For example, aggravated,

Golding intricately details the rise of a demagogue, JACK, through the development of the PLOT and the power struggle between the two major leaders, Ralph and JACK. Ralph struggles to provide for the wellbeing of the group, while JACK “want[s] meat’” (51). This opposition of values is essential to understanding JACK’s rise to power because while Ralph wants to take steps to increase the groups’ chances of rescue, JACK wants to “‘catch a pig first-’” (53) which reveals that JACK does not value the, more civil and less delusional, society outside the island. Like the others, JACK has lost his connections to reasoning and reality in exchange for power through extortion and fear. Ralph and JACK’s confrontation, essentially, sets the stage for the competition between Ralph’s path of civility and order versus JACK’s path of evil and demagoguery. When JACK wins the battle against Ralph, he immediately utilizes the BOYS’ fears of the BEAST in order to bolster his power. Within the process of conformity and deindividuation, the BOYS, desensitized, do not question JACK’s power while he commits acts like “beat[ing] Wilfred” (159) for no reason. Golding specifically denounces JACK’s actions and portrays him like an animal. In many cultures throughout the world, acting like an animal is considered an insult to intelligence and a proverb for misconduct. Therefore, Golding intentionally paints