Social Injustice In William Golding's Lord Of The Flies

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Social injustice can be defined as "a situation in which the rights of a person or a group of people are ignored." This recurring theme is very prominent in a lot of literary works of merit, such as The Lord of the Flies. It's one of the many sources of conflict among the young boys on the island. The source of most of the social injustices is Jack Merridew, the antagonist of the novel: he creates issues and division among the boys. Jack creates a lot of social injustices in his pursuit of becoming a dictator on the island. He starts forcing people to do things against their will (like the twins). He knows that people don't want to do what he says, but he forces them to do it for his own bidding, treating them as slaves …show more content…

When Simon found out and realized that there really wasn't any Beast, Jack found that if he let Simon spread that knowledge he wouldn't be able to use the Beast as a source of fear. Jack limited the information he fed to the public/kids on the island, which changed and manipulated the way that they would make decisions. He also made the children believe, falsely, that Ralph was a coward for not being able to hunt the beast, and caused most of the boys who had originally trusted Ralph to go over to the side of Jack. Jack used his further influence to manipulate and misguide the kids on the island, a serious social injustice and violation of basic human code. Jack wasn't the only one guilty of creating social injustices though. When Ralph attempted to build huts and houses for everyone, most people took the opportunity to play instead. They did themselves an injustice by not holding up their end of work in what they did on the island. The general theme of social injustices was very apparent in The Lord of the Flies. Between Jack and the rest of the children on the island, many basic human rights were violated, and children were treated unfairly in their current situation, not did they do their fair share in the circumstances. Jack was indeed the most frequent source of these injustices. The theme does show the