Teamwork In Lord Of The Flies

In The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, childhood is shown to be a time full of curiosity and aberration. The underdeveloped minds of the young boys have effects that shape the work as a whole. These effects can be seen through their teamwork in shelter building, arguments, and Simon’s death.
Shelter building was a task that set the boys apart. Building required teamwork which the boys struggled with, which often led to arguments like this one between two of the boys, “well, we haven't got any yet. And we want shelters” (Golding, 51) Ralph is suggesting to Jack they should build shelters since they haven't hunted any meat. Ralph's anger caused by the boys swimming rather than building caused tension in the group. Tension caused less communication between the boys about important issues such as the jobs each one would perform. Jobs in the group gave the boys a chance to follow their responsibly and prove themselves to the others. Whether or not their job was done led to more tension. This tension between them led to arguments.

With no adults around to scold them, the boys were allowed to talk and act as they pleased. Piggy requested, “I do not care what they call me, so long as they don't call me what they used to call me at school” (Goldman, 6). Piggy asked to be called anything other than Piggy, which Ralph ignored. Moments like this betrayed the trust the boys had in each other. This led to communication conflicts leading to more arguments. The name “Piggy” was an insult. Anytime the boys call him that they were slowly but surely losing Piggy’s trust. With this loss, the friendship between the group was fading. As soon as this friendship becomes troubled the closeness of the boys is affected. Without the ability to be close to each other and protect one another a fatal error was made, Simon’s