What Are The Similarities Between The Stanford Prison Experiment And Lord Of The Flies

Many controversial events have occurred throughout time; for example, Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in the mid-20th century is one of many occasions where humans have failed to stay moral. The themes represented in both Lord of the Flies and the Stanford Prison Experiment reflect upon malicious intentions when given superiority. In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a group of British boys being evacuated by plane from a war zone have their plane shot down, stranding them on an undiscovered island. Losing touch with society, the boys start showing primitive instincts, like bloodlust and amoral behavior. These ideas resemble the theme of the Stanford Prison Experiment, a movie based on a psychological experiment simulating a prison with randomly

“Now, you'll all be given sunglasses and uniforms to give the prisoners a sense of a unified, singular authority… And from this point forward you should never refer to this as a study or experiment again,’’ (Dr. Phil Zimbardo). The guards were given power by having a uniform, the ability to make their own rules for the prisoners, changing the way they saw themselves and behaved. “Prisons, they represent… a loss of freedom, literally and symbolically. We're trying to strip away their individuality… Take away all the things that make them them. You see, we're trying to understand how an institution affects an individual's behavior.” (Dr. Zimbardo). All the prisoners went through the weakening of their self-identity, the way they were dressed and called made them small compared to the guards. “You have no right! I'll smash this camera! I'll beat up your fucking guards! You're messing with my head, man. My head! You have no right to fuck with my head!” (Prisoner). Over the course of the experiment, the prisoners face humiliating situations and unreasonable physical punishments from the prison guards, leading to emotional breakdowns. “My problem is that the guards and the people running this experiment are not treating the prisoners like human beings. Mr. Correctional

Situational influence impacted how they acted as well as physical appearance, “Jack planned his new face. He made one cheek and one eye-socket white, then he rubbed over the other half of his face and slashed a black bar of charcoal across from right ear to left jaw,” (63). Similarly, the college students also changed their physical appearance, they were forced to wear nylon hats and dress-like clothing. As their physical appearance change so do their personalities; Jack painted his face like tribes would do showing his savageness and the prison guards become aggressive due to the power they feel with the uniform on. “Well, since you had to look, I want you to step up here, I want you to do five push-ups, four jumping jacks, then eight push-ups, then six jumping jacks so you will remember the name of the man standing to your right and you won't have to look next time,” (Prison Guard). The prison guard thinks he can punish the prisoners any way he wants because of his superior position just like Jack assumes he does not have to help with building shelter or trying to get rescued because all he wants is to hunt. “At once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt on the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore,” (Golding 153). Jack being the leader of everyone except