Novel by William Golding is a vast field for the study of social psychology. William Golding creates special conditions for their heroes, resulting in greatly changed their socio-behavioral norms. In our essay on “Lord of the Flies” we want with max precision describe a novel. On a desert island, the children begin to behave as would behave in a civilized English society, perhaps throughout life. A dramatic change in their behavior in respect to what is allowed to do and what not, can be explained (to some extent) from the point of view of social psychology. I’m talking about a certain proportion, as, despite the great experimental base, some old theoretical apparatus and the desire of scientists to apply the theory in practice, yet human nature has not been investigated and explained 100%, so we can only with some degree of probability that personality at that moment.
But it would be very stupid to fall “in nothing Veyrier”, on the basis that knowledge is not dogmatic and has not been proven fully at this point of development. So we ruin any undertaking, and nowhere will come. Moreover, reading a novel, we are horrified by what can a seemingly harmless child under the age of 12. We, the people, trying to find any reasonable explanation of any phenomenon or phenomenon. The last scene on the shore and remembering everything that happened, we wonder, how could this happen, how could this make children? So in his analysis of the artwork I would like to apply the conceptual apparatus of social psychology to answer these questions. In more detail, I would like to focus on the dynamic processes in small group and leadership theory.
The main theme of “Lord of the Flies”
In the beginning of the novel tells how the children in the crash of an airplane find themselves alone on a desert island. Common trouble and fear of the unknown forced them to join the group to work together to solve pressing problems. Also this group need a home that will be both a leader and Manager. It becomes the oldest of the children named Ralph. It should say that in the explanation of why Ralph is initially chosen leader, I will use the “situational theory”. She tells us that in a particular situation, the group needs a leader with a certain quality and set of qualities, which will help to solve actual problems.
So at that time the group needed a strong leader, literally and figuratively, with unquestioned authority, which could protect kids from danger, feed them, and find the path to salvation. Ralph, calm, tall, strong, relatively adult, possessing a certain attribute of power in the form of seashells, the sound of which was heard at a great distance, it seemed, could perform all of these functions. It is the presence of force was decisive as to that situation.
So, for example, in another time and in another place the leader could be a piggy and Ralph because it is rightly noted that piggy is smart and sensible, and it is an important quality in our lives.
After becoming the President, Ralph has established group norms and constraints, which help the normal functioning. As rightly said piggy, “We need rules and we need to obey them. We are not savages any. We are British”. His style of leadership, in my opinion, the opinion was democratic, as all his decisions were explained and submitted to public discussion. Everyone can make a suggestion or arguments to disagree with Ralph. For this and arrange General meetings. The most important task, according to Ralph, was the organization of a permanent fire, because it was possible to count on salvation. In this sense he was undoubtedly right, as the best place to sleep and undernourished, but not to miss the chance to go back home. A second important task would be shelter and sleep, to be able to sleep without fear of nightmares and rain, in a tent.
But the effectiveness of the performance depends entirely on the interest of group members in their implementation. So on the first day of the fire were all filled with enthusiasm and joy, deeming the fire a very important lesson. There is even manifested the effect of “facilitation”, when the almost universal practice of encouraging children even more. But gradually the revival subsided, the children stopped believing in the urgent necessity of constant fire, and mass ignition was gone, maintaining the fire became a daily routine for several people, which led to the fall of interest in this lesson and one day, his abandonment and fateful delay of rescue from a deserted island.
Very similar situation was observed in the construction of the huts. As we know from the words of Ralph, first altogether undertook to build shelters, then the participants gradually began to tire and lose interest and, ultimately, completed the shelters some of the most conscious and intelligent man. Ralph really admired, “Few of them turned up for joy naked, not backed by anything the simple statement, now this was Ralph’s authority”. But it was not enough to rally the group and to retain power.
Ralph could not persuade the group of the importance of the performance of the main task could not interest. The panel therefore implicitly listened to, but did not fulfill his orders, so there was no cohesion, the participants did what you thought was right at its sole discretion, its leadership has ceased to matter, it few people had need of, so officially, Ralph had leadership post, and in fact he already wasn’t. But his main rival, Jack, has long dreamed of becoming a major, was able to rally the group.
What is the theme of “Lord of the Flies”?
He was guided by physiological instinct, believed that hunting is much more important, as people need meat. Being endowed by nature skillful skills he was able to establish a hunt for pigs. The smell of roast pork was attracted by all members of the group, Ralph as well couldn’t resist, they enjoyed the meal and lasted no longer boring Ralph with his fire, and Jack with his fun and exciting hunting. Was also another reason why children turned to Jack.
The fact that the guys were afraid of the monster island (actually there was never any monster, it was just a dead man), first Ralph denied it, but then, as if they saw him, they recognized that it is, but what to do with him didn’t know. Jack, with his team of hunters was ready to repel this monster, that is for him felt strong, especially since he lived in a stone fortress, which defended the huge stones, that is, for him it was powerful. This, Jack is slowly lured into their camp boys and became their leader. The leadership style Jack, unlike Ralph, was an authoritarian leader. He wanted complete obedience to themselves, took all the important decisions alone, does not tolerate dissent.
He demanded that he publicly had signs respect. As it is, in some sense is sad, but it is the leadership style of Jack proved to be the most effective. Democracy Ralph is not able to unite and rally the children, but on the basis of hard authoritarianism of the Jack to make the group United, to force them to obey the leader and follow his orders. Of course, Jack’s methods for attracting and retaining people was sometimes too cruel, if we recall the bound of an exhausted boy waiting what it will do Jack or public beatings. But apparently, the only way was to force children to obey and execute public tasks.
It seems to me that in any case it is impossible to ignore the two horrible murders that happened on the island. What made the children shows that people can turn into a wild, predatory animal that knows no mercy, if it is not curbed social and ethical standards. That is to say that children were killed, I felt complete freedom and are not afraid of responsibility and of punishment by law enforcement, and wilderness were given the opportunity to forget about morality and ethics. Simply put, in the fresh air, the kids blossomed. But our judgment need to be specific.
All children without exception have become so. There was another circumstance that contributed to “the outbreak of hand”. In social psychology this effect is called the gist of it is: “the Group is able to excite people. If the excitation is superimposed on a lack of personal responsibility, and accepted norms of behavior are eroded, the consequences can be very unexpected. In such situations, people capable of the most different actions from acts of misconduct to destructive social explosion.”
At the time of the first killing members of the group Jack was in emotionally because of the song and dance. Of course, it would be a great folly to call it a passion or even any mitigating circumstance already in the proceedings before the court, but because our task is to find out what the circumstances are stronger or weaker influence on the appearance of aggressive behavior. An important component of the effect is a physical anonymity.
LotF themes
That is, if the individual can merge with the group, and thus “depersonalize” itself, it feels less responsibility for their actions. In both cases, military camouflage allowed them to achieve such anonymity. It’s said Ralph, when said masking much easier to close his social I, and instead to release the animal. But you should still focus on the fact that just by themselves, the camouflage and the animal dance in a normal civilized life with a very small probability might lead children to commit excessive atrocities, this requires special conditions, data from the outside.
Analysis of “Lord of the Flies”
After reading the novel “Lord of the flies” I was first in turmoil with a mute question on his lips: Life whether it’s true or a talented fiction writer. And only now, while writing this conclusion, I came up with the idea that a fiction writer about real life. I think, as the children of the author understood people in General, as it is very much older, at times, seem their actions. In the novel many fabulous coincidences and weaves a story that bears little resemblance to our life, but if you break this down into components and consider them separately, we get quite a realistic picture. I do not think that the novel, as a whole, should be taken seriously, but on the individual moments it is worth considering to take them on Board in daily practice.
