Lord Of The Flies By William Golding: Person’S Natural Tendency To Act Selfishly Or Brutally In Certain Situations

Given what opportunities, or in what situations, would a person act selfishly or brutally? William Golding addresses this question in his book, Lord of the Flies. In this book, a plane crashes on an uncharted island, stranding a group of schoolboys from England. At first, with no adults or discipline, their freedom is something to celebrate. This far away from civilization and power and the order that adults bring into life, they can do anything they want. But as order collapses, strange howls echo in the night, and terror begins its reign, the hope of being rescued is removed far away from reality. William Golding uses plot and character to convey that, given the opportunity, or in certain situations, most people would act selfishly and brutally.

Golding uses the character of Roger to convey that, given the opportunity, people will act selfishly and brutally. He shows this using Roger’s progression throughout the book, as he acts, or becomes, more and more selfish and brutal. He starts off the book as a boy whose natural tendency is to be mean and violent towards other children, and maybe even adults at times. But, the adults in his life back home have shaped him and taught him what it is to be respectful and caring towards others. “Here, invisible yet strong, was the taboo of the old life. Round the squatting child was the protection of parents and school and policemen and the law. Roger's arm was conditioned by a civilization that knew nothing of him and was in ruins”(60). This shows that, even though the authorities were not around, they were still having an impact on his decisions. Right now, he is experimenting with breaking the rules that have shaped his whole life, to where he is not a savage and to where they have order over his selfish and brutal desires. In this particular instance, Roger knows that throwing rocks at other children is wrong, even though he wants to do it. He sees the authority around the other child and still throws rocks, but misses purposefully. Roger has not been on the island for an interminablely long time, so he still regards the rules and the customs he has grown up around. At home, he would be punished for hitting a child with rocks. He also understands that, if they were to be rescued at once, the littluns might snitch, and Roger does not want to get into any trouble with the authority he has back home waiting for him.

Later on in the book, Roger forgets about the consequences of his actions, and the authority no longer lingers, or makes an impact, on Roger’s decision making skills. He no longer sees the policeman, parents, school, or the law surrounding him, or any of the other children he is with on the island. He starts disregarding his learned orderly behaviors, as well as other children’s rights and brutally attacks and tortures them. When Roger kills Piggy with the giant boulder, it shows his progression from throwing rocks so that he misses to killing people with rocks. “Someone was throwing stones: Roger was dropping them, his one hand still on the lever. High overhead, Roger, with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever”(180). One of the reasons Roger may have done these actions is because Roger is shown as one of the boys in the novel who does not have much power. To get this power for himself, he becomes Jack’s right hand man, or a torturer for Jack. This shows that Roger’s habit, before he was taught the right thing to do, was to act selfishly and brutally. Golding uses plot to convey that, given the opportunity, most people will act with selfishness and brutality.

Throughout the entire book, the schoolboys become more and more like savages, until there are no more schoolboys left, only savages, except for maybe a few children. They start out, and the choir group prefers to keep their clothes on, even though everyone else has taken their clothes off. As time goes on, the choir group is the first to become savage, starting with killing pigs. “In his other life Maurice had received chastisement for filling a younger eye with sand. Now, though there was no parent to let fall a heavy hand, Maurice still felt the unease of wrongdoing”(60). This shows that, at the beginning, most of the children still felt adult life having an impact on them and their actions. As the book goes on, Jack decides that he would make a better chief. In this situation, he is trying to fulfill his selfish desires to be in charge and have power. “ He looked round. Then for the first time he saw how few biguns there were and understood why the work had been so hard. ‘Where’s Maurice?’ Piggy wiped his glasses. ‘I expect. . . no he wouldn't go into the forest by himself, would he?’ Ralph jumped up, ran swiftly round the fire and stood by Piggy, holding up his hair. ‘But we’ve got to have a list! There’s you and me and Samneric and -’ He would not look at Piggy but spoke casually. ‘Where’s Bill and Roger?’ Piggy leaned forward and put a fragment of wood on the fire. ‘I expect they’ve gone. I expect they won’t play either?’ (131)”. No one agrees with Jack at first, but as time goes on the boys slowly go to Jack, trying to fill their selfish and brutal desires, though they don’t want to be caught in their selfishness. They are more willing to submit to selfishness and brutality, but they do not want to be caught, or in embarrassed, in it. They kill Simon, this shows that they will make up any excuse to freely, without judgment, be brutal and selfish and act as they want to. When Roger kills Piggy, it is the breaking point of all order. As soon as Roger shows that it is okay to act they want, everyone acts the same way as Roger. Finally, when the boys try to kill Ralph, the boys are not worried about embarrassment or any judgement. They let loose and act however they want, even if they act murderous. No one cares anymore how they act, and they have given up the hope of being rescued, so there is no point in being civilized, when acting selfish and brutal is so much better for yourself.

An example of people, who are given the opportunity, turning selfish and brutal is when natural disasters strike. When natural disasters strike, it is a great time for the community to come together and help each other out. Even people who do not know each other help each other. Take organizations that collect money to help bring those people who are hit by natural disaster and have had everything they own taken away from them for example. When people donate to those types of organizations, people most likely do not know who they are benefitting, even if they know people hit by these hurricanes or tornadoes, they likely aren’t helping directly them. But other people, the people who turn to selfishness and brutality, see natural disaster strikes another way. They see these kinds of things as opportunities. They break in and steal things from homes and stores, simply because no one is looking. These kinds of people are examples of people who turn to selfishness and brutality, when given the opportunity. The theme that, given the opportunity, most people would act with selfishness and brutality, constantly show up in this book, whether it be plot, character, or events in real life today.