Mrs. Spradling
English II Pre AP Period 7
November 12, 2012
Freedom Equals Responsibility
Freedom and responsibility go hand in hand with each other. The freedom one has determines how much responsibility that person has. Many people believe that they can have freedom without having responsibility, but, when conditions start to go wrong, the conditions start to reflect the freedom that remains. “The more freedom we enjoy, the greater the responsibility we bear, toward others as well as ourselves” said Oscar Arias Sanchez—former President of Costa Rica and Nobel Prize winner. Everyone should enjoy the freedom they have but with responsibility. The more freedom one has the more responsibility one also has as shown in Lord of the Flies, Animal Farm, and a real life experience. In Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, the boys display Sanchez’s quote by having complete freedom to do whatever they want to do with no adults around telling them what to do. Although the boys have complete freedom, they don’t take it up with responsibility, and start abusing the freedom. Ralph, a twelve year old boy, and other boys who survived the plane crash remain stuck on an unknown island for a long time. The other children gather around when Ralph blew a conch, and elect Ralph as their leader who then has to decide what to do next that would benefit the whole group. Ralph assigns Piggy, who has stayed with Ralph from the beginning, a job where Piggy has to “go back, Piggy, and take names. That’s your job” (Golding 25). Ralph assigned Piggy the responsibility, but hadn’t thought it through carefully that all the kids will run around and will not listen to Piggy. Jack, a former choirmaster and the “head boy” at his school, made a lot of rules and wants to punish anyone who breaks them, although he consistently breaks the rules himself. Jack just wants to hunt on the island. Ralph has assigned a few Biguns (the older children on the island) to keep the fire going in