Freedom In Lord Of The Flies

Many places such as Thailand and Tibet survived having no government for a short period, and though having absolute freedom sounds ideal considering no one can tell anyone what to do, for instance, not having to pay fines for speeding, but most of the time, it is not as excellent as one thinks it is. Enlightenment philosophers such as Cesare Beccaria and John Locke thought of several ways to improve how the government ruled to help conditions for the people. Beccaria argued that for a better government, a fair justice system is vital while Locke stated that everyone was born with inalienable natural rights. In Lord of the Flies, William Golding describes a story of how a group of schoolboys, stranded on an unknown island, try to create an
The boys do not respect each other and their rights, resulting in people gaining too much power and turning into dictatorship on the island. According to John Locke, the most important idea is the thought of natural rights. He felt that everyone is born with these rights and freedoms that cannot be taken away from that person. Locke was a follower of the Bible, and his beliefs about life were that we are all a property of God, and our purpose is to survive, meaning there is no reason for someone to harm another (Uzgalis). For liberty, Locke explains that everyone has their own rights and people can govern themselves. If one does not like what the government is doing, they can overthrow them, since total control over any person is unacceptable (Uzgalis). The third right is property, which states that everyone has the right of what is theirs and protection for it from the government. Locke believed if people do not follow his beliefs on natural rights, then the person in power will start abusing their position, gaining too much power, resulting in no one being able to overthrow them, which is exactly the situation in Lord of the Flies. After Jack decided to leave the group and create a new faction, they figure out that they needed Piggy’s glasses to
The boys did not set punishments like Beccaria advised and thus harmed their society,causing a lot of chaos and acting in their own selfish self rather than the group as a whole since it enabled those who acts in their own selfish self rather than the group as a whole. They also did not enforce Locke’s main belief on how everyone gets equal rights. By not putting these laws into effect directly translates to how the time on the island ended up in dictatorship and anarchy. Looking at the bigger picture, Golding is also telling the readers a lesson. Ralph’s character is the average person while there are outside influences trying to lead them in a direction and one has to make a decision. Piggy is the one trying to pull the person to common sense, while Jack is the side that is selfish and greedy. Throughout the whole story, Ralph is trying to decide how to plan out his time on the island and do what is good for him, by either choosing Piggy or Jack, which is similar to the people in the modern world. Golding’s lessons and the philosopher’s ideas show how in the present-day, everyone has different sides to them, and each has to choose which will benefit them, and others in the