Groups In Lord Of The Flies

Throughout fiction and human history, many people have befriended and allied with others to advocate a certain idea. While some groups remain small and simple, other groups consist of extremely passionate members with substantial beliefs for their group. For instance, many novels emphasize the vehemence people hold for their interests, and modern society reveals how far people fight for their beliefs. William Golding’s Lord of the Flies illustrates that all humans naturally affiliate with others to satisfy their place in society, which often leads to deindividuation and harm to bystanders, even if they refuse to acknowledge their mistakes. Moreover, many communities still succumb to mob mentality in order to assimilate into society today. First,
For instance, when President Donald Trump mentioned his rival Hillary Clinton at a rally, his supporters yelled “’Put her in jail! Waterboard Hillary!’” (Dana Milbank) and later, those same supporters called for security just because John, an ordinary civilian attending the rally “’got into a political argument with some Trump fans” (Dana Milbank). Since many people consider politics a significant issue, those involved with politics naturally stand their ground for their ideas. Under those circumstances, however, with their energy and activities intensifying with larger numbers, Trump supporters end up causing much more conflict with Hillary supporters than necessary. Furthermore, while John did not physically harm anyone, Trump supporters let their rage overwhelm them to the point where security forcefully removed John from the rally to prevent further conflict. On the other hand, in Lord of the Flies, when Jack’s tribe conducted a war dance, “Now out of the terror rose another desire, thick, urgent, blind” (Golding 152), and once Simon entered the party “there were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws” (Golding 153). While everyone on the island started out civilized, the lack of adult pressure plus Jack’s ardent struggle for power led to him taking drastic measures to obtain power on the island. However, unlike John’s situation at
For instance, while Trump frequently states, “Mexico is sending rapists and criminals into the United States” (Chris Cillizza), he defends himself by shoving the blame to “the Border Patrol officers he has talked to” (Chris Cillizza). While Trump repeatedly states his distaste for Mexicans throughout his campaign, he automatically pushes the blame onto a side group to defend his reasoning, thus diverting any sort of blame off him. In addition, when Jack’s tribe chased after the mother sow in Lord of the Flies, “the sow fell and the hunters hurled themselves at her” (Golding 135), but after murdering the sow, the novel depicts them “standing over the dry blood…suddenly furtive” (Golding 137). While all of the savages teamed up to kill the sow with equally fervent malevolence, the fact that they all wanted to avoid attention to themselves afterwards implies that none of them would have admitted to their animalistic breakdown if questioned by authority. In short, both Jack’s tribe and Trump would have diverted their actions onto other people if it meant they would all appear innocent to their