Piggy's Disappearance
A famous World War II Nazi Hunter, Simon Wiesenthal, once said “For evil to flourish, it only requires good men to do nothing”. This shows that complacency can be just as harmful as committing the act itself. When people ignore the good inside and begin to believe that bad things are ok, just because other people are doing them, it make evil run rampant. This is evident in World War II, people knew that prosecuting Jews was wrong, but everyone else was doing it and it provided them a false sense of security. If they harmed someone else, maybe they would be spared, maybe they could avoid the gas chambers. This type of group mindset in a hard situation can and did cause problems for the country, as well as the victims of the persecution. This
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concept is not only relevant on a large scale, like World War II, but also in our everyday lives. It shows that even people with good hearts can become evil, even for just a moment. In William Golding’s Lord of The Flies and Melissa Dittmann’s article “What makes good people do bad things?” the authors depict that when man is put in an arduous situation, he can react with savagery and violence. Piggy and Ralph, in Golding’s novel are seen as the two characters that are the most pure and the most innocent.
They are the ones that are presented to be “the good guys”. Similarly, in Dittmann’s article it shows that previously innocent people are turned to violence when introduced to peer pressure. It causes them to act in a way that they normally would not act. Piggy and Ralph are characters in the book, always trying to keep order and make sure that everyone is pitching in and doing what they are supposed to. They are the ones that work the hardest to try and get off the island. When the island splits into two groups, Piggy and Ralph vs. Jack and the hunters, they decide to go try and talk to the other group. At first, they are horrified by the savage ways of this other group, but as the night wears on they “[find] themselves eager to take a place in this demented but partly secure society. They [are] glad to touch the brown backs of the fence that hemmed in the terror and made it governable” (Golding 2). This “demented but partly secure society” was one that played games about killing a pig. They made chants about killing and blood, and Piggy and Ralph want to be a part of it. They are put in a bad situation, everyone there was a bit scared, the group “hemmed with terror” and Piggy and Ralph were no different. For a moment their fears were not noticed. Golding uses language to describe this “fence” of boys that makes them feel secure. Having everyone around them doing the same thing made the fear not so prevalent. Even when they know that this is not something that they should partake in, it made them feel safe. This depicts that a bad situation can turn people into someone they are not. Similarly, in Dittmann’s article, the Stanford Prison Experiment was explained and investigated in great detail. Many psychologists found that “institutional forces and peer pressure led normal student volunteer guards to disregard the potential harm of their actions on
other student prisoners” (Dittmann 2). This is a real life example of the dangers of peer pressure. These guards started off as normal college students, just volunteering for an experiment. It turned into a nightmare for everyone involved. Once these students were able to become the guards nothing would stop them. Event those who wouldn’t ever want to hurt someone caved to the pressure inevitably being placed upon them by their peers and the societal expectations of a prison guard.These are just two situations where peer pressure is exhibited, there are hundreds of more cases in which peer pressure is involved. Not only is the pressure of society impact the way Ralph and Piggy acted, but also the dehumanization of “the beast” made it easier for them to react more violently. This is also exhibited by the Dittmann article with the 1975 electric shock experiment. Once Ralph and PIggy become a part of this group mindset, it is hard to stop. They become one piece of this giant puzzle that will never break apart. The group sees a figure coming out of the woods and automatically assume it is the beast. Throughout the novel the boys had been concerned about a beast living on the island, they are fearful of its every move and have tried to hunt it for months. This was their chance, to rid themselves of this beast, when “the beast struggled forward...and fell over the steep edge of the rock to the sand by the water” the entire circle could only think of one thing, the blood of this beast, “at once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt onto the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore. There was no words, and no movements, but the tearing of teeth and claws” (Golding 2). Later the reader finds out that this was not any beast, but Simon a poor innocent boy on the island. The boys had been thinking of the blood of this beast so long, that when a figure came out of the woods it was too perfect. A real live beast that could satisfy their thirst for blood. ONce the boys jumped on Simon, there could be no mistaking him for an animal, it seemed as though they killed him out of cold blood. They dehumanized him in their minds, to them it was not a person,but a thing. Just as useless as an ant or a fly, a pest that they needed to take care of. This mindset caused them to become more beastly in nature, Golding uses the language of “tearing of teeth and claws”. It depicts that they were not humans in this instance, but instead animals. This animalistic mindset is taken on by Ralph and Piggy, they become a part of this killing, and they do nothing to stop it. In a similar nature, the psychological experiment of 1975 at a college showed that dehumanization has an effect on the mindset of a person. In this experiment, college students were told that they would be working on a group project with students from another school. In one instance in the experiment, they overheard someone calling the other students animals, and in another heard them referred to as nice. The students were then asked to electrically shock the other students, the results found that “students were more apt to deliver what they believed were increased levels of electrical shock to the other students if they heard them called ‘animals’” (Dittmann 2). This shows the specific mindset of people, it is easier to harm someone when you don’t see them as valuable. In the students minds, it was easier to deliver the shock, because they weren’t really people. There would be no reason to feel remorse, they were just harming insignificant animals. This shows how dangerous dehumanization can be, it can mess with the mindset that people have. They lose their human morals if the thing that they’re harming is not a human. In the novel The Lord of The Flies by William Golding and the article “Why do good people do bad things?” by Melissa Dittmann, both texts show that when put in a bad situation people tend to react differently, more violently than they normally would. Group mindset and the dehumanization of other people has a huge role in how people react to a situation. Good people can become evil within an instant if the conditions are right.
concept is not only relevant on a large scale, like World War II, but also in our everyday lives. It shows that even people with good hearts can become evil, even for just a moment. In William Golding’s Lord of The Flies and Melissa Dittmann’s article “What makes good people do bad things?” the authors depict that when man is put in an arduous situation, he can react with savagery and violence. Piggy and Ralph, in Golding’s novel are seen as the two characters that are the most pure and the most innocent.
They are the ones that are presented to be “the good guys”. Similarly, in Dittmann’s article it shows that previously innocent people are turned to violence when introduced to peer pressure. It causes them to act in a way that they normally would not act. Piggy and Ralph are characters in the book, always trying to keep order and make sure that everyone is pitching in and doing what they are supposed to. They are the ones that work the hardest to try and get off the island. When the island splits into two groups, Piggy and Ralph vs. Jack and the hunters, they decide to go try and talk to the other group. At first, they are horrified by the savage ways of this other group, but as the night wears on they “[find] themselves eager to take a place in this demented but partly secure society. They [are] glad to touch the brown backs of the fence that hemmed in the terror and made it governable” (Golding 2). This “demented but partly secure society” was one that played games about killing a pig. They made chants about killing and blood, and Piggy and Ralph want to be a part of it. They are put in a bad situation, everyone there was a bit scared, the group “hemmed with terror” and Piggy and Ralph were no different. For a moment their fears were not noticed. Golding uses language to describe this “fence” of boys that makes them feel secure. Having everyone around them doing the same thing made the fear not so prevalent. Even when they know that this is not something that they should partake in, it made them feel safe. This depicts that a bad situation can turn people into someone they are not. Similarly, in Dittmann’s article, the Stanford Prison Experiment was explained and investigated in great detail. Many psychologists found that “institutional forces and peer pressure led normal student volunteer guards to disregard the potential harm of their actions on
other student prisoners” (Dittmann 2). This is a real life example of the dangers of peer pressure. These guards started off as normal college students, just volunteering for an experiment. It turned into a nightmare for everyone involved. Once these students were able to become the guards nothing would stop them. Event those who wouldn’t ever want to hurt someone caved to the pressure inevitably being placed upon them by their peers and the societal expectations of a prison guard.These are just two situations where peer pressure is exhibited, there are hundreds of more cases in which peer pressure is involved. Not only is the pressure of society impact the way Ralph and Piggy acted, but also the dehumanization of “the beast” made it easier for them to react more violently. This is also exhibited by the Dittmann article with the 1975 electric shock experiment. Once Ralph and PIggy become a part of this group mindset, it is hard to stop. They become one piece of this giant puzzle that will never break apart. The group sees a figure coming out of the woods and automatically assume it is the beast. Throughout the novel the boys had been concerned about a beast living on the island, they are fearful of its every move and have tried to hunt it for months. This was their chance, to rid themselves of this beast, when “the beast struggled forward...and fell over the steep edge of the rock to the sand by the water” the entire circle could only think of one thing, the blood of this beast, “at once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt onto the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore. There was no words, and no movements, but the tearing of teeth and claws” (Golding 2). Later the reader finds out that this was not any beast, but Simon a poor innocent boy on the island. The boys had been thinking of the blood of this beast so long, that when a figure came out of the woods it was too perfect. A real live beast that could satisfy their thirst for blood. ONce the boys jumped on Simon, there could be no mistaking him for an animal, it seemed as though they killed him out of cold blood. They dehumanized him in their minds, to them it was not a person,but a thing. Just as useless as an ant or a fly, a pest that they needed to take care of. This mindset caused them to become more beastly in nature, Golding uses the language of “tearing of teeth and claws”. It depicts that they were not humans in this instance, but instead animals. This animalistic mindset is taken on by Ralph and Piggy, they become a part of this killing, and they do nothing to stop it. In a similar nature, the psychological experiment of 1975 at a college showed that dehumanization has an effect on the mindset of a person. In this experiment, college students were told that they would be working on a group project with students from another school. In one instance in the experiment, they overheard someone calling the other students animals, and in another heard them referred to as nice. The students were then asked to electrically shock the other students, the results found that “students were more apt to deliver what they believed were increased levels of electrical shock to the other students if they heard them called ‘animals’” (Dittmann 2). This shows the specific mindset of people, it is easier to harm someone when you don’t see them as valuable. In the students minds, it was easier to deliver the shock, because they weren’t really people. There would be no reason to feel remorse, they were just harming insignificant animals. This shows how dangerous dehumanization can be, it can mess with the mindset that people have. They lose their human morals if the thing that they’re harming is not a human. In the novel The Lord of The Flies by William Golding and the article “Why do good people do bad things?” by Melissa Dittmann, both texts show that when put in a bad situation people tend to react differently, more violently than they normally would. Group mindset and the dehumanization of other people has a huge role in how people react to a situation. Good people can become evil within an instant if the conditions are right.