Lord of the Flies: A Study in Human Nature and the Fragility of Civilization
1- Desde el punto de vista de Maquiavelo, ¿Ralph fue buen líder? Razona tu respuesta.
Ralph did not lead the group in the right way according to Maquiavelo, as he does not use the
ambitions of every member of the group for the peace, order and security of society, and this
attitude was what Maquiavelo defended.
2- ¿Qué debería haber hecho -dar ejemplos concretos- para haber sido un buen líder desde
el punto de vista de Maquiavelo?
If he had followed Maquiavelo’s ideas, Ralph would not have acted as a leader who tries to
please everyone but should have been able to harness the virtues of each child in favor of order,
peace, and security. An example could be Roger, who is a child who has violent impulses and
would have been perfect for the post of cleaning the meat hunted by the group of hunters. This
way Roger would like what he’s doing and not cause any trouble. Another example would be to
make the children compete to be hunters instead of appointing Jack leader of these, because in
this way there would have tried harder to hunt a greater amount.
3- ¿Are people innately savage, civil, both or neither? ¿Qué nos transmite la obra? ¿Cuál es
la realidad? (Tema complejo requiere respuesta compleja)
Poner lo que piensa el autor y opinión personal.
4- Is fear necessary in maintaining a society? “Fear is the enemy for Civilization;
fear
fear
prevents construction and progress” Do you agree? Discuss the fragility of civilization
against the destructive Powers of fear. ¿Qué papel tiene el miedo en la obra? People are
good only because they fear punishment. (RIng of Gyges – Plato)
Firstly, fear takes an important part in the book as a result that it is what lets Jack to stay in
power. So in the affirmation “ Fear is the enemy for civilization; fear prevents construction and
progress” there’s a part in which Jack, for example would agree because it drives him to power;
and there’s another part in which Ralph wouldn’t agree.
Without a figure of authority, we basically drive crazy and we forget what the terms of civilization
and society stand for. As it is told in the story of the Ring of Gyges, we are good and we do
behave properly just because we fear punishment. What this book tries to express is that if we do
not have an authority to control us, we won’t behave as we had to, therefore, we would destroy
the civilization and the society we have created.
In addition, a common fear is created on the book: they say that there’s a beast in the woods and
they have to fight against it together. So this is the thread that maintains the society. Nevertheless,
fear also leads to the death of Simon because, they thought that Simon was the beast and they
killed him.
5-Relacionar la frase de Voltaire con la obra: “Those who can make you believe absurdities,
can make you commit atrocities”.
This phrase of Voltaire can be related to the figure of Jack. He gets with fear, that all the boys
leave Ralph aside to join him. It makes them believe in a false beast (the absurdity) and makes
them wild. Once they become savages, they commit all kinds of evils (atrocities), leaving
civilization aside. An example of atrocity is Simon’s death. Simon dies because everyone thinks
he is the beast.
6- Relacionar la frase de Burke con la obra: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil
is for good men to do nothing”/ Es necesario que lo hagas señalando escenas o ejemplos
concretos de la obra.
According to Burke, the only necessary thing for evil to triumph, is that good people stay passive.
In the book Ralph is a good person, he cannot kill the pig, so he could represents normal people.
However, Roger starts with small acts of evil, like throwing stones to children and finally kills
Piggy.
7-¿Qué representan simbólicamente los personajes de Ralph, Jack, el grupo de niños
desde el punto de vista de Freud? Explicarlo adecuadamente.
Freud distinguishes between three instance types:
• Super ego: is the idealized vision of each person representing the values that society demands
of us (beauty canons for example). In the work he is depicted by the figure of Ralph, since he is
the one who tries to convey good values and fulfills the stereotype of a good child of his time
and his society.
• “yo”: is an intermediate point, where most people meet. It will be the group of children
(understanding as a society the students of the work), who have no bad pulses, but do not
embody the correct values of society. As we said in class, it would be apples that are not rotten.
• “id/Ello”: this encompasses all primitive pulses, what society sees as bad values. In the play this
represents Jack, as he is the one who has a more primitive instinct and does not represent what
a society expects a twelve-year-old to perform.
8- ¿Cuál es el sentido del título de la obra? ¿En qué medida es cierto?. Explorar las posibles
respuestas desde el punto de vista de la atribución disposicional y situacional. Citar
autores.
The title of the book, makes reference to the evil (satan or Belcebú). It represents the sin, as well
as the demon, which means the personification of evil. According to the book, the author, William
Goldings, tries to show that each human has its devil in their inside, as we could appreciate in
Roger and Jack’s personality. At first, they were rational kids, with moral standards that did not
allow them to commit atrocities. However, they ended up murdering two boys of the group.
Moreover, they spread the anger between the rest of the group what made them took part in
jack’s plans. For example: killing simon, burning the mountain, bullying piggy.
..
..
So, we can say that it is true that evil is inside us when it comes to a situation where people are in
its natural state of living. When they are living without laws, they may act savage and with no
control.
Dispositional attribution: This is reflected in the book on the impulsive acts of jack. The
dispositional attribution is the physical characteristics that the evil character in the book have due
to their inside feelings and impulses. For example: when Roger took a rock and threw it to Piggy.
This reflects the real internal attitude of him, the evil. Same with Roger. This concept is based as
well on influences of the people who surround you and the environment.
However, the situational attribution, is related to the physical situation that is happening. In the
book, this attribution do not appear. Nevertheless, it could be related to the cold war that is
happening. For example, if there where any beast, there would be a situational attribution, a
physical fact, thing or act that is taking part and people can consider.
Zimbardo with the stanford prison experiment which was a social experiment where some
volunteers were assigned to be either guards or prisoners. The guards enforced authoritarian
measures and psychological torture. As we can appreciate in the book with the power and
authority of jacks as he was taking the leadership of the island.
An other author is Milgram, who created an experiment where some volunteers were led to
believe that they were assisting an unrelated experiment in which they have to administer electric
shocks to a learner. This fake electric shocks gradually increased to levels that would have been
bad for the learners health. This is realted ti the book because it shows how authority presses the
society and ends up taking out the inner evil of each one.
9- Exponer la relación de la obra con la teoría política de Thomas Hobbes.
In the Leviathan (Hobbes´ s thesis) Hobbes asserted that man is intrinsically selfish. It is
society the responsible for appeasing the situation because it forces us to be good and behave in
a rational way. Our society has established laws that we must follow or if not there are bad
consequences (we are punished).Thomas Hobbes denied that man is by nature a social being and
upheld instead that each individual is fundamentally guided by self-interest (any man possesses
an instinct to do good or to feel loyalty or to defend his friends). To counter anarchy which man’s
selfishness would create if there were no checks and balances to restrain it, we adopt, according
to Hobbes, certain “articles of peace” which impose restrictions on individual liberty. To see that
articles are implemented, we trust an authority figure who has the right to punish.This power, in
the book, is initially entrusted to Ralph by the common consent of the other children. However, he
proves to be ineffective so he is displaced by the more rutheless figure of Jack. Hobbes thinks
that citizens should only place their trust in the sovereign until he is efective. If this authority fails
then they have the right to replace him by someone more competent.
Hobbes not only outlines how societies are formed but advances a psychological argument about
our instinctive insecurity.The convenant man forms with his sovereign, is in a way, created
because of the fear we have of not to be protected from the wildness of nature.For example: in
Chapter 1, the boys have a meeting in order to name the leader and see what can be done as a
group. It never occurs to any of them to act as a solitary individual, unencumbered by social
responsibilities.
On the book, the conch is an important symbol, which represents the order on the island. Nobody
can speak if he doesn´t have the conch on his hands. By this way, Golding shows how dependent
we are in any organisation upon symbolic sanctions (for example a crown or a holly book).This
represents the imagined order we all belong to (what the citizens of a given society share).
By the end of the novel Jack is well on his way to establishing a tyranny. According to Hobbes
´thesis that says that no sovereign can depend upon the loyalty of his people. Jack was able to
brainwash the children and manipulate them in order to win them away from Ralph, and to
establish a system of government which cover the fear they have to the beast (Jack covers the
reality by having festivals and rites) (para gobernar hay que jugar sucio)
10.Exponer la relación de la obra con teoría política de Jean Jacques Rousseau.
Rousseau said: ” Man is good by nature,but corrupted by society”.
He doesn’t think as Hobbes used to. He says that in the state of nature, the human being is a
happy and chill being.
He dictates that in the state of nature they would remain some natural rights and social
differences will arrive with the establishment of a society. As we may see in the novel, when the
social contract ends (Ralph’s leadership), everyone become more anarchic.
We also might see a little extract on the novel between Piggy and Jack discussing about building
a ship and escape from the island to find some help. Moreover, Piggy appointments Rousseau
sentence previously cited.
One of the points of Rousseau’s thesis is based on the “Myth of the good savage”. The French
philosopher starts from an anthropological optimism to show his theory about the human origin of
man referred to the state of nature. According to Rousseau, the natural man is a living being like
most of animals, instinctive, without reason, without society and therefore, without evils. But it will
be two characteristics belonging to all animals that subsequently differentiate them from man:
love for himself, understood as an instinct for conservation and the mercy that every animal has
towards its mutuals.
But this original state will not last long, imposing what the French calls “the man of man.” This
concept refers to the social being, to the human nature that has been diverted and truncated from
its original essence originating the vices and perversions consecrated as the true scourge of the
human race.
11- Exponer la relación de la canción de caza de Jack y la fiesta de la caza entorno al fuego
con la teoría de Marshall McLuhan sobre los medios calientes y fríos.
They are both hot media because of the fact that it involves emotions. During the
ritual they were disconnected from their rational part and very connected to their
emotional part as they were very engaged to what they really felt. It cannot be a cool
media because it involves a rational part and poor sensory data. Also it engages
several senses less completely because this demands a great deal of the individual’s
participation and involves one sense completely.
In the rituals all boys were involved because one of their senses was completely
involved in the interaction of the realization of that ritual in that specific moment so
that all their attention was focused in the ritual. They let their rational part out and
involved their emotions. With those emotions of fear to the beast they ended up killing
Simon, as they thought he was the beast, during the dance.
12- Desde el punto de vista de la teoría situacional, ¿pudo haber afectado al resultado
desastroso del final el contexto de guerra nuclear que rodea la obra- el bombardeo de
Londres o los propios niños habiendo sido evacuados de Inglaterra?
Yes, the destroyed society could have made them give up trying to survive. In the book it was
mentioned that even his parents would probably not be alive after the nuclear explosion. This
could affect them so that when they thought they probably didn’t have a house or family, it didn’t
matter.
13-Respecto a las gafas de Piggy realiza una exposición de la relación entre bien público
(public good) y bien privado (private good). Puntos de vista posibles: John Rawls ( veil of
ignorance ), Thomas Hobbes ( derecho del estado a requisar bienes privados para el bien
del estado ) y John Locke (derecho natural a la propiedad privada)
Public good is that good whose consumption is indivisible and that can be consumed by all the
members of a community without excluding any. Such as street lighting, parks, national defense
or environmental policies among other things.
A private good is a particular type of economic good with these properties: Consumption by a
consumer prevents or reduces the availability of consumption for others (principle of rivalry).
Possible points of view:
• John Rawls: John Rawls’ veil of ignorance consisted of thinking of a state of imaginary nature in
which society would be organized. Human beings located in that previous state would not know
what their place in the future social scheme would be. They would be ignorant about whether
they were going to be women or men, rich or poor, black or white, healthy or sick, children or
the elderly, etc. In this way, it would be guaranteed that thanks to this lack of information, valid
and sufficient principles of justice were established for all, so that, regardless of the specific
position of each citizen in society, this would always be a fair and acceptable. In this ideal
society there would be no private law since everything would be for everyone for whom piggy
glasses would be used as a public good
• Thomas Hobbes: For this author, who defends the right of the state to remove private goods for
the good of the public state, Piggy’s glasses should be used as a public good. Therefore, in this
case the private good would not exist in relation to piggy glasses. Consequently, everyone can
access them as long as they are used for a public good such as making fire.
• John Locke: Since man has the right and the duty to preserve himself, he will have the right to
possess the things necessary for that purpose. Therefore, for Locke, the right to private
property is a natural right . That’s why in this case piggy glasses are necessary for their
preservation since without them he cannot see, so he would have the private right to have them.
On the other hand, Locke also admits the right to inherit the property. In this case, piggy glasses
could be seen with a material purpose so they could be bought by anyone and converted into a
private good.
14-Imagínate que en un hipotético juicio posterior a los sucesos de la isla algunos niños en
su defensa alegan que solo cumplían órdenes – exactamente como hizo Adolf Eichmann en
el juicio del 1961. ¿Cómo se podría entender su respuesta ( la banalidad del mal de Hannah
Arendt y el experimento de Stanley Milgram)
When the kids get to the island they are all equal but when Jack becomes the leader
he is so into his role of being the chief that he starts to think he really has power and
he begins demanding the kids to commit atrocities.
According to Milgram´s experiment people respond to authority’s ideas. In this
experiment 2/3 end up the experiment because an authority tells them to continue
and they confide on him. At first all the boys respond to Ralph`s demands. However,
when Jack becomes a new leader, kids start to rely on him because they believe he will
give them a better protection against the beast. As the kids confides on Jack they do as
he says.
According to Hannah Arendt, Jack at the beginning isn’t a problematic boy and doesn’t
show a mean character, he acted as he did just because he wished to ascend as a
leader to be over Ralph and make his own system. He didn’t consider the
consequences of his acts. The kids who follow Jack were just following rules without
thinking if it was good or bad.
15- Desde el punto de vista de la psicología social, ¿qué importancia tiene para el grupo de
Jack pintarse la cara e insultar a Ralph y a Piggy? Zimbardo-
Bandura (desconexión moral).
Bandura (desconexión moral).
It is related to the experiment of the Stanford prison (Zimbardo’s experiment) where the people
working there (police officers) used to wear sunglasses to avoid eye contact with the prisoners in
order to prevent the police officers to empathize with them, thanks to that they didn’t feel guilt
when doing bad actions. This is why the fact of having the painted face is very important for
Jack’s group because they don’t feel bad when doing bad actions, for example when Jack insults
Ralph and Piggy. This is also related to the moral disconnection of Bandura