Survival vs Personal Needs

Living in a world full of restrictions and survival instincts can lead into something big. When people’s survival mode kicks in they tend to do things under pressure, whether it’s good or bad. There are rules and laws that society has put together which allow people to survive with one another; but many people decide to break the law for their own personal needs.

For a group of people to survive, everyone needs to have a set goal that they all agree on doing rather than each person having their own goal.” In The Lord of The Flies”, by William Golding,the boys in the story decided that since they couldn’t keep a fire on for other people outside of the island, they need shelters to survive. So, they agreed to make huts while the hunters, choir boys, try to find food while the other boys build the huts.  Everything went downhill when everyone decided that they wanted to do their own things.In the book it states, “And they keep running off. You remember the meeting? How everyone was going to work hard until the shelters were finished?’ ‘Everyone except me and the hunters -”(50). This example shows that when everyone decides to do things their own way, the goal won’t be reached. Since the boys were having too much fun doing their own things, they forgot about they were suppose to do, which was to build huts for shelters. In the book, they made two shelters, both were shaky and one was not stable. When people don’t follow the rules , their lives are at risk just like how the boys then have to try to survive using two unfinished shelters. At the time, the boys think that it was okay to just do whatever they wanted but then they ended up failing their goal.

Just like in the book, for people to follow rules they are willing to do anything to survive their everyday lives. Take the stealers of the world, what do they really get out of living of off stolen goods and hiding their secrets? They are only stealing to survive. It stated in an LATimesarticle that, “- they want the main brand names for resale.” This proves that when someone is trying to survive in  their daily lives, breaking the rules and laws will lead to problems amongst other people. This also tells the readers that the rules are there to bring unity for people but sometimes if people need to do what they have to do to make it through their day, they will. Since more of them steal brands that are resalable, they are not only breaking the law but they are also affecting their community because of their personal need. When people are not satisfied with what they have, they’ll end up doing things to fulfil that desire. For example, when someone is hungry and they have no money, they have to find food somehow either by going through trash, begging, even stealing because they need it to survive.

Another real world example is when people commit cannibalism. When you are out stranded somewhere and there’s no food, the only way to go was to your left or your right to one of your friends…Cannibalism started thousands and thousands of years ago, during the times of the neanderthals it states that “They lived together. They interbred. They ate together, and even ate each other. During periods of starvation, Neanderthals supplemented their diets with cannibalism, according to a 2006 study on eight 43,000-year-old Neanderthal skeletons.” The fact that neanderthals practiced the act of cannibalism to survive together shows that they set a rule among themselves to keep each other alives by eating together and eating each other. In this example, it shows that the neanderthals survived because they had each other, but if one of them decided to do their own thing, they wouldn’t have survived for long.

Going back to the book, the boys on the island did many things for their own needs, which lead to the whole group’s downfall. At this moment, Jack, the leader of the tribe, which are the choir boys and some others, and Ralph, the one appointed as chief were arguing on the mountain side. As they were yelling at each other, Piggy, the wisest of them all was standing next to Ralph and he was holding the conch that made Ralph chief of the boys on the island. One of the boys of the tribe, Roger felt abandoned, so as he was filled with hate, he threw a rock from above them and hit piggy and the conch. That threw piggy of the cliff onto the rocks of the shore. In the book it states that, “See?See? That’s what you’ll get! I meant that! There isn’t a tribe for you anymore! The conch is gone-’ He ran forward, stooping. ‘I’m chief!’ Viciously, with full intention, he hurled his spear at Ralph.”(181) This shows that because the group wasn’t in unity, something bad happened. At first the rule was that Ralph became the chief and Jack was the chief of the choir boys but Jack wanted everyone’s attention. Little did they know, since they both were busy on arguing over power, on of the boys felt abandoned that he decided to kill one of the boys. Since Jack wanted more power, he thought that because one of his tribe members killed Piggy and broke the conch, he’s now in power and no one can stop him because the conch is broken. If none of the boys broke the rules and kept the group in one whole, everyone would’ve survive but because each one had their own needs that they thought were so important, only a few survived at the end. 

The next time you’re survival kicks in, remember that they are laws and rules that you still have to follow. Don’t get in the trouble because of your own needs, always think before you do something. The things you do as an individual can affect your surroundings positively or negatively.

Works Cited

Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times. Web. 06 Apr. 2016.

"A Multicourse History : DNews." DNews. Web. 05 Apr. 2016.

Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. New York: Penguin Group, 2003