Why Did They Stay?
Jowon Dorbor
English
Pahomov
Why Did They Stay?
Authority is a big role to many societies that leads to fear in others. Authority can be given to others by vote or agreement and can be snatched without notices, but what gives someone automatic authority in any situation? Maybe it’s the way someone looks, their appearance or is it because of the fear we have or what might happen if we disobey. People give authority to others because they are afraid of what they would do to them.
In the novel of the Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the author was telling the readers what things the littluns did around the island and also things they had to deal with without the help of the biguns helping them or giving sympathy. The book states, “They obeyed the summons of the conch, partly because Ralph blew it, and he was big enough to be linked with the adult world of authority…”(59). In the novel, littluns are the kids that are smaller and can’t depend themselves. In the eyes of the littluns, the bigun were considered adults and “obeyed” them because they were “big enough”. They were big enough to punish the littluns if they didn’t obey them. The littluns have a negative focus on in the quote because they are looking up to savages who doesn’t care about them only to control them. The littluns are stuck there to fend for themselves.
A nonprofit & activism group made a video called Private Violence Presents: Why We Stayed. In the video, some of the complex reasons women who have experienced domestic violence tell us why they stayed in their abusive relationships. A lady named Kit Gruelle told them her story. She stated “Well people asked me ‘Why didn’t you leave? Why didn’t you leave?’... He told me if I left he would hunt me down and kill me. That’s why I didn’t leave.” She was obviously afraid of what the man was capable of. She stayed with him for her own safety and gave him complete control over her by staying there with him.
Jack was watching Piggy and Ralph while ordering others around to do things for him. “Jack spoke. ‘Give me a drink.’ Henry brought him a shell and he drank, watching Piggy and Ralph over the jagged rim. Power lay in the brown swell of his forearms: authority sat on his shoulder and chattered in his ear like an ape.” (150) The littluns give the biguns authority and power over them because they are afraid of what they will do if they don’t give them this. To be more specific Jack has so much control over almost everyone on the island that Henry didn’t hesitate to get him a drink. Jack doesn’t only have that control over Henry, but over all the littluns
The littluns are afraid of what the biguns would do to them so they give the authority and power over them in the Lord of the Flies. Authority is given to others because of the fear they have of what they’ll do when they aren’t given that power and control.
Comments (2)
Log in to post a comment.