English 2 · Pahomov · E Band Public Feed
Why Are We Violent?
Marcin Czapla
3/30/17
Why Are We Violent?
What causes violence? Most of the time it is conflict, or maybe even jealousy. Other times violence can be a product of fear, like in the novel “Lord of The Flies.” But is fear really what caused the boys to act out in violence? Maybe it was just the desire to hurt something that drove the boys to beat another human being to death. Humans can often have violent outbursts for many reasons, but it’s usually something small like maybe breaking something or hitting a wall. Small or not, though, these outbursts are still violent, and can be harmful. This raises the question, what causes humans to have the desire to hurt and destroy? Humans naturally have a desire to hurt things because it is in their nature.
The novel “Lord of The Flies” is about a group of boys whose plane has crashed on an isolated island, stranding them there. In Chapter 9, "A view to death", the reader gets to experience the first death so far. Simon goes to explore the mountain and try to find the beast. He finds out it's a human corpse that fell from the sky. The journey is exhausting, he gets very dirty and gets covered in blood from his nose, so when he gets back, the boys think he's the beast. "Now out of the terror rose another desire, thick. urgent, blind. “‘Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!’ Again the blue-white scare jagged above them and the sulfurous explosion beat down. The littluns screamed and blundered about, fleeing from the edge of the forest, and one of them broke the ring of begins in his terror. ‘Him! Him!’ The circle became a horseshoe. A thing was crawling out of the forest. It came darkly, uncertainly. The still screaming that rose from the beast was like a pain. The beast stumbled into the horseshoe (152).” This scene shows how fear can cause people to change, but is it really fear that did this to the boys? The boys could have run away from the beast or simply captured it since it wasn’t trying to attack them. They, of course, didn’t know that the beast was actually Simon, but still most likely saw that this beast looked awfully similar to a human, unless they were so struck by the fear that they didn’t notice. That doesn’t make sense, though, because when they first saw the beast fall from the sky, they didn’t want to go anywhere that night, or during the day for that matter, because they were so scared. Why didn’t they hurt the beast then or try to find him and hurt him out of fear? It’s because fear isn’t what drove them to attack the beast, but the desire for hurting something was.
In today’s society, we see people being hurt and murdered all the time, but recently the cause of a lot of it has been the police. Police brutality has been a serious issue over the past few years, with many innocent African Americans being murdered in cold blood for no reason. But what is the police’s justification for this you may ask? Fear. They claim they were in fear of losing their lives. They said they were in fear of the suspect being armed. But were they really in any danger? Evidence in most of these cases has proved that the victims were unarmed, and most of the time not even doing anything wrong. An example of this is the murder of David Sal Silva which happened in 2013. David was beaten to death by four policemen that claimed he was drunk and trying to fight them. Witnesses say that this isn’t true and there have been recording posted around the internet. That is exactly what the boys did, they murdered someone in cold blood. They took the life of an unarmed and harmless human being who was no danger to them at all, and why? Because they had the desire and thirst to do so, like animals. That is exactly what they acted like when they murdered Simon, not humans, but animals. Except that they were worse than animals, since animals most of the time kill for food, but what purpose did the boys have for killing Simon? That’s simple, they didn’t have one.
The boys have been showing signs of this desire earlier in the book as well. If we go back to the chapter titled “Painted Faces and Long Hair,” we will see many of them. The specific scene I’m talking about is when the group of hunters comes back from hunting the pigs and describe what they did to Ralph and the others. Jack then steps in and describes what he did to the pig in a sadistic way. “‘I cut the pig's throat,’ said Jack, proudly, and yet twitched as he said it (69).” The twitch that happened makes it seem like there is something wrong with Jack, yet he shows he can process decisions easily throughout the book and be mostly logical about everyday things, so why the twitch? It’s a sign he wants to hurt more and that he liked the feeling of killing the pig. This makes Jack a sadist and proves furthermore that the boys had a hunger for hurting and killing things in the book. If the boys have this lust for hurting that we see in the pig scene, that should be a foreshadowing of the fact that it’s a matter of time before they hurt another human being, like they did to Simon and then Piggy.
It has even been scientifically proven that violence can be caused by many other factors other than fear. Some of the factors that can cause violence are exposure to it, frustration, overcrowding and even heat. There’s also something else that can cause violence, something called “terror management theory” shows us that people tend to act out in violent ways when they feel worthless or unimportant. This can explain why Jack acted out in violence a lot. Early on in the book, he was denied the role of being the leader by the other boys, which made him feel weaker. This could have made him feel the need to savagely hunt the pigs down and kill them. The more he did this the more enjoyable it started to become, and as my earlier example shows, even after the first hunt he already loved the feeling of hurting things. The fact that there was probably lot’s of heat on this tropical island and the human instinct to hurt things, especially when feeling threatened was what made the boys act out in violence and ultimately kill Simon.
The reason the boys killed Simon is not because they thought he was the beast, but because they have a hunger for hurting things and enjoy it. The fact that Jack also felt unimportant made him act out in violence to avoid that feeling. The boys also looked up to Jack, and just like humans naturally have the urge to hurt and hunt, we also have the urge to follow so they listened to Jack like he was their Alpha-male. The reason it is human nature to feel the need to hurt things or kill them is because humans are natural predators. When hurting something our minds can also learn to enjoy it, which is what made the boys kill Simon, the thrill, and joy of hurting something. The only thing that keeps us all peaceful and following the rules are the consequences that are there if we break them.
Works Cited:
Natasha Lennard / Salon. "Police Beat Man to Death With Batons, Confiscate Witness Video." Alternet. N.p., 13 May 2013. Web. 31 Mar. 2017.
Golding, William. Lord of The Flies. New York: Penguin, 2006.
Kirk Schneider / AlterNet. "Why Are Humans Violent? The Psychological Reason We Hurt Each Other." Alternet. N.p., 30 July 2014. Web. 31 Mar. 2017.
"Violence." Pardon Our Interruption. American Psychological Association, n.d. Web. 31 Mar. 2017.Jack, Ralph, and Thomas Hobbes -- How Lord of the Flies and Leviathan Connect by Jack Sugrue
“Hereby it is manifest, that during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in a condition which is called war…” Thomas Hobbes’ concept of bellum omnium contra omnes, or “war of all against all”, states that people will inherently result to war and warlike traits. There is nearly no better model of his ideologies than William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, a story about a group of deserted English boys who resort to savagery and brutality. The lack of a strong authority among the boys of Lord of the Flies leads them to make many savage and uncivilized decisions, which model the concepts of Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan.
Thomas Hobbes and his writing strongly advocated for a system of government that involves a strong central figure. His most famous work, Leviathan, speaks in-depth about this. His beliefs involving the state of a group without a leader are informative: “...continual fear and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” In Hobbes’ mind, a warlike state comes about easily without authority, and society falls apart. However, a strong power would hypothetically balance this issue, and create a system where people act differently. Hobbes’ belief in this warlike state is exemplified in an isolated system where there is no government, such as that of the island.
The final scene of Lord of the Flies is a hunt of main character Ralph. This hunt is brutal and real, until Ralph finds his way onto the shore, where he and the other boys run into the first adult in the book, who is their ticket off the island. The mood suddenly switches: “The ululation faltered and died away… A semicircle of little boys, their bodies streaked with colored clay, sharp sticks in their hands, were standing on the beach making no noise at all (200).” The juxtaposition between this scene and the previous is strong. Where the previous scene featured an intense chase with the savages and Ralph facing almost near-death scenarios, this scene features all the boys frozen and awkward. The presence of an adult, the only real change in the scene, establishes an aura of authority and peace, while simultaneously forcing each boy to question their actions. This strong power changes the state of each of these boys drastically from that of war to that of peace.
Another important belief of Thomas Hobbes, as seen in Leviathan, is his defense of why people who are not in the presence of a greater power fight amongst themselves: “And therefore if any two men desire the same thing, which nevertheless they cannot both enjoy, they become enemies...” This belief not only shows a valid reason for why man will result to a warlike state, but also shows the competitiveness of a group of people. People in contention for the same thing, be it material or otherwise, will immediately spark conflict. This conflict will, in most cases, be single handedly responsible for the warlike state of everyone involved. The connections to Lord of the Flies here run deep.
The largest divide among the boys comes from direct competition between Jack and Ralph over who will become the leader. While Ralph was democratically elected and had his mind set on being rescued, Jack had his mind on hunting and savagery. His envy of Ralph’s leadership is obvious, especially when he finally breaks off from the main group: “‘Hands up,’ said Jack strongly, ‘whoever wants Ralph not to be chief?’ The silence continued, breathless and heavy and full of shame… ‘I’m not going to play any longer. Not with you (127).’” Jack’s constant vying for power creates tension between him and Ralph, the official leader. This fight for leadership is what establishes the main conflicts, and subsequently some of the least humane parts of the book: Simon’s death, Piggy’s death, and so on. Jack and Ralph’s conflict results in the most warlike parts of the entire novel, and affects so many others besides just the two of them.
Much of both Hobbes’ ideals and those of the boys on the island come down to moral code. Hobbes believes, in general, that a moral code is strengthened by an authority figure. The reverse of this is explicitly seen in Lord of the Flies: the morals of each boy fade away as their memories of civilized life do as well. This is, inevitably, what separates Lord of the Flies’ boys from any other group of people: their distance from civilization. This disparity not only causes them to act the way they do, but also brings out the Hobbesian state of nature. This can prove to humanity that having some tangible sense of civilization is the only way we can avoid Hobbes’ “war of all against all.”
Works Cited
Golding, William. Lord Of The Flies. New York: Penguin, May 2006. Print.
Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan. London: Pelican Classics, 1968. Website.
<https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3207/3207-h/3207-h.htm>.Can Unity be Defined by a Specific Object or Event?- Aysha Siddiquee
Imagine yourself being stranded on an island in the middle of nowhere with a group of people you’ve never met in your entire life. Trying to keep everyone alive and under control. There is no order on this island since no one listens to anyone, no authority. So what do you do, you find something that gets a hold of everyone's attention. Something that is a collective ideal bringing everyone together. In our society, we have this exact system that is in place, where we use one object or event to bring together a numerous amount of individuals where no one knows anyone. We have multiple groups of people come together in an unknown area only to cooperate with one another based off of a collective belief in the object or event. People are united by a belief, object or idea.
Another example in the Lord of the Flies is a story about a group of boys on their way to a choir recital whose plane crashes on an island. The boys were disconnected from civilization and had no option but to provide and take care of themselves. They were not associates of each other and were completely new to one another. So it was very hard for them to communicate with one another. Until they found the conch shell. In this scene where they find the conch shell, it states "By the time Ralph finished blowing the conch the platform was crowded. On his left were most of the choir, on his right the larger boys. Who had not known each other before the evacuation; before him small children squatted in the grass" (32). There are many ways to determine what this quote means. The conch shell was the reason that all the boys came together as one and were united. It was as well the reason they all listened to one another. The power of the conch shell is what brought all the boys together, even though they did not know each other. So the Conch shell was what brought all the boys together as a functioning community.
The job of the conch shell was to bring the boys together, this is exactly the role that the Olympic Games have themselves, the purpose of the games is to bring everyone together from every corner of the world, every continent. The games have a major role in our world to unite all the continents. Every year we meet in a different place to indulge ourselves in different cultures as well. The Olympics Games are held every four years, with the Summer and Winter Games alternating by occurring every four years but two years apart. It is an international event in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competitions. So thousands of people that have never met one another come together due to one event. This is what is represented by the 5 rings and 6 colors of the official symbol of the Olympics. The 5 rings are what symbolize the 5 continents and the 6 colors are what appear on all the national flags of the world at this current moment. In the Olympics, Africa, Asia, America, Australia and Europe are all the continents that come together from all parts of the world to compete. They have no contact with each other in any way or form, yet they still cooperate with one another and make it together. The Olympics are one of the most popular symbols of unity that exist in our world today.
Another example of a clear representation of the impact that the Conch has on the boys is when it breaks. In this scene, the power of the conch is portrayed through the text in another perspective. The conch plays a different role, the complete opposite of unity, it shows there being separation and chaos. It states “ I got this to say. You’re acting like a crowd of kids. The booing rose and died again as Piggy lifted the white, magic shell.”(180). In other words, when the Conch wasn’t present in the situation there was chaos and there was no unity. But once the Conch was present again, it established order amongst the boys. So the Conch was the power that made everything sane and orderly. But once the Conch broke the bond and unity between the boys was broken. Everything was in chaos due to the loss of the Conch. The flame that is lit for the Olympic games is what symbolizes the beginning of the games and the nations coming together as one. For the Olympics as the flame goes down, the unity dies down just as if there is no use for the Conch the unity dies down amongst the boys. So the Conch is what holds the boys together as a whole, keeping them all together just as the Olympics do.
In conclusion, in Lord of the Flies, Golding uses the Conch, a symbolic representation, to express the unity of a group of individuals. The Olympics in our present day world is what was represented through the role of the Conch in the Lord of the Flies. In Lord of the Flies, Golding uses the Conch, a symbolic representation, to express the unity of a group of individuals. But then he also presents how powerful the Conch is based on how once the Conch was broken the individual's bond had broken they too were then separated, everything was in chaos. So the Conch is the symbol of unity for them and the Olympics is the symbol of unity for us. The Olympics are just on a different spectrum for us, since it is on a larger scale.
Works Cited
William, Golding. Lord of the Flies. New York: Penguin, 2006.
Ski Jumping: Stoch does the double, as Vogt leaps into history." International Olympic Committee. 27 Mar. 2017. Web. 30 Mar. 2017.
Olympic Games." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. Web. 30 Mar. 2017.
Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
Imagine that you are in a school or workplace. Suddenly, a fight takes place and someone goes to break it up. Then what? Where would the people who participated in the fight go? Your immediate thought may be that they would be brought to talk to a person in a high position of authority. Afterward, a meeting with the teachers or other workers would happen. During these meetings, usually what occurs is a discussion of what happened, the consequences, and what to do to prevent it. People would run to a meeting in hopes to resolve what has happened. This shows that humans think the best way to solve conflict is in groups because a voice and opinion from everyone could be shared and contrasted.
The book “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding is about a group of boys who survived a plane crash and landed on an island. Two boys named Sam and Eric discovered a dead corpse which they described to be a beast. They ran to tell the chief, Ralph, about what they saw. Their distress resulted in a meeting called by Ralph. “They (Sam and Eric) became motionless, gripped in each other’s arms. ‘We saw the beast.’ Ralph peered cautiously around him. ‘Call them to an assembly,’ said Ralph” (98-99). This portrays that immediately after Sam and Eric told Ralph about the problem that they encountered, Ralph wanted to gather the group to make everyone aware of what was happening. So, do meetings always resolve problems? Meetings can sometimes lead to solutions, but in other cases, it just ends up right back to where it started. Whether or not it is solved, having a meeting always makes people aware and feel supported. So, from that quote, I could tell that even though they’re not completely sure what to do, what’s important for them to tell everyone.
Since harsh situations are inevitable to avoid, President Obama would too, have to find a way to discuss things. Although, bad situations do not only have to be ones caused by people, they can to be ones that are caused by nature. For example, when Hurricane Sandy came and destroyed many homes, something had to be done. Where will these families live? Who will pay for the damage? Many more questions will spiral back to back after those. With a need of ideas, President Obama would have to gather a group of people to a meeting in order to discuss what the best thing to do would be. In an article from the White House, it stated, “President Obama and his cabinet discuss ongoing response and recovery efforts after Hurricane Sandy and making sure that taxes don’t go up on middle-class families.” Even though the situation is very large and difficult to resolve, just hearing about what everyone’s opinion about the situation is would serve as a sense of support, being the best way to counter the situation.
Similar to the situation of gathering a group of people, in the beginning of the book, the boys wanted to choose a leader of their group. ”’We’re having a meeting. Come and join in. Let’s have a vote. Vote for the chief’ said Ralph” (20-22). From that, we could see that just because someone thought that there should be a leader, one wasn’t randomly chosen by one person. Instead, Ralph called a group meeting to discuss and choose who would be the best fit. So, many situations require a meeting to happen, especially ones where a choice would have to be made. This could connect to the situation with Obama and his cabinet discussing what to do after Hurricane Sandy because they were in a troubling situation. This scene in the book is similar because everyone shares the same confusion of the question, who should be the leader? The question would have to be answered by gathering everyone and asking for their opinions to finally make that choice.
Even if there is not a conflict, the purpose of a meeting is to also give support. To pinpoint onto one situation, there is a whole website created by teachers who are trying to share a good classroom practice. They would call it a classroom circle where all of the students would sit and have a conversation. Even though there was no problem, having this would decrease the chance of one happening. According to the website, having daily classroom meetings would “promote community, acceptance, and belonging in a safe environment the works at strengthening relationships and repairing them”. What the teacher is saying is that this would make everyone feel more comfortable and more open to talking to one another. So, from that I could imply that they think the best way to resolve and prevent problems are to speak in a group to hear everyone’s opinion.
In conclusion, meetings are one of the main automatic responses when it comes to learning what others’ are thinking, discussing a bad situation, finding out what to do next, spreading information, or just to check up on one another. There are many different variations of meetings and it one can take place almost everywhere. Since meetings keep occurring, doesn’t it meant that it is doing something right? The fact that so many people would rely on a group discussion and think of it as a solution, shows that it is seen as one of the best conflict resolving techniques. Just to get a sense of what everyone else is thinking leads up to new ideas.
Works Cited:
Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. New York: Penguin, 2006.
Slack, Megan. "President Obama Holds a Cabinet Meeting." National Archives and Records Administration. National Archives and Records Administration, 28 Apr. 2012. Web.
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2012/11/28/president-obama-holds-cabinet-meeting
Lister, Christopher, and Suzanne Bartel. "Philosophy Of Restorative Practices." Restorative Classroom Practices - Philosophy Of Restorative Practices. N.p., 4 Dec. 2011. Web.
https://restorativeclassroomcircles.wikispaces.com/home
Rules to Downfall, James Adams
From Rules to Anarchy
Are all societies based upon the need of a leader? Or can they exist without one? More importantly, what happens when a society goes from having rules to being one where rules are non-existent? The answer to these questions could simply be that humans biologically require a form of leadership, if that is true then does that justify that humans need a leader and a set of rules to follow in order to keep them in line. Otherwise, they resort to acts of violence
In the novel Lord of The Flies by William Golding, a group of kids gets stranded on an island because their plane crashed. In the book, they have to go through the struggles of founding a society and they try to work together to survive. In the beginning of Chapter 2, the boys start to create a society with rules. This is directly after Ralph called all the boys with the conch after he was declared a leader. In the quote, the boys become really excited at the prospect of rules and they have a minute of cheering because of it. ”’That’s what this shell’s called. I’ll give the conch to the next person to speak. He can hold it when he's speaking’... ‘We’ll have rules! He cried excitedly. Lots of rules!’”(32). The reader could gather from this quote that the first things humans lean towards in a society are rules and order, but it could also be considered the first step to its downfall. Rules have to be there before a downfall because for their to be a society there has to be rules in the first place. It is also interesting to look at how excited the boys were to make rules and how fast they did it, but they still ended up breaking them later on, turning their society to rubble.
Early in the book, two boys are coming back from a hunt, and they come out of the forest wanting to take a swim in the ocean, and as they head towards the water, they kick down all of the sand castles the smallest kids on the island made. “Roger led the way straight through the castles kicking them over, burying the flowers, scattering the chosen stones...In his past life he and Maurice received chastisement for filling a younger eye with sand. Now though there was no parent to let fall a heavy hand,”(60). This shows the beginning of people trying to break the rules, while it might not have been a rule to be nice to people it should be common sense. The most important part of the quote is the last part, which states that Maurice wouldn’t have done it if there was a parent around. The example shown in the book can be related to the conflict that happened in Somalia during the 1990s because the people in Somalia also lost rules and leadership, leading them to have increased harassment.
According to “The Daily Sabah” (a Somali news website), Somalia even after the war is still faced with the lack of a functional society and leader. Currently, in Somalia, there are millions of people who are displaced and 70,000 kids at the risk of death. The situation that arose in Somalia wasn't because of natural occurrences, but instead was caused by human action. It was a perpetual cycle of having no food and killing to get it so there was no one that produces food. What happened was a prime example of human nature at work. To the reader of the novel, it might seem like the things that Maurice and Roger do aren’t as severe as this but the problem in Somalia is just a scaled up version of the one that took place in the book. The fact of the matter is that no matter what type of violence happened these are both still examples of humans losing control of reason when society crumbles.
In Chapter 11 Jack and his tribe start to hunt the other boys who are Ralph and Piggy. Their fight turns into something that is very real and no longer the fun and games that occurred before. In a previous chapter there was a catapult and in this scene, they ended up using it. Jack hit Piggy in the head with a rock and Piggy fell down into the ocean with the conch. “See? See? That’s what you’ll get! I meant that! There isn’t a tribe for you anymore!”(181). This is Jack's reaction to Piggy dying, he shows no remorse and instead ridicules Jack. Unlike the other quote that is somewhat excusable, this one is not, Jack legitimately meant to kill Piggy for the purpose of furthering his goal. Even after Jack killed Piggy he tried to kill another when he threw a spear straight at Ralph “Viciously with full intention, he hurled his spear at Ralph”(181). If Jack was truly sorry about Piggy he wouldn't have tried to kill another person right after, and because he did it without repercussions the first time he had no problem doing it again if he wasn't going to get punished. This situation of crime can be comparable to the crime rate in Somalia.
The Somali crime and safety report states that the Somali average crime rate is high above the US national average. There are many differences between the US and Somalia but the main one is the lack of leadership. With a lack of leadership, violent crimes are commonplace in Somalia and the infrastructure of the country has fallen into ruin. With no society and leader the criminals, there have no repercussions. Just like Jack in the book people with no rules will continue to perform these violent acts.
Human nature strives for leadership, and when it's not there humans strive and lean towards violence and crime. Even if it seems like humans want rules at first when there is no ruler with support from the people, society will eventually collapse. When society does collapse people will act out violent acts for whatever reason when there is no punishment later on. But why is human nature like this, is it reinforcement from society or something ingrained within our DNA?
Works Cited
Golding, William. Lord Of The Flies. New York: Penguin, 2006.
Paksoy, Yunus. "Scars of Civil War, Terrorism Still Visible in Somalia." DailySabah. N.p., 28 Mar. 2017. Web. 31 Mar. 2017
"Somalia 2016 Crime & Safety Report." Somalia 2016 Crime & Safety Report. N.p., 2016. Web. 31 Mar. 2017.
Do We Benefit From Traumatic Experiences?: LoTF Essay (Amaris Ortiz)
Amaris Ortiz
Ms. Pahomov
English 2
31 March 2017
Do We Benefit From Traumatic Experiences?
In the novel Lord of The Flies by William Golding, Golding tells the reader a story about a group of schoolboys that end up stranded on an island without adults. Throughout their time on the island, the boys must find a way to be rescued. In the real world, some people put their children into this type of situation as a learning experience. William Golding is trying to show the reader that although this experience may have been scarring, it brought the boys knowledge that has helped them mature faster. This suggests that humans benefit from difficult and even traumatic experiences because they begin to have a greater appreciation for life and often have the motivation to act for the benefit of their future and others around them.
At the end of the novel, a naval officer arrives on the island. He begins to question Ralph on who is with him and who is in charge. “And in the middle of them, with filthy body, matted hair, and unwiped nose, Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy (202)”. At this point, Ralph snapped back into reality. He begins to cry because he knows that he is no longer the same 12-year-old boy he was when he got involved in this situation. Ralph associates his time on the island with bad experiences as he thinks about what he has lost rather than the knowledge he has gained. The words used in this scene show Ralph’s distress from the outside mentioning his “filthy body, matted hair, and unwiped nose.” The word filthy is also used once the naval officer arrives on the island and Ralph becomes “conscious of his filthy appearance (200)” now that there is an adult present.
Similar to the novel, there is an initiation in the Maasai culture of Kenya and Tanzania known as Enkipaata where a large group of boys approaching manhood travel to the woods to camp out. These boys are sent to a village wrapped in a blanket with minimal supplies. The blanket will become filthy throughout their time in the forest so the boys receive a new one at the end of the four months as a symbol of their manhood. They wear white clay on their faces to show that they must fend for themselves, similar to the masks the boys in the novel made. This part of the initiation is not only used as their recovery from the circumcision, but as a way for them to learn how to provide. They must work together to choose a leader, which is considered to be an unfortunate role since they must “shoulder all of his age group’s sins”. One point that stood out to me was the fact that the boys had to approach the situation with the “attitude of a raider.” In Lord of The Flies, their way of acting as a raider was titled as being a savage. For the boys approaching manhood, it was seen as a good thing to make them more prepared, while for the schoolboys, the savage attitude made them seem barbaric.
This human behavior could be seen as barbaric just like the boys from Lord of The Flies. There is a cultural pressure for boys to undergo this possibly life-threatening journey. This stay in the woods is also seen as a break for them to recover from the circumcision, but is it really any better than staying with your tribe while you recover? More than 400,000 boys have been hospitalized for complications throughout their circumcision healing process. Those who have refused to take part in this initiation have been severely beaten or even circumcised by force. This ceremony has even gone as far as ending in death. It was a common occurrence for someone to die of dehydration, blood infections, or heart failure.
Before the boys were rescued by the naval officer, there were various ways they reacted to the trauma, which could have been the cause of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This includes hyperarousal, reexperiencing, and avoidance. The boys reacted to the trauma through hyperarousal and being very impulsive or angry. They resulted in violence many times whenever they felt betrayed or like they were in danger. In chapter 11, there was a big argument between the two newly separated tribes. They were arguing over who was the real chief until Roger struck Piggy with a boulder. This caused the conch, their form of unity, to break into a thousand pieces. Because of this, Jack said “See? See? That’s what you’ll get! I meant that! There isn’t a tribe for you anymore! The conch is gone―(181)”. Jack has felt threatened by Ralph ever since he decided that he wanted to be chief and now that the conch is broken he feels as though Ralph no longer has power over the tribe. Simon in particular, dealt with hallucinations in Chapter 8. As he was sitting across from the pig’s head on a stick, he began to have a “conversation” with the pig, and the pig said “There isn’t anyone to help you. Only me. And I’m the Beast.” This pig symbolizes the power of evil that evokes the way people act. It is often compared to a Satanic figure that brings out the beast in people.
Lastly, after they get past the struggle of trying to make their life the same as it was before the traumatic experience, they have to understand that their mindset is going to be completely different from what it was before. The boys in the Maasai culture learn about this idea of getting over the trauma to be able to begin to have a greater outlook on life and take this as a learning experience. The schoolboys from Lord of the Flies are in a very different predicament because they weren't able to prepare their minds for the plane crash and learning to survive on the island although they still took away many life lessons. As for Ralph and Jack, they took away leadership skills. It may take a while for them to recover but they will know how to provide for their future families if they were ever put in a difficult situation.
Works Cited
Golding, William. Lord of The Flies. New York: Penguin, 2006.
Gregoire, Carolyn. "The Surprising Benefit Of Going Through Hard Times." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 06 Jan. 2016. Web. 30 Mar. 2017. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/post-traumatic-growth-creativity_us_568426c0e4b014efe0d9d8e8>.
"Maasai Culture | Ceremonies and Rituals." Maasai Culture | Ceremonies and Rituals. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Mar. 2017. <http://www.maasai-association.org/ceremonies.html>.
"12 incredible African tribal traditions." CNN. Cable News Network, 05 Dec. 2016. Web. 30 Mar. 2017. <http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/05/africa/incredible-tribal-traditions-africa/>.
Fogg, Ally. "The death and deformity caused by male circumcision in Africa can't be ignored | Ally Fogg." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 25 Aug. 2014. Web. 30 Mar. 2017. <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/25/male-circumcision-ceremonies-death-deformity-africa>.
Do We Benefit From Traumatic Experiences?: LoTF Essay (Amaris Ortiz)
Amaris Ortiz
Ms. Pahomov
English 2
31 March 2017
Do We Benefit From Traumatic Experiences?
In the novel Lord of The Flies by William Golding, Golding tells the reader a story about a group of schoolboys that end up stranded on an island without adults. Throughout their time on the island, the boys must find a way to be rescued. In the real world, some people put their children into this type of situation as a learning experience. William Golding is trying to show the reader that although this experience may have been scarring, it brought the boys knowledge that has helped them mature faster. This suggests that humans benefit from difficult and even traumatic experiences because they begin to have a greater appreciation for life and often have the motivation to act for the benefit of their future and others around them.
At the end of the novel, a naval officer arrives on the island. He begins to question Ralph on who is with him and who is in charge. “And in the middle of them, with filthy body, matted hair, and unwiped nose, Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy (202)”. At this point, Ralph snapped back into reality. He begins to cry because he knows that he is no longer the same 12-year-old boy he was when he got involved in this situation. Ralph associates his time on the island with bad experiences as he thinks about what he has lost rather than the knowledge he has gained. The words used in this scene show Ralph’s distress from the outside mentioning his “filthy body, matted hair, and unwiped nose.” The word filthy is also used once the naval officer arrives on the island and Ralph becomes “conscious of his filthy appearance (200)” now that there is an adult present.
Similar to the novel, there is an initiation in the Maasai culture of Kenya and Tanzania known as Enkipaata where a large group of boys approaching manhood travel to the woods to camp out. These boys are sent to a village wrapped in a blanket with minimal supplies. The blanket will become filthy throughout their time in the forest so the boys receive a new one at the end of the four months as a symbol of their manhood. They wear white clay on their faces to show that they must fend for themselves, similar to the masks the boys in the novel made. This part of the initiation is not only used as their recovery from the circumcision, but as a way for them to learn how to provide. They must work together to choose a leader, which is considered to be an unfortunate role since they must “shoulder all of his age group’s sins”. One point that stood out to me was the fact that the boys had to approach the situation with the “attitude of a raider.” In Lord of The Flies, their way of acting as a raider was titled as being a savage. For the boys approaching manhood, it was seen as a good thing to make them more prepared, while for the schoolboys, the savage attitude made them seem barbaric.
This human behavior could be seen as barbaric just like the boys from Lord of The Flies. There is a cultural pressure for boys to undergo this possibly life-threatening journey. This stay in the woods is also seen as a break for them to recover from the circumcision, but is it really any better than staying with your tribe while you recover? More than 400,000 boys have been hospitalized for complications throughout their circumcision healing process. Those who have refused to take part in this initiation have been severely beaten or even circumcised by force. This ceremony has even gone as far as ending in death. It was a common occurrence for someone to die of dehydration, blood infections, or heart failure.
Before the boys were rescued by the naval officer, there were various ways they reacted to the trauma, which could have been the cause of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This includes hyperarousal, reexperiencing, and avoidance. The boys reacted to the trauma through hyperarousal and being very impulsive or angry. They resulted in violence many times whenever they felt betrayed or like they were in danger. In chapter 11, there was a big argument between the two newly separated tribes. They were arguing over who was the real chief until Roger struck Piggy with a boulder. This caused the conch, their form of unity, to break into a thousand pieces. Because of this, Jack said “See? See? That’s what you’ll get! I meant that! There isn’t a tribe for you anymore! The conch is gone―(181)”. Jack has felt threatened by Ralph ever since he decided that he wanted to be chief and now that the conch is broken he feels as though Ralph no longer has power over the tribe. Simon in particular, dealt with hallucinations in Chapter 8. As he was sitting across from the pig’s head on a stick, he began to have a “conversation” with the pig, and the pig said “There isn’t anyone to help you. Only me. And I’m the Beast.” This pig symbolizes the power of evil that evokes the way people act. It is often compared to a Satanic figure that brings out the beast in people.
Lastly, after they get past the struggle of trying to make their life the same as it was before the traumatic experience, they have to understand that their mindset is going to be completely different from what it was before. The boys in the Maasai culture learn about this idea of getting over the trauma to be able to begin to have a greater outlook on life and take this as a learning experience. The schoolboys from Lord of the Flies are in a very different predicament because they weren't able to prepare their minds for the plane crash and learning to survive on the island although they still took away many life lessons. As for Ralph and Jack, they took away leadership skills. It may take a while for them to recover but they will know how to provide for their future families if they were ever put in a difficult situation.
Works Cited
Golding, William. Lord of The Flies. New York: Penguin, 2006.
Gregoire, Carolyn. "The Surprising Benefit Of Going Through Hard Times." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 06 Jan. 2016. Web. 30 Mar. 2017. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/post-traumatic-growth-creativity_us_568426c0e4b014efe0d9d8e8>.
"Maasai Culture | Ceremonies and Rituals." Maasai Culture | Ceremonies and Rituals. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Mar. 2017. <http://www.maasai-association.org/ceremonies.html>.
"12 incredible African tribal traditions." CNN. Cable News Network, 05 Dec. 2016. Web. 30 Mar. 2017. <http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/05/africa/incredible-tribal-traditions-africa/>.
Fogg, Ally. "The death and deformity caused by male circumcision in Africa can't be ignored | Ally Fogg." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 25 Aug. 2014. Web. 30 Mar. 2017. <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/25/male-circumcision-ceremonies-death-deformity-africa>.
To be alone (Lord of the flies essay)
Are humans naturally extroverted? Do they crave to be with people even if they claim they want to be alone? When you are left alone and you're just sitting with nothing but your thoughts. That feels like human nature to want to be alone but being alone has been proven to drive people mad. It's uncanny to be left alone just with your thoughts. The show samurai jack revolves around him being all alone and stuck with his thoughts. Truly man's greatest fear is to be alone and hunted.
Comparing the scene in Lord of the Flies where Piggy dies and Ralph is kind of kicked out of the group and left all alone. In the new series of Samurai Jack (Season 5) it picks up where Jack left off trying to find a way to a portal back home except since the evil Aku rules the world in the future and wants Jack dead. So Aku sends assassins to kill Jack but Jack usually finds a way to defeat them. I’m comparing this to the scene where Ralph is hiding from the boys and says “He jerked his head off the ground and listened...He knew he had heard it before, somewhere but had no time to remember.”(196)
In the novel, during this encounter, Ralph is scrambling around running away from Jack’s evil possible because they are trying to kill him. While he’s hiding and trying not to get caught, the boys still look for him. The reason why this part is so very intense is because it shows how alone Ralph is and how scared he is, in this point in time. He’s all alone and no one can help him, everyone is against him and there is nothing he can do about it. It’s very interesting how things changed to when everyone was on at least ok terms and the next thing you know Ralph is running for his life filled with fear that he’s going to end up like Piggy and Simon. What are you supposed to do if everyone you know is trying to kill you? Just like animals, when people are cornered they’ll do anything to get out.
Many other characters from different stories and movies go through this kind of thing where everyone is trying to kill them. Mostly with strong characters like John Wick, who is being hunted by all the assassins in the area, or as I said Samurai Jack who’s being hunted and he’s seen as a criminal and no one is on his side. It’s a very interesting change of pace when you don’t have a person who can take out millions of people or is virtually untouchable, and you replace him with a small child, who has never fought a day in his life, is physically average for his age, then send a bunch of people to hunt him.
You see this in the hunger games when you have a moment where Katniss is hiding from Cato just after she blows up their stockpile with mines. In that moment where Katniss is just watching this unnamed character get yelled at and then killed for something he didn’t do, I can compare this to how Ralph felt like when he was all alone, and watching the boys run around looking for him with their sticks sharpened at both ends. In general there are a lot of parallels between the hunger games (the part with the actual fighting) and the events where Ralph is running and hiding from the boys. Even Katniss in the first part of the hunger games struggles with the idea being alone, when she first starts and is sleeping in a tree, she has to find her own way. The thought of her being alone scares her but she does it anyway because what other choice does she have if she want to survive.
“Someone cried out Ralph Jerked his cheek off the ground and looked into the dull light”(198). I think this is an excellent moment because it adds to the fact that Ralph doesn't even have time to inspect who cried out or lift his face off the ground softly he just gets up and books it, he’s in instinct mode and what I think why he’s in such a panicked mode is just apart how humans react in general to dangerous situations. For instance back when there was early man there was no reason or talking you either fought or ran away.
A real life example of people panicking because they feel alone and the world has betrayed them. A case study in 1989 talks about how they had two young adults put in a room, no windows, no people, just a bed and what happens was the 2nd patient after nine hours he started to experience hyperventilation, and starting acting violent in contrast to his cool demeanor at the start of the experiment “It’s been a day now let me out!” a quote he says when it's been in the 9th hour. They let him out early and is surprised to see that it hasn’t been the full 9 hours yet. “I’ve never been alone for that long in my life, I started to panic thinking I would never get to see society again”. This proves my point even more in the novel during the last chapter Ralph starts to get more desperate and is at a showdown on page 198 when he is debating what should he should do. The quote is “What could they do?, beat him? So what? Kill him?”. You can tell how broken a character is, if they are debating to kill them by the end of the book.
At the end of the day, no one truly wants to be alone forever no matter what they say. Sure brakes are needed from time to time with people, but if you are the last person around and there is no one to talk to or challenge you or anything what's the point of living. Also, humans seem to be able to go one-hundred percent when they are alone and being hunted. My reasoning for this is because they either have nothing to lose or you have so much to lose. Like Ralph if he were to die on the island he would lose his family and hope. In Samurai Jack, our protagonist Jack talks to himself a lot and thinks everything would be easier if he was dead, but he realizes that if not him, who else will stop Aku.
Golding,William, Lord of the flies. New york: Penguin 2006.
Tartakovsky,Genndy “Jack is back” Tonami: 2017. http://www.adultswim.com/videos/samurai-jack/
Collins, Suzanne “The Hunger Games” New york, Scholastic 2010: https://www.scholastic.com/thehungergames/media/TheHungerGamesExcerpt_Ch1-2.pdf
What Aggression Can Do
Is there a person you know that is popular? Why are they popular? Is it because they’re attractive, intelligent, kind, or aggressive? Do you ever wonder why or how that person is so popular? All of those traits above have a positive connotation, except for aggression. Aggression is something that anyone can have. Surprisingly, it can make someone more popular, whether their aggression is used as entertainment, or simply to set a standard. Although aggression is usually seen as a negative trait, it is actually the most important quality for a person who is seeking to gain power.
In chapter eleven of Lord of the Flies, there was a scene with a conflict between the group of boys where it ended up with Ralph and Jack fighting each other. Then, Roger decides to pull something up his sleeve resulting in Piggy’s death, and the conch being smashed to many pieces. “See? See? That’s what you’ll get! I meant that! There isn’t a tribe for you anymore! The conch is gone -”... “I’m Chief” (181). The cause of this was the aggression between the two sides: popular vs. unpopular. Studies done by APA concluded that popular teens or kids seem to be more aggressive compared to their peers. In the beginning, the conch was what lead to Ralph being chief and the most popular. Also, Ralph was pretty aggressive during the beginning of the book, especially towards Piggy. As time passed, Ralph grew to his senses and became more understanding towards Piggy. Jack used that opportunity to become more aggressive towards them both, which ended up to him gaining more power and popularity, leading him to make his own decisions. With Ralph starting to stick up for Piggy and the conch being smashed, he drops in popularity and lost possession of the one thing that could’ve help him in his status. Words like viciously, fiercely, and wildly were used because of the fact that most of Jack's popularity comes from his aggression(181-182). Also his desire to hunt and have fun ends up winning over the boys.
Donald Trump shows a displacement of aggression all throughout his campaigns. He made all kind of statements and comments, but his intentions were clear and bold. Many of his speeches consist of the wildest and craziest ideas, over and over again, especially about building a wall. “I will build a great wall - and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me - and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.” Everyone knows about Donald Trump and his intentions of building a wall. People took this information in many ways, but it all makes him more known, talked about, and overall popular. With his aggression towards making a wall, a lot of people could look at it in different viewpoints. Many jokes were made about this and things just went around. The more they went about it, the more his popularity grew. So with his aggression towards certain things, it will help him in getting power with popularity.
Jack is pretty violent and aggression in many situations. In LOTF, Jack had taken the boys watching and fire and added them into his hunting crew. That ended up in a disaster because they were watching the fire and a ship passed by. Ralph was frustrated, but when Piggy said something Jack beat him up. All Jack really want to do is have fun and hunt. “Jack stood up as he said this, the bloodied knife in his hand. The two boys faced each other. There was the brilliant world of hunting, tactics… Jack transferred the knife to his left hand and smeared blood over his forehead as he pushed down the plastered hair” (71). Even tho being rescued was important, Jack still stuck onto hunting, providing food, and having fun. He was pretty straightforward about it. With this because of Jack’s obsession with hunting and his aggression towards it. It gives him power because the hunters, or kids would look at him with admiration. What he is trying to do is have fun and survival which wins over the kids.
During one of Donald Trump’s speech, he spoke about Mexicans. He talked about what he thinks they are and what they’ll do. This relates to why he suggested we build a wall. It’s mainly to keep out immigrants and most of them are from Mexico which is why he threw flame at the Mexicans. “Mexicans are bringing drugs, they’re bringing criminals, they’re rapists,” said Trump. The aggression he puts towards them is very violent and like bullying. This form of bullying is formed into a way where people will joke about it. Through research, it’s said that bullying can be a form of popularity. Some people take bullying as a joke or as a source of entertainment which leads to them being popular. So trump being aggressive ended up him being in more position of power.
Overall there are many characteristics that can result in popularity throughout the society. Aggression being one of the characteristics has to lead to people becoming new leaders, like Trump and Jack. Their display of determination and aggression towards a certain goal has won over the people in many different ways. It made these new leaders more popular, known and spoke about. Even tho aggression towards something would usually be concerned as negative, it can be used in many different ways especially for people who want to gain a certain goal or become a leader.
Works Cited
Golding, William. Lord Of The Flies New York: Penguin 2006.
Winerman, L. "Among young teens, aggression equals popularity." Pardon Our Interruption. American psychological association, n.d. Web. 31 Mar. 2017. http://www.apa.org/monitor/jun04/among.aspx
"'Drug dealers, criminals, rapists': What Trump thinks of Mexicans." BBC News. BBC, n.d. Web. 31 Mar. 2017. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37230916
The Power of Savagery
Power is an inevitable element in society. People’s need to have such power in order to control or influence others is a natural human instinct. The need for power always changes the actions of people. It can either alter one’s morals or feed to their fear of distrust. The way one deals with power shows how people deal with situations they don’t understand. The world has seen their share of lack of leadership, and their share of leaders who many should stand up to. These communities all deal with that change in different ways, whether it’s savage or civilized. A savage reaction would be acts of violence and no control. Civilized points to organized control. Overall in systems with unidentified rules, people act in savage ways when they don’t understand a situation, hold the want for continuous power, or are told to from a leader.
William Golding tackles these ideas in his novel Lord Of The Flies, where a group of young British boys crash on an island without any adult supervision. Ralph, one of the boys, gets everyone together by blowing into a conch shell, leading all of the boys to meet on the beach. The first thing the boys take action on is deciding who will be their leader, as an act for the need to have someone to look towards. This vote is concluded, “Every hand outside the choir except Piggy’s was raised immediately. Then Piggy, too, raised his hand grudgingly into the air. Ralph counted. “I’m chief then”(23).” Without the obvious power being in adults, since there are no adults, the first instinct of the boys was to figure out who would take that place. This action plays into the idea that people feel the need for a leader to look to for guidance. When the idea of leadership and power arises, then someone will come out and proclaim leadership. This is much like how Jack immediately said that he should be leader before the boys voted, “I ought to be chief, (22).” This is a want to have someone to look to in order to have control and order within a group.
After the boys decide on Ralph as leader, they set up camp and build a signal fire. A few days into their survival, two of the boys come back to the camp claiming to have seen a beast. The other boys react to this discovery, “The circle of boys shrank away in horror. Johnny, yawning still, burst into noisy tears and was slapped by Bill till he choked on them... “This’ll be a real hunt! Who’ll come?” (100-101).” The boy’s reaction to the discovery of the beast is of extreme shock and horror. This is one of the main fears that the boys deal with throughout the novel. They seem to not know how to approach it until Jack takes the lead on going to hunt “the beast,” and presents his idea as bigger and better than the rest. This action of hunting represents how we, as humans, attack things we don’t understand, and follow the lead of whoever steps up, even if it is savage in nature. After Jack receives backlash for his idea, he attacks those going against him by saying, “You’re always scared (101),” and “This is a hunter’s job (102).” This was the beginning of the power struggle between Jack and Ralph. It comes to show how Jack’s belief in holding power is to push down others in order to put down their stance on their own power. His power changes him to begin taking steps of savagery. The attack on the others in the group by Jack is a result of his own fear of the beast and losing power.
We see his savagery as a result of power come to life when he gets most of the boys to join his tribe of hunters. The group with Jack is continuously very frightened of the beast and sees the reaction to the situation as automatically killing it. When they kill pigs for food, they chase and chant around them. This ritual continues when they find “the beast” in their eyes, or Simon in ours as the readers. They overlook the appearance of “the beast” as Jack’s fear takes the lead in immediately reacting to this unknown creature. “”Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!” Now out of terror rose another desire, thick, urgent, blind (152).” Jack’s fear of losing power has led him to act in savage ways and immediately react to everything with violence. This role of leadership also leads those under him into savagery. He forces them to kill, kill, kill, and they follow since they look to him for guidance. The boys are scared of the beast almost as much as Jack is of losing power, therefore they listen when the savage acts come to be Jack’s decision.
These themes of leadership and savagery can be seen in the real world by looking into the situation in Myanmar. Following a military coup, the rule of law was eliminated almost entirely. Burmese women were mistreated and abused on a wide scale. Small militarized enforcement began to occur where the “law enforcers” of certain districts abused their power and took over the people, telling them what to do and enforcing rules that were never legally put in place. People looked to these people of leadership for guidance despite their savage ways, which then led to a population of violence. These people in power then reacted to a small group they didn’t fully understand, a muslim minority. The militarized enforcement abused, raped, and tortured people of the Muslim minority. These savage acts were based off of the want to marginalize people in cruel and unjust ways, and was held because of a government who hasn’t had a democratic leader until recently. This situation is representative of how the savagery was enforced by power, promoted by fear, and spread by other’s fear looking to the position of power.
By looking into savagery as a result of leadership in Lord of The Flies, as well as Myanmar, we see how people look to positions of power for guidance, and follow the savagery. When people fear something, they immediately look to and follow whoever gives a solution that is informed as the most powerful. One in power may use savagery as a form of showing this power, as a result of their own fear of losing it. When savagery is promoted, there is a constant battle of more power between the people. This fear with savagery also turns to things we don’t fully understand. This comes to light when people’s immediate reaction to the unknown is to attack, much in the way the boys attacked the unknown beast.
Works cited
Golding, William. Lord of The Flies. New York: Penguin, 2006.
"Stanley Milgram: Obedience to Authority Or Just Conformity?" PsyBlog. N.p., 18 Dec. 2011. Web. 30 Mar. 2017. http://www.spring.org.uk/2007/02/stanley-milgram-obedience-to-authority.php
"No Rule of Law." No Rule of Law | Social Watch. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Mar. 2017. http://www.socialwatch.org/node/10920
Fisher, Jonah. "Myanmar Muslim Minority Subject to Horrific Torture, UN Says." BBC News. BBC, 10 Mar. 2017. Web. 30 Mar. 2017. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-39218105
ENG2-022
- Term
- 2016-17