Concealed Violence In Lord Of The Flies

The mind is a mysterious place. Even with our modern technology, it has not been thoroughly understood, yet. Numerous studies have been done to see how our brains function in certain situations. Psychological experiments like the Milgram Obedience Experiment and the Stanford Prison Experiment demonstrated how our innate predisposition to given environments or situations can bring forth a concealed violence in our personalities. Despite having lived in a society regulated by rules and laws, many of the participants in either experiment showed a malevolent mannerism, even if it was unintentional. Equally important, in a study of a regular teenager's brain, it revealed that teenagers are more likely to follow impulsive tendencies instead of fully
They try to mirror the life they had before as civilized and educated individuals in an adult-governed world. Unfortunately, due to their naïvety, they can't fully grasp the concept of having to obey the rules to maintain a stable, cooperative company. Aside from Piggy, Simon, and Ralph, many of the boys, especially Jack and Roger, succumb to impulsive temptations, not considering the possible consequences that could follow. Without any adults to rebuke their immoral behaviours, the boys start to lose their connection with their previously sophisticated society. The boys' apparent savagery towards the end of the novel was to be blamed mostly on the natural darkness and inherent evil they all possessed within
To specify, " Roger stooped, picked up a stone, aimed and threw it at Henry– threw it to miss." Surely, Roger was aware of his actions and was still abiding to the invisible grasp of obedience and righteousness from his previous society. However, the thought of throwing the rock at Henry showed how possibly hurting him was at the back of his mind to begin with. In a study on the teenage brain, younger children are shown to concede to obedience and a higher authority like adults. Much like Roger, he still feels that he must follow the rules of society despite the fact that there aren't any adults on the island. Still, as children grow older, they start to feel that they can do whatever they want by themselves without consulting their parents. Luna, the developmental neurologist from the study, stated "changes that occur in the adolescent brain give teenagers the tools to start making decisions on their own- even if they're bad decisions." Furthermore, Luna said that teens like to think, " I can make my own decisions." because they now have a brain that can make the decisions for them. They can make their own decisions but that doesn't necessarily mean they're 'good' and 'logical' decisions. In Roger's case, he isn't a full blown teen, so that mostly explains why he