The Human Brain In William Golding's The Lord Of The Flies

The human brain. Such a creative and wonderful part of the human body… but could it be responsible for the death of two boys? Yes it could. The Lord of The Flies is a realistic fiction novel, written by William Golding, about a group of young school boys that are stuck on a island untouched by mankind. There are three main characters of the book: Jack, Ralph, and Piggy. Jack is where the immorality on the island originates from, and it spreads to the other boys. Jack is very reckless and careless in his decisions. Ralph was the leader of the island, until Jack took control of the tribe and turned all of them into savages. Ralph was an image for the boys to follow but spoke Piggy’s words. Piggy is the only voice of reason as well as the only

The kids on the island are no older than the age of twelve; therefore, each of the kids’ brains has not been fully developed and they cannot make rational decisions. According to B.J. Casey of Cornell University, “...research shows how the adolescent brain is locked in a tug-of-war between the logical pull of the prefrontal cortex and the impulsive pull of the ventral striatum. Although teens can make good decisions, “in the heat of the moment - even when they know better,” the reward system can outmuscle the master planner.” (Mascarelli 3). An example of this irrational decision making is in chapter 5 of the novel. Jack and his tribe of hunters were in charge of keeping the fire going, so the boys could be rescued. Unfortunately he fails doing so and a ship passes without notice of the boys (Golding chapter 4). This shows that the boys acted irrationally to the situation and instead of acting on what was most important, they acted on what they wanted. This proves the point that the boys’ irrational behavior is due to biological

Jack Merridew is by far the most powerful individual on the island. He influences the boys to do things by yelling at them throughout the book. Just as it is stated in The Perils of Obedience by Kendra Cherry, “The physical presence of an authority figure dramatically increased compliance,” (Cherry 2). Jack is the main authority figure that has a lot of power of the kids because of his appeal to what they want and to the way he runs things. He runs his tribe like a dictatorship over the rest of the boys, but because they do what they want to do they comply with what he says, even though it is not the right thing. It can be seen that the boys comply with a higher power and become