Friday, March 22, 2013

Should the boys in the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding be held accountable for their actions on the island?

In my opinion, I feel that the older boys should be held accountable for their actions on the island while the littluns should be exempt from assuming responsibility. With the exception of the unfortunate death of the littlun with the mulberry-colored birthmark, the boys were consciously aware that they participated in murdering Simon, and Roger intended to kill Piggy when he hurled the boulder towards him. Even Ralph and Samneric should be held accountable for killing Simon, but the majority of the accountability should fall on Jack and the older savages.

Jack encourages violent behavior and controls the boys through intimidation. In Chapter 9, he incites the frenzy by leading the savages in their ritual dance and rallies the boys to kill the "beast," which happens to be Simon. Roger, the sadist, also planned on harming others and had every intention of killing Piggy when he hurled the boulder towards him. His actions were premeditated, and Roger was guilty of committing first-degree murder. At the end of the novel, Jack gives the orders to detain Samneric and hunt Ralph. Jack led the savages on the manhunt with the intention of finding and killing Ralph. The biguns were old enough to understand Jack's violent plans and willingly followed him on the manhunt. The littluns were simply mimicking the older savages' actions and should be not held accountable for attempted murder.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thomas Jefferson's election in 1800 is sometimes called the Revolution of 1800. Why could it be described in this way?

Thomas Jefferson’s election in 1800 can be called the “Revolution of 1800” because it was the first time in America’s short history that pow...