How does the novel relate to our experiences in life?

I will be discussing on how the novel relates to the experiences of life. The novel touches on certain themes and topics such as rationality, behavioural changes, fear, leadership, friendship, caving in to temptations and the unknown. The novel depicts the boys not being able to think logically and prioritise due to the long period of time of staying on the island by themselves,
, leading them to venture out far into the dark and unknown aspect of the island and slowly discovering the evil part of them. The novel also shows how friendships are established and destroyed. Fear can be widely seen throughout the novel whether it is the boys’ paranoid opinion of the unknown ‘beast’. Leadership plays a large role where Jack and Ralph have contrasting leadership principles.

In our own lives, we do often neglect the things we are supposed to do which often leads us to dire consequences. Our rationality is often questioned and threatened by the people around us and the present situations. When we are exposed to a certain kind of judgement and surrounding for a period of time, we gradually tilt over to what that society expects of us and often make decisions that might be detrimental to ourselves and the people around us. Sometimes, the way we behave and think is changed as time passes by in that society but how often do we realise that how we act isn’t actually us anymore? We discover the part of us that has caved in to other people’s expectations.

Friendships? The people around us who seem to be our friends might turn out to backstab us or betray us, we’ll never know. As friendships are established and time passes by, we often realise how much it means to us or how shallow the connection actually was. For example, Ralph never favoured Piggy from the start, but as the novel goes on, we come to find that a close bond is forged and that Piggy was the only person who stood by him and supported him. In contrast, Jack who seemed to have a possibility of a close friendship with Ralph breaks down in the end and it even turns out into a hunt for Ralph. We never really know what’s going to happen.

Fear will always be part of us as time passes by and we realise things are not as simple as it seems. In the novel, Ralph raved about how good the island was and how they would have a fun time there. However, the island isn’t as simple as it is and the unknown factor of the ‘beast’ starts to make the boys paranoid and fear the “creature”. We do not fear the dark, nor the ‘beasts’. What we fear is what’s around us and what’s inside of us, the future and the end. How much of the present will be part of our future? How long will things last? How much of us now will still continue to be in us in the future?

Lastly, leadership qualities. Obviously shown in the novel, the wrong leaders will affect how the entire system and organisation works. Jack was an oppressive leader, caring more about his own power than that of the welfare and opinions of the boys. Conversely, Ralph was a democratic leader who as time passes, becomes more matured and logical in thinking. Similarly, in our society today, the leader who leads the team forward is crucial for how the organisation carries out its activities. In the novel, Ralph felt heavily burdened by the status of the leader because of the situations that were causing them to lose sight of rescue. In our own lives, as leaders, we are often burdened by the fact of how things will turn out and how things might fall apart and it often leaves us dangling about our own ability.