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

Savagery has the ability to take over a person’s mentality even before they realize it. It can force a person to make insane decisions. Many people in The Lord of the Flies by William Golding make bad decisions when a plane wreck leaves a group of boys stranded in 1950. Without any adults and after WWII, the boys most try to rebuild a society. Later on the day of the crash, the boys elect a person named Ralph as their leader, and another boy named Jack becomes a hunter with his choir. They try to establish a plan, but it is hard for them to stay focused on the necessities and keep up with their plan. Throughout their unimaginable stay on the island, many of the boys, including Jack, become savage and make very immoral decisions. Some boys even die as a result of Jack and the hunter’s behavior. The boys’ immoral behavior should be blamed on biological factors.

Teens’ brains are still developing throughout their teenage years. The brain has different parts that are crucial for making hard decisions, the prefrontal cortex is like the leader because “it gives instructions and enables chatter among other brain regions. It guides how we think and learn step-by-step procedures, such as tying our shoelaces...Overall, the prefrontal cortex’s ability to boss the brain increases with age” (Mascarelli). This part of the brain is still progressing as children get older, so they may make some decisions that are not ideal. Other parts of the brain overpower the prefrontal cortex and decide that its’ opinion is not important. The boys are still teens, so their brains are developing as they live on the island. It is hard for them to make the right decisions when their prefrontal cortex is not serving its’ purpose. Jack makes some bad decisions, but this is because his brain is still learning and does not tell the other parts of his brain that it is a bad idea. His decisions are not affected by anything other than his brain and body. The striatum is another part of the brain in which it makes “impulsive” decisions and “Casey’s 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, [Casey] ‘in the heat of the moment — even when they know better,’ the reward system can outmuscle the master planner” (Mascarelli). Many parts of an adolescent’s brain are still developing until they are in their mid 20’s. The striatum is one section that tries to overpower those parts and positively influence bad decisions. It is hard for the prefrontal cortex to share its opinion when the striatum is trying to say something else. The boys who turn savage get “in the heat of the moment” and make impulsive decisions because they look forward to the reward. The male gender tends to have tendencies similar to this. They don’t know better than to be excited for a reward, instead of thinking about the consequences. The human brain keeps developing until roughly the age of 25. They may make some decisions that they will regret in the future because the prefrontal cortex is not fully functioning. The boys are impacted by the striatum overpowering the prefrontal cortex when they make some bad decisions during the time they spend on the island.

Opposing genders brains’ have different characteristics that influence their thoughts immensely. Gregory L. Jantz, the founder of The Center: A Place of HOPE, helps display how different genders utilize different functioning parts of the brain differently, when he explains, “Male brains utilize nearly seven times more gray matter for activity while female brains utilize nearly ten times more white matter...Once they are deeply engaged in a task or game, they may not demonstrate much sensitivity to other people or their surroundings.” Male’s are more likely to ignore someone or a situation than a female. This means that the boys are more likely to make bad decisions and ignore orders because they are males. This had a huge impact on the way the boys presented themselves. It also displays how the boys were quick to ignore the little things that may have been occurring. For example, Jack obsesses over the moment he killed a pig, when “they had outwitted a living thing, imposed their will upon it, taken away its life like a long satisfying drink” and completely ignores Ralph, when he shouts, “‘There was a ship’” (Golding 70). While Jack lets this thought consume him, he misses the whole conversation that Ralph is trying to have with him. Since he is a male, he is more prone to ignoring the things that are happening around him when he thinks too deeply about something. Jack does not pay attention and does not show any sympathy towards what Ralph is trying to say. Jack is caught up in his own thoughts, and this would not happen to a female. The male gender utilizes more grey matter than the female gender, and this causes them to experience different emotions and focus levels. Jack displays some of these symptoms when he does not take notice of what Ralph is trying to say to him. He completely neglects what Ralph is saying, and it represents the large amount of grey matter in his brain as a male.

Some may say that their environment was the reason they performed immoral behaviors. However, the real boys who were stranded on a deserted island had many successes before they were rescued like how, “They also tended a signal fire for more than a year, in direct contrast with the boys of Lord of the Flies, whose infighting led to their signal fire dying out. The real castaways maintained a roster of garden, kitchen and guard duties; imposed time-outs during arguments; and ended each day with music...” (Whalen). The real boys thrived in the society they created on this island and did not turn savage unlike the boys in The Lord of the Flies. Furthermore, the environments were extremely similar in both situations and proves how the setting around them did not have an effect on them. The boys were not able to create a sustainable society like the real boys did, which was one of their many flaws. The real boys were able to withstand the conditions in the environment they were trapped in, while the boys in the novel could not. The environments were nearly identical, but the boys could not keep themselves under control and circled down to savagery instead.

Biological aspects caused the boys to behave immorally while they were trapped on the island. The human brain is still developing when kids are growing up, so this causes parts of their brain to hold back. This motivates the boys to make impulsive decisions they may regret later in life. The boys also make decisions based on their gender’s genetic make-up which causes problems. The environment has nothing to do with their behavior, but their mental aspects do have an enormous effect.