The “Stanford Prison Experiment” and The Lord of the Flies by William Golding both show just how cruel human beings can be. They also show how humans can react when put in a difficult situation, how the participants’ behavior changes, and how the outcomes from both are similar. The prisoners from the experiment and the children from The Lord of the Flies did not know what was about to happen them. For instance, the prisoners were chosen at random. Just like any other criminal, the prisoners were arrested and brought to the local police station (McLeod 1). The children also did not know what they had coming. Piggy states that the pilot “must have flown off after he dropped us off and couldn’t land here. Not in a plane with wings” (Golding
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During the prison experiment, “one prisoner had to be released after 36 hours because of uncontrollable bursts of screaming, crying, and anger “(McLeod 2). This particular prisoner could not mentally adapt to the difference between his home life and his new life in the prison. Similar to this prisoner, Simon had a mental breakdown and started hallucinating. While in the forest looking at the pig’s head, “Simon’s head wobbled. His eyes were half closed as though he were imitating the obscene thing on the stick. He knew one of his times was coming on. The Lord of the Flies was expanding like a balloon” (Golding 143). Just as the prisoner got removed from the prison, Simon was killed and his body disappeared. As tensions rose in the prison, the guards “began to harass the prisoners. They behaved in a sadistic manner, apparently enjoying it” (McLeod 2). In the case of the prison experiment, the guards turned into the savages. On the island, Jack and his tribe started to be more and more abusive to Ralph and Piggy as their time on the island increased. When confronted by Ralph and Piggy, the savages responded by rolling a rock off a cliff, hitting Piggy. The conch was destroyed and Piggy “fell forty feet and landed on his back across the square red rock in the sea” (Golding 181). While the prisoners did not kill each other, they were
During the prison experiment, “one prisoner had to be released after 36 hours because of uncontrollable bursts of screaming, crying, and anger “(McLeod 2). This particular prisoner could not mentally adapt to the difference between his home life and his new life in the prison. Similar to this prisoner, Simon had a mental breakdown and started hallucinating. While in the forest looking at the pig’s head, “Simon’s head wobbled. His eyes were half closed as though he were imitating the obscene thing on the stick. He knew one of his times was coming on. The Lord of the Flies was expanding like a balloon” (Golding 143). Just as the prisoner got removed from the prison, Simon was killed and his body disappeared. As tensions rose in the prison, the guards “began to harass the prisoners. They behaved in a sadistic manner, apparently enjoying it” (McLeod 2). In the case of the prison experiment, the guards turned into the savages. On the island, Jack and his tribe started to be more and more abusive to Ralph and Piggy as their time on the island increased. When confronted by Ralph and Piggy, the savages responded by rolling a rock off a cliff, hitting Piggy. The conch was destroyed and Piggy “fell forty feet and landed on his back across the square red rock in the sea” (Golding 181). While the prisoners did not kill each other, they were