Connecting “The Stanford Prison Experiment” to Lord of the Flies “but look out the evil is in us all” (Goulding 208) stated William Golding in his novel Lord of the Flies. This quote implies that even the best us have the ability to do great evil. Dropping questions such as, how much of your “good conduct” is dependant on someone watching you? Are we more a product of our environment (Nurture) or DNA (Nature). Lord of the Flies and The Stanford Prison Experiment illustrate that when left unmonitored in primal situations of survival, human civility is often replaced by savagery. Lord of the Flies by William Golding is a fictional novel that supplies deeper insight into the more cynical side of humanity. In the midst of a raging war, an evacuation
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Lord of the Flies displays that even through our evolved mannerisms, when placed under circumstances of unmonitored power and/or pressure, we will resort back to brutality. In both Lord of the Flies and “The Stanford Prison Experiment” the people involved assume new personalities in a relatively short period of time. They forget the truth of the situation and focus on only what concerns them, leaving behind all morals, and seemingly adopting an abusive relationship with all others against them. Pack mentalities are formed and sense of ambient anonymity makes inflicting pain on others so mindless. Compiled with the loss of individuality, people are no longer people but rather an obstacle to your existence. We see examples of this in both Lord of the Flies and “The Stanford Prison Experiment”. As the boys physical appearance changed so did their identities, grasp of reality, and sense of right and wrong. Similar to the subjects in the “Stanford Prison Experiment”, who when separated into two groups, physically identical within one another, began to blur the lines between sadism and
Lord of the Flies displays that even through our evolved mannerisms, when placed under circumstances of unmonitored power and/or pressure, we will resort back to brutality. In both Lord of the Flies and “The Stanford Prison Experiment” the people involved assume new personalities in a relatively short period of time. They forget the truth of the situation and focus on only what concerns them, leaving behind all morals, and seemingly adopting an abusive relationship with all others against them. Pack mentalities are formed and sense of ambient anonymity makes inflicting pain on others so mindless. Compiled with the loss of individuality, people are no longer people but rather an obstacle to your existence. We see examples of this in both Lord of the Flies and “The Stanford Prison Experiment”. As the boys physical appearance changed so did their identities, grasp of reality, and sense of right and wrong. Similar to the subjects in the “Stanford Prison Experiment”, who when separated into two groups, physically identical within one another, began to blur the lines between sadism and