Lord of the Flies by William Golding - Literature review Example

Group Paper: Lord of Flies, William Golding Novel summary: Lord of Flies, William Golding In the middle of World War II, schoolboys who had been evacuated from Britain find themselves in real trouble as their plane is shot down in the midst of a lonely tropical island (Boom, 2010). Two of the survivors, Piggy and Ralph discover an object that resembles conch at the beach side. Being so adventurous, Piggy realizes that he can use it to summon all the other boys. Once the boys had assembled, they set to elect a leader to take charge of their rescue mission. Ralph is chosen as the leader. As a show of his leadership skill, Ralph also chooses Jack to lead the group that we will be hunting for food. Ralph and Jack accompanied by another boy in the group named Simon, embarks on the exploration of the island. On their return, Ralph decides that the group must light a fire to signal passing ships. The boys use his glass to set fire on dead wood. However, the boys are so deeply engrossed in playing that they forgot to monitor the fire that breaks out and burns part of the forest. One of the boys is presumably burnt to death. These kids enjoy their lives playing, but Ralph argues that the fire should be maintained to signal ships and a shelter too should be built. Hunters are unable to catch a pig while Jack, the leader, is preoccupied in hunting. When a ship passes them after their signal fire had died, Ralph scolds Jack for it was his responsibility to maintain it. Jack cannot take the scolding and punches Ralph in the face because he too had come back with first kill. Being a leader, Ralphs brings order by blowing a conch shell. A meeting held indicates that little bottles, “littluns," had started to become afraid of beasts in the island owing to their nightmares (Boom, 2010). Older boys reassure them, but one little boy suggests that the monster could be hiding in the sea, setting the whole group into fear. After the meeting, a military battle is taking place above this island while the boys are asleep whilst a dead body in parachute drops. When the boys woke up, they confirmed it was like a beast. In the search of the monster, Jack accuses Ralph of cowardice and wants him out of leadership. A section of the boys refuses and most split to join Jack, who declares himself leader of the new group of hunters. They decapitate a sow that gives Simon nightmare vision as he sees it speaking, a voice he believes belongs to Lord of the Flies. He believes the monster is living amongst them. When he gets back to his group, they kill him. The following morning, Piggy and Ralph are attacked for their act by Jacks group. Piggy dies and Ralph escapes from the spears and goes into hiding. Jack with his group set a manhunt for him. They lit the whole forest to smoke him out. The group gets some help from a naval officer who found them baying for Ralph’s blood. Explanation of the five key terms When people come together to form a group, there are certain key terms that are pertinent to their group formation as explained below, Forming occurs when a group convenes, especially for the first time (Kunz et al., 2012). In the book Lord of flies, Ralph summons a group of boys using the conch shell. They eventually form a group of boys who try to salvage themselves out of the lonely island. Group norm: this is when the group share ideas, beliefs and thoughts and eventually develops its shared norms or group rules (Kunz et al. 2012). In the book, the team chooses Ralph as their leader who also had to set some rules for the group as some will be hunters while others will be building shelter. Storming: this is when the group is engaging itself in some tasks (Brown, 2000). However, conflicts may arise but it finally comes to a common ground. Ralph and Jack have conflicts of interest, but they set aside their differences when Ralph calls for a meeting. In the book, it is evident from the way Ralph and his team share ideas on how to attract attention for help and lit fire. The group is split into hunters and those lighting fire. This diversification of tasks becomes a norm within the group. Performing- After group formation and task differentiation, it embarks on task performance (Kearney, 2013). They work with a common interest to salvage the situation. In the book, tasks have been divided, and everyone takes onto his own activity. The boys are busy hunting while others are lighting fire and building houses. This indicates a performance in the group. Decision making: in every group, decisions must come from a common source to avoid conflicts of interest (Kearney, 2013). Decisions are also made for the benefit of the group. In the Novel, Ralph as the leader makes decisions for the group but Jacks sees him as an incompetent hence at the end of the story, this group is split, and Ralph does not only make decisions but Jack also has some followers. The group processes found in the Novel The first group process is leadership as the act of presiding over a social group (Hogg & Tindale, 2008). Leadership has an overall influence on the outcome of the Novel as Jack and Ralph begin power rivalry. Jack sees Ralph as incompetent and a coward leader who cannot make the right decisions for the group. Leadership conflicts become so serious in the group that finally Jack forms his own team that takes orders from him. As the story ends, Jack’s team hunts for Ralph, indicating how leadership rivalry has an effect on the situation. At the beginning of the story, group cohesiveness is apparent (Spoor, 2004). Group cohesiveness is the extent to which a group stays together for mutual interest (Brown, 2000). After Ralph had summoned all boys, the whole group finds it mutually beneficial to rescue themselves as a unit. At the end of the story, conflicts of interest break this cohesiveness as two groups are fighting to control the island. However, group cohesiveness resumes when the team has no choice but to bury their differences so as to receive help from the naval officer. Social loafing is also evident in the story. This occurs when a section of a group does less work as compared to when they would have been alone (Kunz et al. 2012). Some members never participate at all. Social loafing had an effect on the outcome of this story since the group was large, and it took time to hunt down a wild pig. The "littleuns" showed no effort at all and were busy worried of the monster nightmares than to focus their efforts to hunting, keeping fire and building shelter; the reason they had to take so long in the island (Boom, 2010). Besides, group polarization is also apparent in the novel as a group process (Hogg & Tindale, 2008). This involves making extreme decisions than initial group expectations. Ralph influences his group and kills Simon. Jack has also gone to the extreme of ousting Ralph from leadership. Polarization is also apparent at the end of the story when Jack influences everyone who sets the whole forest on fire to kill Ralph. Finally, the full story is, as a result, of deindividuation which is an act of loosing ones’ self to form a group so as to do interesting and extreme things (Brown, 2000). When these boys are stuck in the island, they are summoned by conch shell sound and form a group of hunters and adventurers. Outcome of the story is a result of deindividuation group process where everyone engages in extreme behaviors like killing their fellows and hunting wild pigs. References Boom, H., et al. (2010). William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. New York: Infobase Publishing. Brown, R. (2000). Group Processes: Dynamics Within and Between Groups. Hoboken: Wiley. Hogg, M. A. & Tindale, S. (2008). Blackwell Handbook of Social Psychology: Group Processes. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons Kunz, M. et al. (2012). Guideline group composition and group processes: article 3 in Integrating and coordinating efforts in COPD guideline development. An official ATS/ERS workshop report. Proc Am Thorac Soc, 9(5), 229-233. Spoor, J.R. (2004). The evolutionary significance of affect in groups: communication and group Bonding. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 7(4), 398-412. Read More